794 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 779 



Education, contains three quarters of the 

 topics on the list of the North Central As- 

 sociation which was issued in 1908. It is 

 not seriously different from the truly cele-' 

 brated Harvard description list of 1886, 

 or the list of experiments in the new Col- 

 lege Entrance Board's requirements. The 

 report also shows that twenty-five of the 

 thirty secondary schools reporting ex' 

 pressed themselves as regarding laboratory 

 work as necessary. This shows a great ad- 

 vance between 1880, when the Clarke bul- 

 letin was issued, and 1884. Thus labora- 

 tory work was being introduced rapidly 

 before the college pressure was applied in 

 1886, and the reports show that it was of 

 a kind to possess significance to the pupils 

 —done with home-made apparatus and 

 "kitchen utensils." 



This report contains much valuable ad- 

 vice which has not been followed in the 

 subsequent course of events. Thus, p. 116 : 

 "Above all, it should be taught in each 

 kind of school for the benefit of those who 

 will go no further." Again, p. 117: 



The weight of opinion is decidedly that the first 

 teaching should be inductive. . . . The progress of 

 the student following this method is so slow, if 

 measured by the usual examination tests, as to 

 discourage a faint heart. . . . When pushed to the 

 extreme just indicated (to learn everything for 

 himself) the method breaks down; for quanti- 

 tative experiments are mostly beyond the reach 

 of high school boys, and yet very few principles 

 or laws can be established without them. ... If 

 to reason accurately on physical facts be of any 

 value to the student, is not a conclusive disproof 

 of an hypothesis {provided he originated it) more 

 valuable than the incomplete proof with which 

 he must usually remain contented when he learns 

 the accepted hypothesis? . . . Consciously or not, 

 we must use inductive methods all our lives in 

 ways where we can not avail ourselves of the 

 principle of the division of labor, depending on 

 others. The professional opinions of the physi- 

 cian and lawyer, all our judgments of men and 

 ■our opinions on common matters of life must be 

 largely the result of inductive reasoning. An- 

 •other reason for introducing inductive training 



into the schools is that, in the opinion of many 

 teachers, more of physics can be taught so as to 

 be remembered in this way than in any other. . . . 

 The use of text-books of the ordinary kind, how- 

 ever accurate and clear, is inconsistent with, per- 

 haps almost fatal to, the scientific method in 

 schools. 



Again, p. 103 : 



The difference between certainty and probability 

 or conjecture, between truth and opinion, is one 

 which the educator would not fail to make felt. 

 ... To keep the scholar in an atmosphere of real 

 or apparent certainty, when in after life three 

 fourths of his intellectual occupation will be to 

 deal with uncertainties, is as foolish as it would 

 be to keep him out of the water until he has 

 learned to swim. 



Thus in the matter of facilities for pre- 

 senting the subject of physics, substantial 

 progress has been made in the acquisition 

 of the laboratory; but in the matter of 

 knowing how to treat the subject, we have 

 made little progress— many think we have 

 gone backward. 



Somehow most of the students regard 

 the subject matter as so much "stuff" that 

 has to be gone over, and speak of the 

 laboratory exercises as so many "stunts" 

 that have to be performed in order to get 

 credit. The work as a whole lacks signifi- 

 cance to them, so that they do not, as a rule, 

 work at it with initiative and enthusiasm. 

 The present condition was sized up so aptly 

 by President Remsen in his address before 

 the American Federation of Teachers of 

 the Mathematical and the Natural Sciences 

 in Baltimore last year, that I can not re- 

 frain from quoting him: 



A battle that has long been waging has been 

 won — the battle for the recognition of science in 

 the courses of study in schools and colleges. . . . 

 Now science is recognized; we have laboratories 

 everywhere and laboratory training is regarded as 

 indispensable. It is therefore fitting to ask: What 

 are we doing with our facilities? What results 

 are we obtaining? When the battle was on, men 

 lost their heads — men must lose their heads in 

 order to fight. We thought that if only we could 



