Intelligence In Nature The Tree That Smelt Water OF THE FIVE senses attributed to animals, plants certainly possess three-feeling, taste, and smelllacking only sight and hearing, said a writer some years ago; they smell water from a distance, and never rest till they have sent and fetched it. And the writer gives the following instance. A man living in a picturold mansion with a sunken esque story found the waste-pipe repeatedly choked. Lifting the slabs of the basement, he found that poplar roots had pierced through a cement joining and worked their way in a long tapering length inside the pipe for a considerable distance beyond the house. On excavating backwards he traced these roots to a poplar grow ing some thirty yards from the opposite side of the house. Thus they had moved steadily towards the house, penetrating below the foundation and across the basement until their goal the waste-pipe was reached some one hundred and fifty feet off. "Such unerring instinct and skill in surmounting obstacles," comments the writer, “are not essentially different from human effort and fore sight in the affairs and enterprises of ordinary life." And so say we having regard to the word "essentially." A consistent philosophy of Nature must certainly be laid on an animate basis; mind, not matter, must be our starting. point. To attempt to start with matter, or try and derive mind from matter, is a nightmare of the reasoning faculties, especially in view of the fact that all theories, however materialistic, must start in a mind. Materialism postulates a universal and primitive matter as the origin and basis of the universe; and then (necessarily) endows this matter with properties that really make it equivalent to a God. How much simpler to give the prime substance its proper name and call it "cosmic mind." It is as great a mistake to imagine that any organism can be unconscious as it is to imagine that all consciousness is of the same kind: both views are extreme. Animals are conscious, but not as we are; and plants are conscious, though not in the same way as animals. Even to minerals, NEW OUTLOOK which likewise are organized and perform definite functions of growth and change, we must assign a grade of consciousness widely different from anything we define as such. If some prefer to call this "unconsciousness" or "blind instinctive action," little more than a question of names is involved. We have innumerable organs in our own body which are alive and functioning; they are conscious, but their consciousness is not always in touch with the higher and inclusive consciousness which know as our ego or self, so we call them automatic or sub-conscious. we The true way to knowledge of Nature lies not in only regarding its outer aspect or merely dissecting its gross material, but in bringing our mind into touch with the minds of Nature's creatures, and thus knowing the tree or animal as it is. This is the scientific aspect of the great moral virtue of "sympathy," which means a "feeling with" something. To cultivate such powers of knowing-such in-wits entails that we should study our own nature, with the object of removing the obstacles in it. The path of duty and the path of knowledge are one. We stand to learn more by a sympathetic attitude to Nature than by one of indifferent curiosity; and how little can we learn by a ruthless attitude! Man, with more presumption than pride, arrogates to himself powers and privileges, but neglects those which he really has. He is really Nature's elder brother, protector, and creator; but how he ignores his responsibilities and privileges! Nature is responsive, and yearns to reveal her precious secrets to him who has the key-sympathy. The idea that the tree smelt the water is curious; but whether it smelt it or saw it or felt it, it knew the water was there; and if it did not know, it had a faculty which was equivalent to knowledge (!) It would be possible to follow the various lines of thought suggested by these remarks, and we hope the student will do so. For instance there is the study of consciousness and its various kinds and degrees; and there is the cosmic metaphysics or WeltAnschauung, with its definitions of Mind, Matter, Life, Substance, etc. And again there is the ample subject of evolution, spiritual, mental, psychical, physical, etc., and of the dif ferent kingdoms of Nature, visible and invisible. And while it may be as far for us to the mysteries of the universe as it was for the poplar to the water-pipe, we can emulate that poplar and start hopefully on quest for the brooks, rivers, and oceans of eternal verities. our NOVEMBER 1953 Educational Needs Prof. Felix Adler was a century ahead of his time. In this articel, first printed in the North American Review for March, 1883, he suggests teaching methods that are typical of our progressive education programs today. This article, which we print for its intrinsic as well as for its historic worth, also demonstrates that our own system of progressive education, that many believe to have originated in mid-twentieth century thought, in fact was rooted deeply in the past. It is but the latest phase of a long process of cultural evolution. THE PUBLIC ARE growing uneasy. It is feared that the brains of our little ones are overworked in the schools. Physical deterioration is the inevitable penalty of such overwork. I would suggest, in the first place, that a commission be appointed to visit the schools, and determine how far the evil may be exaggeratedhow far it exists. If it is possible to obtain tolerably accurate statistics, why should we depend upon vague conjectures and letters in the newspapers? But assuming as we have reason to do, that there is ground for complaint, is it logical to cry out against the number of studies at tempted in the schools? Might it not be wiser to seek the fault in the method rather than in the matter of instruction? Do find that the amount of knowledge imparted to the pupils is out of proportion to the faculties of young children, or we Felix Adler greater than is actually assimilated in the best private schools of this country and Europe without detriment? If this is not the case, we are led to infer that the cause of the and tedium which result from bad evil is largely in the worry, waste. methods. The children are mentally burdened; hence it follows that they must be more or less physically af fected. Without entering into a discussion of methods, the following points may be suggested: Let not the development of the memory be exaggerated at the expense of the understanding. Let the wholesale system of teaching be abandoned. Let the size of the classes be reduced, so that greater respect can be paid to the individuality of the pupils. Above all, let us have teachers who are themselves trained in rational methods. Give us the right sort of teachers, NEW OUTLOOK and our chief difficulties will immediately disappear. Judging from the utterances that we often hear, the presumption in many men's minds seems to be that the acquisition of knowledge is a hardship for the young; but what more damning accusation can be brought against the prevailing system of teaching than the fact that such ideas should become current? Who that has observed children has not seen how eager they are for knowledge, what numberless questions they delight in asking, and with what freshness and eagerness their young minds seize upon the facts of the world? If, then, the instruction of the school wearies and repels them, we must not suppose that the intellectual pabulum itself is distasteful, but that there is something in the condiment with which it is seasoned, or in the manner in which it is served, that causes so unnatural a repulsion. The great fact to be borne in mind is that instruction becomes interesting as soon as the selfactive reason of the pupil is appealed to, and he is taught to reach results by the exertion of his own thought, instead of receiving a bundle of facts, ready made, from the hand of the instructor. There is absolutely no lesson-not the dry arithmetic lesson, not the reading lesson, not the history and geography lesson-that will fail to become fascinating and delightful to the pupils, if the instruction given be fully saturated with the rational method. The children will then take in knowledge as a hungry person takes in food, as one who is thirsty drinks water from a clear spring. But there are especially two points to which I desire to call attention. It is well known that, in changing from one kind of physical exercise to another, we experience a sense of relief which is often preferable to rest. The same is true of mental exercise, as every student knows. Why not apply this principle to the teaching of the young? If our pupils complain of overwork, this must be due in part to the fact that there is not sufficient alternation in their daily tasks. An excellent means of obviating this difficulty would be to introduce technical instruction and art-modeling into the schools. In the school workshops the pupils would obtain a gymnastic of the eye and hand, practical knowledge of mathematics, refinement of the taste, a new species of moral influence, physical invigoration, and a welcome change from the purely intellectual part of their instruction. If the hours spent in the workshop are properly intercalated between those spent in the class-room, the pupils will pass with joyous spirits from one to the other; they will do more and better work in both departments than is now accomplished in one alone, and their mental freshness will remain unimpaired throughout the day. The beneficial effect of alternate practical labor and mental application is admirably illustrated in the English half-time schools. The pupils of these schools are compelled by poverty to work in the factory during the greater part of the day, and only attend instruction during three hours. But experience shows that they learn as much in half time as other pupils in full time. They are quick, alert, their attention is more easily concentrated, and there is no doubt that their training in the factory has given them these advantages. We do not recommend the sending of chil dren, even of the poorest class, into factories, where they are exposed to horribly injurious influences that more than outweigh any incidental advantage; but we secure the benefit that arises from the alternation of practical work with abstract study by introducing the school workshops. can The second point to which I would refer is, the technical education and art-modeling in the schools would be a means of testing the ability of the pupils in a new direction. The introduction of industrial education into the schools is often urged as a means of fitting the children of the poorer class for their future station, and enabling them to gain higher wages later on. If placed on this ground solely, it is justly resisted by the fraternity of teachers, who insist that the school shall be kept sacred to the enlightenment of the mind and the building up of character, and should not be degraded to serve "the bread and butter interests" of later life. But technical and art education in the schools ought to be advocated for educational reasons chiefly. They are as important for the children of the rich as of the poor; for those who will eventually enter the profes sions and the higher walks of life generally, as for those who will fol low the humblest trade. This educa tional value must be kept in view. It is because hand and eye education are a new means of brain education, that we are justified in recommending their inclusion in the curriculum of the schools. Instead, therefore, of diminishing the number of studies, we ought rather to increase them. Not in such a way, however, that all studies shall be made obligatory upon all pupils, but so that a sufficient number and variety of tests may be placed at the teacher's disposal for discovering the aptitudes of his pupils, and encouraging each one in NEW OUTLOOK |