October 2n, inoo] 



SCIENCE 



583 



port will show what impression the ma- 

 jority report made on those who had heen 

 active in the "new movement" and will be 

 a fitting introduction to the next stage in 

 this history: 



We dissent from the report of tlie majority for 

 the following reasons : 



The underlying principle of the report of the 

 majority is that physics is essentially a science 

 of accurate measurements — the only such subject 

 in the high school course — and hence it is the 

 duty of physics to lay great stress on accurate 

 quantitative work in order that the high school 

 pupils may get somewhere in this course an 

 insight into such work. 



Your minority is convinced that physics as a 

 science of exact measurements belongs wholly in 

 the college, and that physics in the high school 

 should not give such prominence to the science of 

 accurate measurements nor make use of the ab- 

 stract and unusual system of absolute units. We 

 respectfully urge that high school physics should 

 teach the student how to organize his experience 

 with physical phenomena in such a way as to get 

 clear conceptions of some of the larger laws of 

 puysical nature. In this process experiments and 

 to some extent quantitative work are necessary; 

 but such highly refined quantitative work as is 

 now generally demanded should not oe insisted on, 

 and all such work should be done in terms of the 

 familiar engineers' units like the pound-weight 

 and the foot-pound instead of the dyne and the 

 erg. 



Your minority wishes also to point out that 

 your committee on this physics requirement is 

 not a representative committee. 



We therefore are convinced that the report of 

 the majority does not represent the consensus of 

 opinion of the ablest secondary scliool teachers 

 as to the present needs of physics in the high 

 school ; but that it is simply a statement of the 

 current habits of teaching physics — habits that 

 have been developed under the influence of ideals 

 of college physicists rather than because of an ap- 

 preciation of the ideals of the high school pupils. 



In view of this, your minority wishes to make 

 the following recommendations to your board : 



1. That the board of review increase the size of 

 its physics committee by appointing or getting 

 appointed in such a way as it may elect six or 



more physics teachers from various sections of 

 the country who are recognizeu as successful and 

 experienced teachers of physics and who are at 

 present actively engaged in teaching physics in 

 secondary schools. This would insure a repre- 

 sentative committee. 



2. That the report of the majority and the 

 minority, together with similar reports of the 

 North Central Association of Colleges and Sec- 

 ondary Schools and of the Physics Club of New 

 York, be referred back to this more representative 

 committee for full and complete discussion. 



The board of revision, instead of follow- 

 ing strictly the first recommendation made 

 by the minority of the original committee, 

 appointed a new committee consisting solely 

 of six physics teachers in secondary schools, 

 and to this committee it turned over the 

 whole, I believe, of the matter mentioned 

 in the second recommendation, as given 

 above. The membership of the new com- 

 mittee was: N. Henry Black, Roxbury 

 Latin School, Boston (chairman) ; W. M. 

 Butler, Yeatman High School, St. Louis; 

 Winthrop E. Fiske, Phillips Academy, 

 Exeter, N. H. ; Daniel E. Owen, Penn 

 Charter School, Philadelphia; Frank B. 

 Spaulding, Boys' High School, Brooklyn; 

 Willis E. Tower, Englewood High School, 

 Chicago. 



In April, .1909, this committee made its 

 report to the College Entrance Board. 

 This report was in part as follows : 



In submitting this report, we desire to call 

 attention to the following points: 



1. The report has received the unanimous ap- 

 proval of the committee. 



2. We recommend that the College Entrance 

 Board no longer undertake the marking or exam- 

 ination of the laboratory note-book^ (see form of 

 certificate recommended in lieu thereof). 



3. We urge upon those who prepare the exam- 

 ination questions that these be so planned that 

 students who have received fair preparation on 



' I am informed by the chairman of the com- 

 mittee that this recommendation was due to the 

 dilficulties experienced by the College Board in 

 receiving and transmitting the great number of 

 note-books it has hitherto undertaken to deal with. 



