June IS, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



953 



our teaching of science, we must ask : "What 

 criteria have we for testing the results of 

 the work ? How are we able to tell whether 

 we are approaching the attainment of these 

 purposes with our teaching? There are 

 two questions which we may put to our- 

 selves if we wish to test our success in at- 

 taining these purposes — one for each pur- 

 pose. First we must ask : Did the problem 

 arise within and out of the student's own 

 experience so that he has a genuine interest 

 in its solution? Is it in some way vitally 

 connected with his life, so that he has an 

 inner motive for its solution ? Unless this 

 condition is met, unless the student has real 

 interest in the work put before him, he will 

 get no real training and discipline from it. 

 The importance of this point has been 

 made very clear by Professor John Dewey 

 in his paper on "Interest as Eelated to 

 Will"— a paper which has been justly 

 called a supreme court decision on this 

 matter. Professor Dewey says (page 32) : 

 Just because interest is an outreaehing thing, 

 a thing of growth and expansion in the realization 

 of impulse, there can be no conflict between its 

 genuine utilization and the securing of that power 

 and efiBciency which mark the trained mind — 

 which constitute real " discipline." Because in- 

 terests are something that have to be worked out 

 in life and not merely indulged in themselves, 

 there is plenty of room for difficulties and ob- 

 stacles which have to be overcome, and whose 

 overcoming forms " will " and develops the flexible 

 and firm fiber of character. To realize an interest 

 means to do something, and in the doing resist- 

 ance is met and must be faced. Only difficulties 

 are now intrinsic; they are significant; their 

 meaning is appreciated because they are felt in 

 their relation to the impiilse or habit to whose 

 outworking they are relevant. Moreover, for this 

 reason there is motive to gird up one's self to 

 meet and persistently to deal with the difficulties, 

 instead of getting discouraged at once, or half- 

 eonsciously resorting to some method of evasion, 

 or having to resort to extraneous motives of hope 

 and fear — motives which, because external, do not 

 train " will," but only lead to dependence upon 

 others. 



What a different picture this gives from 

 that drawn by those who think interest 

 means amusement; and who, therefore, 

 drive their students by means of motives 

 of hope or fear through unrelated quanti- 

 tative experiments with the idea that they 

 are giving them discipline! 



The second question that we should ask 

 in test of our work is: Are the concepts 

 with which the student is working clear to 

 him? Is the final picture clear, so that 

 clear thinking on his part has been pos- 

 sible? This question needs no further 

 explanation. 



Bach teacher must answer the first of 

 these questions for himself ; no outside per- 

 son can possibly answer it for him, nor can 

 it be settled by either examination or inspec- 

 tion from the outside. Speaking for my- 

 self, then, I may say that for more than 

 three quarters of every class I have, I must 

 answer it in the negative. The majority of 

 each class is attending and pretending to 

 work because of some secondary motive— a 

 college requirement, a desire for credits 

 with a minimum amount of work, a wish 

 to fill an hour in the program, or something 

 of the sort. Comparatively few are there 

 because of an inner interest that impels to 

 good work; and many who might become 

 interested are repelled by the fact that the 

 course is cut and dried, the experiments 

 set up so as to give the student a minimum 

 of obstacles to overcome and a minimum of 

 thinking to do. The testimony of a large 

 number of my colleagues has led me to the 

 belief that this condition is very general — 

 that there are few, if any, teachers whose 

 class as a whole is working spontaneously 

 from genuine interest as defined above. 

 The added testimony of a large number of 

 high-school principals and college deans, 

 who assist the students in the selection of 

 their courses, has made me believe that a 

 large majority of the students shun science 

 courses whenever possible ; not because they 



