THOUGHT IN SCIENCE 171 



their " scientific training " has not made them any more open-minded 

 or progressive. The science teachers of my acquaintance are not more 

 open-minded or more free from prejudice than other teachers, or than 

 other people in various occupational groups. The small number of 

 science teachers who are open to new ideas are probably open-minded 

 not because of their scientific training. The words foreigner, Jew and 

 socialist, for example, produce in the minds of some four-score science 

 teachers that I know the same kinds of reactions as they do in the minds 

 of just ordinary chauvinists, hooligans and philistines, respectively. 



In short, I have found no indication that these science teachers 

 are more deliberate and analytical and systematic in forming 

 judgments upon new problems than teachers of other subjects; nor 

 that they are more progressive in adjusting themselves to new ideas — " 

 to say nothing of being on the look-out for new ideas; nor that they 

 are freer from prejudices and conventions of thought. 



However, notwithstanding the rather discouraging results of a can- 

 vass of my colleagues, I still believe that science teaching offers better 

 opportunities for cultivating certain intellectual virtues than the teach- 

 ing of other subjects, 



A person temperamentally or habitually dishonest can not be ex- 

 pected to teach honesty, if indeed honesty can be taught at all. But 

 even if honesty can not be taught at all, as some maintain, the labora- 

 tory presents the opportunity for learning to discriminate between cer- 

 tain truths and certain superficial resemblances to truth — which is in 

 itself a great gain. That is, if a person is to be dishonest, it is desirable 

 that he at least know that he is dishonest, so that he deceive not him- 

 self, however he may treat others. 



The laboratory presents opportunities for testing objectively the 

 accuracy and coherence of the pupil's language; it devolves upon the 

 teacher to establish an ideal of accuracy. A number of pupils will come 

 to a more or less conscious generalization of the idea, and a more or less 

 deliberate acceptance of the ideal, without any assistance whatever; for 

 most children, however, the teacher's help is needed or the experience 

 in the laboratory will have no "training" value. In the laboratory, 

 too, we may test the logic of a classification, for the inclusion of incom- 

 patibles or for the faulty distribution of coordinates, etc. Going 

 through such an exercise a number of times will perhaps develop a cer- 

 tain skill that will show itself in the reduced time of the nth perform- 

 ance, but it will not establish a mental habit unless somehow the teacher 

 makes the practise in such discrimination a part of the conscious pur- 

 pose of the child. 



The teachings of language are arbitrary; they exercise the memory 

 (not in the g}Tnnastic sense, of course) and cultivate faith in author- 

 ities. The teachings of mathematics are formal and deductive, and, as 



