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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 755 



are "hard," but because they offer them 

 no chance of expressing their own inner 

 self in new materials— of molding their en- 

 vironment to their scientific imaginations. 



The second of these questions above- 

 that concerning the clearness of the con- 

 cepts—may be answered, at least super- 

 ficially, by examinations and inspection; 

 and the answer is an unequivocal "no." 

 I am sure that every teacher of physics will 

 agree with me when I say that an exam- 

 ination paper on which there is no utterly 

 foolish statement is a great rarity. The 

 questions asked in class show the same lack 

 of clearness, as has been very forcibly 

 shown by Mr. H. L. Terry in the Educa- 

 tiotmi Review, January, 1909. Has any 

 one foitad a means of making the students 

 discriminate clearly between force, work 

 and power, for example? Here are some 

 examples of what is meant, taken from 

 .some recent prize examination papers sub- 

 mitted in competition for a scholarship at 

 "the University of Chicago. The competi- 

 tors were the best students in neighboring 

 high schools. "According to Archimedes' 

 principle, the buoyant force of the water 

 is equal to the volume of the water dis- 

 placed." "Work is the amount of force 

 that is spent on a certain object, neglectful 

 of time. " " Efficiency of a machine is the 

 amount of power received divided by the 

 amount of force exerted upon it." "By 

 Archimedes' principle a body displaces its 

 own weight in water. " " The wave-length 

 of red light is longer because in the aurora 

 red light stands out more than does green 

 light." 



The fact that from 60 to 70 per cent, of 

 the candidates in physics fail to pass the 

 written examination of the college entrance 

 board each year is eloquent testimony to 

 the same effect. 



As the result of a long and careful study 

 of this subject, I can not myself avoid the 

 conclusion that the teaching of physics is 



not having even a fair degree of success in 

 attaining the purposes stated above. Any 

 one who accepts these purposes as his ideal, 

 must, I believe, concur in this opinion. 

 That others may have other ideals and pur- 

 poses in teaching physics, has been abun- 

 dantly shown by the work of the physics 

 commission. In Circular III.^ we find that 

 130 teachers suggested 28 different pur- 

 poses of teaching physics ; some suggesting 

 more than one, but not more than 30 agree- 

 ing on any one. Thus some few avow that 

 passing examinations is their purpose: 

 others make "mental discipline" the fun- 

 damental aim — meaning thereby the teach- 

 ing of students to do what they do not want 

 to do because they will have to do so the 

 rest of their lives: thus only may physics 

 become a preparation for grim life. Still 

 others may have the end of teaching the 

 laws and principles of physics ; by which is 

 meant bringing the student to the point 

 where he is able to recite and write the 

 statements of these laws, even though he 

 may not be able to show that he possesses 

 clear concepts of the physical quantities 

 related by the laws, or of the relations they 

 describe. Thus he who has other purposes 

 in teaching science may justly believe that 

 physics teaching is satisfactory ; but he who 

 accepts as his highest ideal the purposes 

 stated above, must acknowledge that the 

 greater part of physics teaching at the 

 present time fails, to a greater or less ex- 

 tent, to attain those purposes. The teach- 

 ing of physics is not on that account use- 

 less altogether: it is only that it might be 

 a real creative power in education instead 

 of a mere adjunct. 



The physics teacher's problem is now be- 

 fore you. It may be stated thus: How 

 shall courses and instruction be modified so 

 as to make the work more nearly approach 

 to the teaching purposes? We teachers 



'School Science and Mathematics, November, 

 1906. 



