JuLT 9, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



41 



lows that mathematics should not be pre- 

 sented ready made. The individual should 

 make his own as the race has done ; bi;t not 

 as if the race had never done it. That 

 which is distinctly utilitarian in the course 

 must be thoroughly practical and in accord 

 with modern usage. 



This idea has been amplified by Pro- 

 fessor "W. E. Story, who has pointed out 

 that the education of the individual differs 

 from the life history of the race in that the 

 pupil is made to pass through the essential 

 stages of development without wasting his 

 time on what the experience of former 

 generations has shown to be unessential. 

 In other words, education is selective his- 

 tory, and whatever mode of selection most 

 thoroughly excludes the unessential is most 

 economical, enables the pupil to master the 

 largest amount of what is essential, and 

 gives him most time to devote to explora- 

 tion of new fields when he has explored the 

 old; that is, leads most rapidly to inde- 

 pendent thought, which is the true goal of 

 education.^^ 



In America the term laboratory method 

 has been coined to name the teaching of 

 elementary mathematics as it would be if 

 remodeled in accordance with the aims and 

 ideals of the Perry movement. The dom- 

 inating thought is a fuller consideration of 

 the child mind ; a sacrifice of the logical to 

 the psychological, or rather a recognition 

 that no method of instruction is truly log- 

 ical which is not psychological. The key- 

 note is interest, viz., that mathematics must 

 be presented to the child in the most inter- 

 esting way.^^ 



One of the most significant features of 

 this movement is its insistent demand for 

 a closer correlation of subjects; or, more 



" " Unification of Mathematics in the School 

 Curriculum," W. E. Story, School Revieio, 1903, 

 pp. 832-55. 



" " Mathematics in Commercial Work," E. L. 

 Thurston, SchocA Review, 1903, pp. 585-92. 



specifically, that mathematics and physics 

 be organized into one coherent whole and 

 no distinction recognized between mathe- 

 matics and its principal applications. This, 

 as shown in what precedes, is also the trend 

 of ideas in Germany. It is essential that 

 the pupil should be familiar, by way of 

 experiment, illustration, measurement and 

 every other possible means, with the ideas 

 to which he applies his logic; and, more- 

 over, should be thoroughly interested in the 

 subject studied. ^^ 



Following out this idea, the secondary 

 schools should advance independently of 

 the primary ones, and algebra, geometry 

 and physics, including astronomy and 

 mathematical and physical geography, be 

 organized into a four years' course com- 

 parable in strength and closeness of struc- 

 ture with the four years' course in Latin. 

 The physics should be practical, and se- 

 lected by an engineer, and the teacher 

 should be trained in mathematics, physics 

 and engineering. To carry out such a 

 reform calls for the development of a thor- 

 oughgoing laboratory system of instruction 

 in mathematics and physics, its principal 

 aim being to develop the spirit of research 

 and an appreciation of scientific methods. 



One of the most important suggestions 

 of the English movement is that by empha- 

 sizing steadily the practical sides of mathe- 

 matics, that is, arithmetical computations, 

 mechanical drawing and graphical methods 

 generally, in continuous relations with 

 problems in physics, chemistry and engi- 

 neering, it would be possible to give very 

 young students a great body of the essen- 

 tial notions of trigonometry, analytic geom- 

 etry and the calculus. It is especially im- 

 portant that teachers in the primary schools 

 should make wiser use of the foundations 

 laid by the kindergarten. Cross-section 



" " Discussion on the Teaching of Mathematics," 

 Perry, Macmillan, 1902. 



