July 29, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



135 



had not passed an examination in physics at ad- 

 mission]. 



This remark led me to write Miss Lun- 

 din, asking a number of questions concern- 

 ing the experience on which her observa- 

 tion was based. I give here a number of 

 quotations from her reply to these new 

 questions : 



" Those who had taken physics the last year in 

 high school did seem to retain something of their 

 previous work; however, after a very few lectures 

 and recitations these girls no longer objected to 

 having to ' repeat ' the subject, and their work 

 was not noticeably better than the average." 

 " There was no entrance examination conducted 

 by the college. The college board examinations 

 were at most taken by a very few students, as I 

 saw but two laboratory note-books presented in 

 the three years." " I should expect the college 

 board examinations to be a fairly effective sieve 

 and should expect students passing such or sim- 

 ilar examinations to be able to take a more diffi- 

 cult course than those who had not passed or who 

 had not studied the subject. At the same time, 

 it is generally true that, where a board examina- 

 tion may be taken for entrance to college, a certi- 

 ficate will be accepted, and herein lies "the diffi- 

 culty of determining the fitness of the student for 

 more advanced work. I have students who hold 

 certificates in physics and mathematics from other 

 schools, public and private, who fail to get, even 

 on repeating the work, a recommendation to take 

 the board examinations." 



14. " As referring to chemistry but not cal- 

 culus." 



15. " Extra course to be pursued at a technical 

 or industrial or normal school or in a shop." 



16. " Yes, on ' originals ' with printed direc- 

 tions." 



17. " I think the ' preparation ' ought to in- 

 clude such training that the teacher is able to do 

 a good piece of work in the carpenter's shop and 

 especially the machine shop — if he can blow a 

 little glass so much the better. He should also 

 know, by virtue of teaching given in the univer- 

 sity, the source of supply, cost and method of 

 importing the lecture and laboratory apparatus 

 suitable for his work in secondary-school teach- 

 ing." 



18. " I agree perfectly with your statement, hut 

 the teacher ought to spend some necessary ' man- 

 ual labor ' in shop in directing his amanuensis 

 and in some cases helping to build apparatus." 



19. " It is quite probable that the helper will 

 need more skill, a wider range of shop training 

 and a greater acquaintance with the principles 

 of science than the present-day vocational schools 

 will give. 



" If we can get a school where boys are as well 

 trained as they are in the school for instrument 

 makers at the University of Leyden, we'll be all 

 right." 



20. " Year of general practise work." 



21. "Where possible; but this is impracticable 

 in the great majority of schools." 



22. " Until text-book makers give the subject 

 simple but adequate treatment." 



24. " I find myself in hearty agreement with all 

 your nine propositions save only the last three." 



" Twenty years' experience with students coming 

 from . . . high schools to the university has 

 taught me that the student who comes into our 

 course in general physics without any previous 

 study of the subject does quite as good work as 

 the student who comes to us after having already 

 studied the subject in the high school. 



" The fact appears to be that general physics, 

 as presented by university instructors, is a subject 

 very different from that which is presented by the 

 high school instructor. The university presents 

 the subject as a connected whole, as a single great 

 body of truth. The student here, for the first 

 time, meets a philosophical connection between 

 the different parts of the subject. 



" In the high school, as a matter of fact, the 

 subject is presented as a number of different sub- 

 jects, each subject having one chapter devoted to 

 it. The result is that when these two groups of 

 students come to college (namely, those who have 

 and those who have not studied physics) each 

 finds sufficient new material for thought and work 

 in the university course in general elementary 

 physics. 



" As to your proposition 9, I have the feeling 

 that the science of physics began when Galileo, in 

 his 'Dialogues' (1638), after carefully defining 

 what is meant by uniform velocity and unifornj 

 acceleration, introduced the idea of force to de- 

 scribe the behavior of a body whose momentum is 

 changing from any cause whatsoever. Feeling as 

 I do, that this is the central idea about which 

 modern physics has been built up and that the 

 idea of momentum and change of momentum is 

 essentially simple, and feeling that every boy, of 

 even ten years of age, is loaded to the muzzle 

 with practical illustrations, I find it very difficult 

 to think a high-school teacher should not make 



