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Extract from beginning of chapter:

APPROACH TO THE CLASSROOM

Penfield and Williams agreed in saying that their own experience was that they attempted to teach less and less each year—advice difficult for me to follow, as I couldn't teach less than I had up to that time. I could, however, attempt to limit myself to the elements; but even then teaching mineralogy at first required work on my part to keep one day ahead of the class. There was a wide range of possibilities in petrology, and I continued to range at will throughout my period of instructorship. Coming from an experience of unrestrained research as a student of rocks in the field and in the laboratory, I approached the problem of petrological instruction as a student among students, knowing how many things were as yet undetermined, how many were matters of opinion, and to what extent definitions of rock kinds (types) were arbitrary and illusory. Throughout my period of instruction at the university, I continued my own research as well as I could, and gave the students the results as they appeared from time to time, with consequent modifications of opinions from year to year. Upon one occasion, a student, who was attending a course a second season, remarked upon comparing his notebooks: “You didn't give the lectures this way last year.” “Of course not,” I replied, “they would lose interest to me if I did.” Whether this was the best method of conducting a course in petrology or in any other growing

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