Makch 7, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



355 



there is one characteristic of the course 

 which is of the most fundamental impor- 

 tance for the purpose in hand, and this is 

 what may be called the philosophy of the 

 course. This determines the point of view 

 or general attitude toward the subject and 

 also settles the method of presentation. 

 Taken as a whole, the philosophy deter- 

 mines the value of the course as a contribu- 

 tion to the mental development of the 

 pupils. If this philosophy is of the right 

 sort, the choice of subject matter is of sec- 

 ondary importance ; for then physics enters 

 into the pupil 's life as an integral part and 

 creates an attitude toward science and an 

 ability to solve problems scientifically. 

 This attitude and this ability once secured, 

 the pupil will be able to read and experi- 

 ment intelligently for himself and so to 

 extend his knowledge of the subject as oc- 

 casion may require. We will try to define 

 this philosophy in such a way that teachers 

 may be helped in discriminating between 

 a weak course and one likely to be of great 

 strength in uniting education with life. 



The idea that there is such a thing as the 

 philosophy of a course of study is probably 

 new to most schoolmen, because syllabi and 

 college entrance requirements have so ac- 

 customed us to look only at the external 

 form or index of subject matter as de- 

 fining the excellence of a course that we 

 have failed to notice its far more impor- 

 tant internal organization. For the sake 

 of making clear what is meant by the phi- 

 losophy of a course, and in the hope of 

 attracting your attention to this most fun- 

 damentally weighty problem, three types 

 of philosophy of physics courses will be 

 briefly outlined. 



The first is the old stand-by which was 

 expressed in the college-entrance statement 

 that physics should teach the "laws and 

 principles of elementary physics." With 

 this end in view, the topics demanded by 



the college syllabus were sorted out under 

 the heads Mechanics, Heat, Sound, Light 

 and Electricity. The topics that fell under 

 each head were then arranged in what 

 adult teachers considered their order of 

 simplicity. Thus in mechanics, the order 

 was: Centimeter, Gram, Second. These 

 were duly defined without giving the pupil 

 any clue as to what he was to do with them. 

 These simple elements were then com- 

 pounded in various ways into meters, 

 square centimeters, centimeters per second, 

 grams per cubic centimeter, and so on. 

 The distinction between mass and weight 

 was always carefully made, and each item 

 was carefully memorized so as to be avail- 

 able at the next examination. 



In electricity, in like manner, we must 

 begin with the electric charge obtained by 

 rubbing a glass rod with the skin of an 

 unfortunate cat — obscure and pitiful vic- 

 tim of science! Then followed the action 

 of two charges on each other, with descrip- 

 tions of the various stunts which the two 

 charges could be made to perform — how 

 they could be imprisoned and released, 

 multiplied, divided or annihilated, as the 

 ease might be. In all of this the topics 

 were merely described and experiments 

 presented which might serve to illustrate 

 them and make them concrete. 



This organization of the course is gen- 

 erally called the ' ' logical ' ' order because it 

 proceeds from what is to the adult physi- 

 cist simple to what is to him complex. The 

 philosophy back of it may be called the 

 encyclopedic philosophy. In this type of 

 instruction there is usually little unity, no 

 repetition and no problems that are real 

 to the pupils. The victims usually gained 

 from it a hodge-podge of jumbled mem- 

 ories, a few catch phrases which they could 

 not use rationally, and no ability in solving 

 scientifically the real problems of their 

 daily lives. 



