THOUGHT IN SCIENCE 173 



of science — as a tried and worthy method of solving certain types of 

 human problems. We may incidentally discover that here and there a 

 pupil is worth directing into a scientific career ; but that is a part of the 

 general purpose of the school, and not of the specific purpose of sci- 

 ence teaching. Now, if we are to make young people appreciate the 

 service of science it will not be merely by establishing in their minds 

 bonds of association between important inventions and the names of 

 the inventors : it will be by making them feel the downright solidity of 

 thoroughness and accuracy and honesty and clear vision. If we are to 

 make them appreciate the method of science it will not be merely by 

 helping them to memorize concrete facts, rules of procedure and ab- 

 stract formulas, it will be by making them take part in analytical think- 

 ing about real problems until they have arrived at an explicit realiza- 

 tion of what constitutes a valid way of thinking about problems. 



We can humanize our science teaching by making the pupils realize 

 that we have no final truth; that science, like life, is a constant be- 

 coming. This ought to do something to counteract what has been called 

 the "superstition of science" — that attitude which continues the- 

 method of the medieval dialectician, but substitutes some new-sounding 

 phrases for the older categories. The person who confounds evolution 

 with the doctrine of natural selection, the one who has nothing to do 

 with ions because these threaten to disrupt the atom which he acquired 

 in his youth — ^these are among the men and women with closed systema 

 of thought, who may indeed speak of chromosomes and valency, but 

 who never are scientific. 



We need science teachers more than ever. These should be first of 

 all teachers. But the usual tests require that they shall be then familiar 

 with reasonably large bodies of information about plants and animals, 

 or about wheels and polarities, or about atoms and reactions. What is 

 needed more than large bodies of information — which any reader can 

 get out of a half-dozen books — is a habit of clear and honest thinking. 

 This is not to say that the quality in question is not desirable in 

 teachers of other subjects. It is simply to say that in the selection of 

 teachers of science this qualification has been too greatly overlooked. 



