INTRODUCTION xiii 



the instructor in the humanities and languages. When one 

 studies the history of methods of teaching reading or of teach- ' 

 ing Latin, one realizes how much experimenting has been 

 done. One understands, too, how the elementary courses in 

 these subjects have been perfected by many trials and errors. 

 Why did not science begin at once conserving its own inter- 

 ests by a higher method than the method of trial and error ? 

 For the reason that human nature has always begun its studies 

 with things remote. As the ancients studied the stars before 

 they studied the earth, as chemistry developed before anatomy, 

 so to-day the student of the atom is so much absorbed in the 

 thing remote that he overlooks his child's needs and the homely 

 facts of human development. The result of this attention to 

 far-away things is that science teaching is in difficulty even 

 while science nourishes. 



There is a science of science teaching. This new science is 

 young. It is not recognized as yet by many who profess them- 

 selves to be hospitable to every form of research. But the 

 new science can afford to be patient. The greatest conquests 

 of which the older sciences are so proud are all matters of a 

 century, at most, and many of these conquests fall within the 

 memory of our own generation. There are men now working 

 in biology who remember well the beginnings of the modern 

 period in that science. So it will be with the science of teach- 

 ing. Once we realize the value of experimentation, once we 

 take seriously the problem of adapting intellectual material to 

 real needs, we may look for a rapid and satisfactory growth 

 in this our new science. 



This book is a contribution to science teaching conceived in 

 the spirit of science and elaborated under the critical scrutiny 

 of those who wish to do more than merely mourn over the 

 difficulties in which science teaching finds itself. As an ex- 

 periment it has been successful enough to justify putting it 

 forth as a working hypothesis. Verification or emendation will 

 follow in due order. Its authors and their colleagues have the 



