730 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 802 



choose a major subject, and if it be phys- 

 ics, for example, his adviser will steer him 

 throiigh a course so highly specialized in 

 physics and so devoid of other things that 

 he is quite unfit to teach anything, and 

 especially a general beginners' course. 

 Among the courses in physics which he 

 takes none will have reference to the ex- 

 periences of life, but each will be a distinct 

 attempt to prepare for the next technical 

 course beyond. Even if his duty was to 

 teach physics alone he would not know 

 enough about chemistry and other allied 

 sciences to teach physics properly. But 

 what does the college course do for the 750 

 high schools of New York state in which 

 one person has to teach all the sciences? 

 Or what does it do for the 570 high schools 

 which have only three teachers, or less, 

 apiece, and in which some one has to 

 teach more than all the sciences? No one, 

 however, can visit many of these schools 

 without reaching the conclusion that some 

 of them have excellent physics teaching. 

 In some cases the credit for this is due to 

 the state normal schools, and in some 

 schools the physics teaching appears to be 

 good because they are not trying to fit for 

 college. 



One can not read the papers of to-day 

 without feeling that the community is on 

 the point of making great changes in its 

 educational institutions. It appears to 

 want undergraduate students to take gen- 

 eral courses in several sciences. It wants 

 these courses to be far more general 

 than any courses now are. It will doubt- 

 less insist that these courses shall be given 

 by men who can teach, and who are willing 

 to devote their best efforts to it. A genera- 

 tion or so ago the greatest men ia all the 

 colleges were great teachers. With the es- 

 tablishment of universities and the en- 

 couragement of research came the deca- 

 dence of teaching. It is to be hoped that 



both research and teaching will be fostered 

 in the future. If, however, things go on as, 

 at present it seems probable that the re- 

 vival of teaching will be brought about by 

 separating the research function from that 

 of teaching. 



Our present scheme of science teaching 

 was founded upon educational theories 

 which are not now entertained. We 

 thought that by drill we could develop cer- 

 tain faculties which would functionize in 

 other fields when called upon to do so. 

 Whatever faculties the college teacher 

 thought his pupils ought to have, these he 

 made it the duty of the high-school teacher 

 to produce. We thought high-school 

 pupils might be trained in observation, in 

 accuracy, etc. We thought they might be 

 equipped with a catalogue of fundamental 

 principles and laws, the use of which 

 might appear when they got to college. 

 We thought it possible to teach one single 

 science tliorougJily , and we said much 

 about teaching pupils to be scientific by 

 concentration upon one thing and we 

 spoke slightingly of the general courses. 

 It now seems probable that a man trained 

 to conservatism in one field is no less 

 likely to be a wild-cat in some other field. 

 It has been pointed out that in matters of 

 education, and particularly in the matter 

 of prescribing work for the high schools, 

 the college physicists have been strangely 

 unscientific; dealing with snap judgments 

 when reliable data were not at hand; pre- 

 scribing out of ignorance where a council 

 of doctors would have been baffled. Who 

 knows that the high school pupil has 

 reached the time of life when he can be 

 trained in exact science without doing him 

 violence % The community wants its young 

 people informed about the interpretations 

 which may be put upon the phenomena 

 and experiences of daily life. The attempt 

 to make pupils scientific before their time 



