ABSTRACT
Of all phases of the history of higher education the one that was earliest to take form and perhaps least frequently to be the subject of dramatic change has been the method by which youth have been instructed. The lecture, still very popular in twentieth-century America, can trace its lineage beyond these shores to the medieval university and thence to classical times. So too, the dialogue between professor and student, spreading in recent times as democracy spreads, goes back at least to Socrates. Only the method of the laboratory has been of relatively recent innovation. But, old or new, the method of instruction has long been viewed principally as an art. Consequently on the whole professors have not been notable for examining its theoretic aspects. The historian, however, must not be guilty of repeating this professorial neglect.
