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know this knowledge as mental nourishment; they should know the
condition of the mind, and they should know how to select and prepare
this food for digestion and assimilation.

As to the second mistake, the undue emphasis upon the mere imparting of
knowledge: let me quote a few words from President Wilson, uttered when
President of Princeton University: "We should remember," said he, "that
information is not education. The greater part of the work that we are
doing in our colleges to-day is to impart information." I am afraid that
he is correct. I am very much afraid that that is mainly what we are
doing. But it is wrong. The greater part of our work should not be to
impart knowledge. It should be to assist in interpreting the knowledge
that the student himself gets--to fit it to his own life needs and to
help him learn how to study and how to think for himself. In other
words, this information in which we deal should not be an end in itself,
but a _means_ to an end. And that end should be development, mental
power, point of view--character. To be sure, we must deal in knowledge
facts (do not, I beg of you, misunderstand me) but not for the mere
possession of those facts.

And lastly the lecture craze, under the domination of which otherwise
sensible people get into the habit of supplying information to students
who already know how to read instead of telling them where to find it
and then discussing it with them. How common it is! But why? Simply
because it is easy. How much easier it is than to conduct a real live
recitation in which there is the give and take, the action and reaction,
of eager vigorous young minds, where the instructor is the agency of
interpretation and the inspiration! To conduct such an exercise with
from thirty to fifty bright college students and keep them on the alert
is no lazy man's task. It requires brains and skill, whereas anybody can
do the other thing! President Foster is correct in saying, "There should
be fewer lectures ... the easiest of all methods of instruction."

Again let me give an illustration drawn from my own sad experience, just
to show what at least some of this lecturing is. This, you see, is
getting to be a confession as well as an exposition. I was taking a
course in the History of Philosophy. It was given by a man well known in
the educational world, then and now. He was well thought of both as a
teacher and a man. He read his lectures from manuscript. We were
sup