Maech 13, 1903. J 



SCIENCE. 



413 



by the research work of the students them- 

 selves. 



Some hold that absolutely individual in- 

 struction is the ideal, and a laboratorj^ 

 method has sometimes been used for the 

 purpose of attaining this ideal. The 

 laboratory method has as one of its ele- 

 ments of great value the flexibility which 

 permits students to be handled as indi- 

 viduals or in groups. The instructor 

 utilizes all the experience and insight of 

 the whole body of students. He arranges 

 it so that the students consider that they 

 are studying the subject itself, and not the 

 words, either printed or oral, of any au- 

 thority on the subject. And in this study 

 they should be in the closest cooperation 

 with one another and with their instructor, 

 who is in a desirable sense one of them and 

 their leader. Instructors may fear that the 

 brighter students will suffer if encouraged 

 to spend time in cooperation with those 

 not so bright. But experience shows that 

 just as every teacher learns by teaching, 

 so even the brightest students will find 

 themselves much the gainers for this co- 

 operation with their colleagues. 



In agreement with Perry, it would seem 

 possible that the student might be brought 

 into vital relation with the fundamental 

 elements of trigonometry, analytic geom- 

 etry and the calculus, on condition that the 

 whole treatment in its origin is and in 

 its development remains closely associated 

 with thoroughly concrete phenomena. With 

 the momentum of such practical educa- 

 tion in the methods of research in the sec- 

 ondary school, the college students would 

 be ready to proceed rapidly and deeply in 

 any direction in which their personal in- 

 terests might lead them. In particular, 

 for instance, one might expect to find ef- 

 fective interest on the part of college stu- 

 dents in the most formal abstract mathe- 

 matics. 



For all students who are intending to 



take a full secondary school course in prep- 

 aration for colleges or technological schools, 

 I am convinced that the laboratory method 

 of instruction in mathematics and physics, 

 which has been briefly suggested, is the 

 best method of instruction — for students 

 in general, and for students expecting to 

 specialize in pure mathematics, in pure 

 physics, in mathematical physics or astron- 

 omy, or in any branch of engineering. 



Evolution, not Revolution. — In contem- 

 plating this reform of secondary school 

 instruction we must be careful to remember 

 that it is to be accomplished as an evolu- 

 tion from the present system, and not as 

 a revolution of that system. Even under 

 the present organization of the curriculum 

 the teachers will find that much improve- 

 ment can be made by closer cooperation 

 one with another; by the introduction, so 

 far as possible, of the laboratory two-period 

 plan ; and in any event by the introduction 

 of laboratory methods: laboratory record 

 books, cross-section paper, computational 

 and graphical methods in general, includ- 

 ing the use of colored inks and chalks ; the 

 cooperation of students ; and by laying em- 

 phasis upon the comprehension of proposi- 

 tions rather than upon the exhibition of 

 comprehension. 



The Junior Colleges.— Just as the sec- 

 ondary schools should begin to reform 

 without waiting for the improvement of 

 the primary schools, so the elementary col- 

 legiate courses should be modified at once 

 without waiting for the reform of the sec- 

 ondary schools. And naturally, in the 

 initial period of reform, the education in 

 each higher domain will involve many ele- 

 ments which later on will be transferred 

 to a lower domain. 



Further, by the introduction into the 

 junior colleges of the laboratory method 

 of instruction it will be possible for the 

 colleges and universities to take up a duty 

 which for the luost part has been neglected 



