of Education, president of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, vice-president of the section of psychology of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is author of seven books and of numerous articles of psychology and education.)
In the normal schools of the state of Tennessee it will, I think, be impossible to obey the law without seriously depriving teachers in training of a proper view of the facts of human mental development. Every psychologist recognizes the fact that the human organs of sense, such as the eye and the ear, are similar in structure and action to the organs of sense of the animals. The fundamental pattern of the human brain is the same as that of the higher animals. The laws of learning, which have been studied in psychological and educational laboratories, are shown to be in many respects identical and always similar for animals and man. It is quite impossible to make any adequate study of the mental development of children without taking into account the facts that have been learned from the study of comparative or animal psychology.
Would Handicap Teaching.
It would be impossible, in my judgement, in the state university, as well as in the normal schools, to teach adequately psychology or the science of education without making constant reference to all the facts of mental development which are included in the general doctrine of evolution. The only dispute in the field of psychology that has ever arisen among psychologists so far as I know has to do with the methods of evolution. There is general agreement that evolution in some form or other must be accepted as the explanation of human mental life.
Elaborate studies have been made in the field of human psychology dealing with such matters as the evolution of tools, the evolution of language and the evolution of customs and laws. All of these studies are based on definitely ascertainable facts and show without exception that a long process of evolution has been going on in the life of man as it is definitely know through historical record and prehistoric remains. In my judgment it will be quite impossible to carry on the work in most of the departments in the higher institutions of the state of Tennessee without teaching the doctrine of evolution as the fundamental basis for the understanding of all human institutions.
Whatever may be the constitutional rights of legislatures to prescribe the general course of study of public schools it will, in my judgement, be a national disaster if the attempt is successful to determine the details to be taught in the schools through the vote of legislatures rather than as a result of scientific investigation.
By Jacob G. Lipman,
Dean of the College of Agriculture and Director of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Dr. Jacob G. Lipman, of Rutgers and the state university of New Jersey, is a specialist in the field of soil science. He received his bachelor's degree at Rutger's in 1894, his master's degree at Cornell in 1900, and the degree of doctor of philosophy also at Cornell in 1903. His alma mater gave him the honorary degree of doctor of science in 1923. He ogist of the New Jersey Experiment has been soil chemist and bacteriol- stations since 1901; director of the stations in 1911, dean of the college of agriculture, State university of New Jersey since 1915. Since 1902 he has been a member of the faculty of Rutgers.
He is editor-in-chief of Soil Science, associate editor of the Journal of Agricultural Research, International Mitteilngan fur Bodenkunde and of Annuales Sciences Agronomiques. He is also editor of the Wiley Agricultural Series, and associate editor of the Pennsylvania Farmer.
