Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1873-03-28
Educated Observers.

In talking to the San Franciscans not
long ago, Professor Agassiz urged upon
them the propriety of establishing in their
midst Museum Of Natural Science, not
merely because collection of scientific
specimens, such as they have the means
Of making, would be an honor to their
city and State, but more especially be.
cause such collections serve to make ed
ucated observers, whose habits of obser-
walton will enable them to become wor-
thy contributors to the general fund of
human knowledge.
Now, in that one happy phrase, "edu-
Gated observers" the professor struck
the keynote of all true educational prin-
ciples. The habit of observation is,
above all else, the educator, and the man
or woman who cultivates that makes sure
work in the matter of acquiring inform
alton, whether the habit be accompanied
by much or little of scholastic culture.
All that we know of physical science, of
course, we owe to observation alone. But
this is not all. In thousand other ways
the study of things and the study of men
is of even more value than the study of
books. Indeed, the very books we use,
if they be of any account at all, are the
more or less immediate fruit of intelligent
observation. All that we know has been
learned originally by this very process.
We observe fact, and learn that it is a
fact From it and others we draw con-
illusions. And this is the genesis of all
our knowing. We get from books only
the results of other peoples observations,
and while these are of great worth with
out doubt, we can not do more foolish
thing than to rest satisfied with them, land
oAx%,ava
have of questioning the things about us
for information at first hand. AS well
might we refuse to look at Niagara be-
cause we have already seen pictures and
read descriptions of the cataract.
Training of precisely this sort-the
cultivation of the habit of looking at and
looking into the things with which we
daily come in contacts one Of the
great educational needs of our time, sit
has been of all other times. The only
wonder is, that professional educators in
the past have been so slow to recognize
the want and to supply it. We observe
facts, and we question them of their
cause and meaning instinctively. We do
it even in early childhood, and ordinarily
the tendency is pretty effectually checked
then by those who ought rather to en-
courage IL, anu 10 SO UlrGCt III GudL LII Will
bear abundant fruit. The child who sets
himself down to commit something to
memory, however worthless, or however
unintelligible to him that something may
be, is sure of encouragement. But if he
ask why iron sinks and wood floats on
the water, he is shut up like jack-knife,
with some idiotically wise saw about be-
ing seen and not heard.
But it is not merely the habit of OBJ
serving that we need to cultivate. We
must learn to observe intelligently-to
look at things with our wits about us,
and to learn their causes and consequence
es as well as the facts themselves. Any
body may see the bud, the blossom, and
the fruit of the tree all in their regular
order, but if he see no more than these,
his observing is of little worth. He must
see in the bud the beginning of bios
som, in the blossom the promise, in the
fruit the fulillment, before his looking
will have taught him even so small a
thing as why the bud and the blossom are.
We can hardly fail to be observers so long
as we have eyes and ears, but we may, If
we will, make ourselves educated observ-
ers, which is quite another thing. we
may learn to make teacher out of every
thing around us, and thus draw instruc-
ton from hundred sources that were
otherwise sealed books to us, and indeed
we must do something Of this sort if we
would be really and truly educated
Hearth and Home.