136 



SCIENCE 



[X. S. Vol. XXXII. No. 813 



some eflfort to help the boy towards a clear and 

 simple apprehension of this great group of facts, 

 namely, accelerated motions." 



25. " But am not in favor of examination at 

 all." 



26. " But think every college should require 

 some physics for entrance." 



27. " We have given credits for admission to 

 college in physics for a great many years, but have 

 made no difference in the course pursued in col- 

 lege between the course for those men who present 

 physics and for those who do not present physics; 

 this seems to me wrong, yet the difference in 

 preparation which students have had in physics 

 in the preparatory school would almost necessitate 

 this plan. 



" I hope your efforts will make the requirements 

 very definite and that the students presenting 

 physics for admission to college may take a dif- 

 ferent course in college from that taken by those 

 who begin the subject. We accept chemistry for 

 admission, but require such students to take our 

 second course in chemistry at the first and it 

 ought to be the same with physics and biology." 



28. " I enclose the postal marked as you re- 

 quested except in the alternative form of the ninth 

 question, about which I do not feel positive. I 

 should wish to leave that entirely to the judgment 

 of the secondarj'-school teacher. I certainly would 

 not require for admission to college any examina- 

 tion of absolute units of force or energy." 



29. Crosses out not before both of the alterna- 

 tives (9). 



30. " Depends entirely on grade of school." 



31. " I doubt the practicability." 



32. " iSTot easy to arrange in a small or medium- 

 sized college." 



33. " Think the last formulas should be taught 

 in connection with experiments in which accelera- 

 tion is more readily observed and appreciated than 

 in the case of falling bodies." 



34. Crosses out or of the formula f^m X a. 



35. " There should be coordination and there- 

 fore a rather definite course." 



36. " Though we have not done it, except in 

 laboratory work, we expect to comply with No. 7 

 in a year or so." 



37. " Opposed to formal written entrance exam- 

 inations of all kinds." 



38. " If practicable." 



39. " This, I fear, is somewhat indefinite out- 

 side of the large universities. Why not say a 

 requirement equal to A.M. with physics as special 

 for A.M. ? " 



40. " I should be glad to vote for it, if I thought 



it capable of practical realization; but it seems to 

 me that it would be of more practical benefit to 

 place the standard of preparation for the average 

 good high school at something that would require 

 about fifty semester hours' college work in phys- 

 ics, mathematics and chemistry. In the same way 

 proposition 4 would be desirable if realizable." 



41. " I want to explain my votes on 6, 7, 8 by 

 saying that in my opinion the propositions ignore 

 the fact that the student undergoes a considerable 

 mental development in the later years of his 

 school life and his early years at college. A phys- 

 ics course in college ' substantially equivalent,' 

 etc., would be too childish for him — even if it 

 covered exactly the same topics. The plane of the 

 teaching — the philosophic attitude of the teacher 

 — ought to be more advanced. So I oppose 8. 

 Similarly for 7, I do not believe that the best 

 school course does for the student what his first 

 college course should do, even if it covers exactly 

 the same topics, and so I oppose 7. 



" As to 6, I think laboratory work, while essen- 

 tial in making physicists, not essential in giving 

 students the knowledge of scientific methods and 

 ideals. I should let a student offer laboratory 

 work if he thinks he can show his knowledge of 

 physics better in that way. 



" As to 9, I simply should leave each teacher 

 his liberty, without forbidding him to teach 

 / = «ia, and I should sanction a question on 

 such matters in the entrance papers, if the exam- 

 iner used sense and discretion in marking." 



42. Crosses out all following 2g in the state- 

 ment following the second (9) and writes: "Am 

 much opposed to the omission of subject of force 

 and acceleration. Many boys who need in after 

 life a clear conception of the relation between the 

 two never get to college." 



43. " As to No. 1, I do not think that more of 

 the present sort of college training in physics is 

 what the teachers need. They must know their 

 subject, of course; but they must also know some- 

 thing about the school problems they are going to 

 have to face, and must have some appreciation of 

 the needs and mental habits of high school pupils." 



44. " Hence to No. 2 I would say that a knowl- 

 edge of the calculus does not seem to me as impor- 

 tant as a knowledge of the ways of children's 

 minds. The history of science and the philosophy 

 of it are, it seems to me, more needed than mere 

 technique. Works like PoincarS's ' Science and 

 Hypothesis ' should be studied." 



45. " With No. 3 and No. 4 I have no quarrel. 

 These are self-evident. They, however, mean little. 

 What is meant by ' well-trained and competent 



