Abstract
One who has been teaching mineralogy for a third of a century may be pardoned for presenting an address which deals with the subject from an educational standpoint, and contains little reference to mineralogy as a science. A teacher sometimes gets the notion that his particular subject is of the utmost importance, if not actually essential, in one’s education and he sometimes makes his opinion manifest in our school curricula to the exclusion of subjects which might be more useful to the student in his later life. The proper and best education obtainable for our boys and girls during their elementary school training is the most important proposition we have to consider, and too much stress cannot be laid upon the necessity of a proper choice of subjects; and this choice should include studies best calculated to make the most intelligent and useful citizens. Special attention should be given in our lower grade schools to those subjects which cannot be readily learned from books and yet are a desirable part of one's education.
