March 19, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



465 



able advantage to the class of non-college 

 going pupils. It were in my opinion far 

 better to exclude science teaching from the 

 schools altogether than to teach it in this 

 way. The plan very generally followed in 

 our schools of accompanying recitations 

 upon such a text as indicated above by 

 demonstrations with apparatus performed 

 by the teacher does not call for so sweeping 

 a condemnation ; yet let me say plainly 

 that no such course can be regarded as an 

 adequate entrance requirement. 



In both physics and chemistry, laboratory 

 instruction is to be regarded as the essen- 

 tial thing ; this is to be accompanied, in so 

 far as time may permit, by the reading of a 

 text-book and by demonstrations on the 

 part of the teacher. Since the time al- 

 lotted to these subjects is rarely large enough 

 to make it practicable to use two books — a 

 text-book and a laboratory manual — the 

 text-book selected should be one written 

 with a view to the teaching of the subject 

 by laboratoiy methods. It should combine 

 the features of the laboratory manual and 

 the ordinary text-book of phj'sics in brief 

 and clear form. With a good book of this 

 kind the teacher who understands his sub- 

 ject will select certain experiments to be 

 performed by each member of the class in- 

 dividually ; others he will reserve for dem- 

 onstrations to be performed by himself in 

 the presence of the class. The principles 

 illustrated by these experiments, which 

 should be so selected as to demonstrate the 

 laws of the science, should form the subject 

 matter of recitations. The lower the grade 

 of the pupils the more prominent should 

 the laboratory features of the course be 

 made. 



I am aware that in our larger schools 

 there are considerable difficulties in carry- 

 ing out a program such as I have out- 

 lined. The chief difficulty is not one, how- 

 ever, which is confined to the teaching of 

 science ; the fact is, that in all subjects the 



number of teachers is entirely too small in 

 proportion to the size of the classes. The 

 difference between the teaching of science 

 and the teaching of other subjects is that 

 in science teaching the attempt to cut down 

 the teaching force, as is done in other sub- 

 jects, leads inevitably to a complete failure. 

 Such failure brings about too frequently the 

 abandoning of proper science methods even 

 where the teachers themselves are suffi- 

 ciently well prepared in their subject to 

 know what these methods are. If our 

 school boards and superintendents and 

 principles and teachers were equally honest 

 in the teaching of other subjects they would 

 feel compelled to abandon the teaching of 

 these likewise. The increase in the teach- 

 ing force demanded for the purpose of per- 

 mitting the schools to offer satisfactory en- 

 trance requirement courses, therefore, is not 

 an exorbitant demand; it is simply a de- 

 mand which should be met in every depart- 

 ment of school instruction. If the question 

 of science teaching in the schools serves to 

 bring this matter more forcibly than it has 

 ever been brought to the attention of those 

 whose duty it is to determine the teaching 

 force in our schools a good work will have 

 been done. 



While first-rate work in laboratory teach- 

 ing of science can not be done where the 

 number of students to be handled by each 

 teacher is very large, something may be 

 done. It is, for example, better to have 

 laboratory experiments carried on by the 

 instructor in the presence of the class than 

 not at all It is much better to have labo- 

 ratory experiments carried on by groups of 

 students than by the instructor himself. 

 The efficiency of the teaching increases as 

 the size of these groups is diminished, and 

 it reaches its maximum only when the 

 groups are reduced to one or two, or at 

 most three, individuals. 



Laboratory practice for the schools is in- 

 tended to serve a double purpose. In the 



