July 1, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



in importance. The other will surely fol- 

 low. The reverse is, however, not true— 

 a man may have high intellectual attain- 

 ments and be socially highly inefficient. 



Again, it has been forcibly proved of 

 late that when a high school tries seriously 

 to meet college requirements, it fails 

 egregiously in service to its community. 

 On the contrary, when- it serves its com- 

 munity efficiently, it should meet college 

 requirements far better than at present. 

 In like manner, mental discipline may be 

 possible without enthusiasm and motive, 

 but at best it trains the intellect only 

 while the will runs riot with morality. 

 But when enthusiasm and right motive 

 precede, not only is the mind disciplined, 

 but the will also, leading to firm char- 

 acter as well as intellectual strength. 



But perhaps the difference between the 

 two points of view is most forcefully 

 shown in the respective attitudes of the 

 two sections with regard to the use of 

 physics for entrance to college. Section B 

 has, as a whole, always regarded high- 

 school physics as being taught mainly for 

 purposes of college entrance. In this sub- 

 ject, more than in any other, the high 

 schools have been "required" to try to 

 teach what the colleges specified was "the 

 thing." These specifications have always 

 been framed by college men with a view to 

 forestalling the needs of physicists and to 

 securing a treatment of topics that should 

 be the most logical and rigorous known in 

 the then state of the sciences. College 

 men have criticized elementary texts as if 

 they were scientific treatises instead of 

 tools for education and have denounced 

 educationally insignificant departures 

 from current scientific creed as illogical or 

 iinscientifie. High-school men have never 

 been encouraged to try experiments in 

 teaching, in an endeavor to find out by ex- 

 periment — the only possible way — what is 



best for high school pupils. And why 

 should they try experiments when those 

 who were masters of physics had said that 

 the teaching must conform to these defini- 

 tions 1 



Section L, on the other hand, can not 

 accept the postulate that the straight and 

 narrow path laid out by the colleges is the 

 best way to teach elementary physics 

 without scrutinizing closely the results of 

 the work; any more than Section B will 

 swallow Blondlot N rays without inspect- 

 ing them carefully. Nor do we have to 

 look far for conclusive evidence. Most of 

 us find it in the examination books turned 

 in by our students at every examination. 

 As physics teachers we are amused at the- 

 "new knowledge" and utter nonsense con- 

 tained in these books. We are so used to 

 it that we have ceased to regard it as indic- 

 ative of a serious condition. We laugh it 

 off: with the remark : ' ' Every exam brings ; 

 out samples like that. " " And after all, ' ' ' 

 argue the physicists, ' ' what harm is done 1 ' 

 The great majority of the pupils will not : 

 have to know how to calculate the velocity • 

 of a body sliding down a plane, nor will 

 they be seriously handicapped in life if 

 they do not know what the index of refrac- 

 tion is. If they do not know a thing, they 

 should be taught to say they do not know 

 instead of making up such nonsensical 

 answers." In like manner we comfort 

 ourselves for failures to make clear other 

 portions of the subject, all leading to the 

 very obvioxis question: Wliy attempt at all 

 to teach such things under the name of 

 physics that when a boy is questioned about 

 them the only sensible answer he can give 

 is "I don't know?" Perhaps some other 

 member of Section B will answer this. 



Another important test of results is 

 given annually by the College Entrance 

 Examination Board. The result is that 

 out of fourteen questions set, about 



