464 



scimcE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 116. 



find boys of seventeen or eighteen who have 

 compassed almost the whole range of phys- 

 ical subjects. Physics can be so taught as 

 to be a subject of the greatest possible edu- 

 cational value, but when it is so, it is not so 

 much because the student acquires a knowl- 

 edge of a number of interesting facts as by 

 the mental training which the study affords 

 in, as Maxwell says, ' bringing our theoret- 

 ical knowledge to bear on the objects, and 

 the objects on our theoretical knowledge.' 

 " I think this training can be got better 

 by going very slowly through such a sub- 

 ject as mechanics, making students try in- 

 numerable experiments of the simplest kind, 

 rather than by attempting to cover the 

 whole range of mechanics, light, heat, sound, 

 electricity and magnetism." And he con- 

 cludes by saying : "I confess I regret the 

 presence, in examinations intended for 

 school boys, of many of these subjects." 



Discussion by Professor E. L. Nichols on the 



Teaching of Physics and Chemistry in the 



Secondary Schools. 



One of the chief difficulties with which 

 we have to cope in considering the subject 

 of science teaching in the schools lies in 

 the fact that the schools have to handle two 

 distinct classes of pupils : The large class 

 which is not going to college and for which 

 the education in science received in the 

 schools is all that they are to receive, and 

 a much smaller class with which the science 

 taught in the schools is preparatory to the 

 further study of science in the college and 

 the university. 



It is most unfortunate that our high 

 schools and academies are obliged to treat 

 these two classes of pupils together instead 

 of offering them entirely distinct courses of 

 study. If physics and chemistry, for exam- 

 ple, are to be accepted by the universities 

 as entrance subjects alternative with math- 

 ematics they must be so taught as to have 

 a disciplinary value in some degree com- 



parable to mathematics. Now, the disci- 

 plinary value of mathematics is universally 

 conceded to be exceedingly high. 



It is unquestionably possible to teach 

 science in such a manner as to afford excel- 

 lent mental discipline, but in order to do so 

 the teacher must be thoroughly up in his 

 subject and he must have this continually 

 in view as the prime object of the instruc- 

 tion which he is giving. For the larger 

 class of pupils, on the other hand, to whom 

 the courses in physics and chemistry offered 

 by the schools are all that they are to re- 

 ceive, the object for which the teacher must 

 strive is in great part to convey useful in- 

 formation. In a word, the two objects 

 sought cannot well be united in a single- 

 course. 



In spite of the fact that nearly all the 

 principals and superintendents of schools 

 with whom I have spoken upon this sub- 

 ject have held it to be impracticable to 

 separate the pupils who are preparing for 

 college from those whom the high school or 

 academy is to afford the completion of their 

 education, I feel compelled to lay down as 

 a first principle that a thoroughly satis- 

 factory substitute for the advanced mathe- 

 matics now required for entrance to college 

 can only be obtained by teaching science to 

 those preparing for college in an entirely 

 different manner, and indeed in different 

 classes from those who are not preparing 

 for the entrance examinations. Where no 

 such division can be made it is at least pos- 

 sible to treat the science primarily with a 

 view to its disciplinary or truly educational 

 value. 



It is scarcely necessary to say that all 

 sciences are to be treated as laboratory sub- 

 jects. N'o school course in physics or chem- 

 istry which consists in the reading of a 

 text-book, together with recitations upon 

 the same, can possibly afford a suitable 

 preparatory course for college. Neither 

 will such a course prove of any appreci- 



