32 QUEEN'S QUARTERLY. 



New JNIove Among Physics Teachers," were sent to the principal 

 schools and colleges both in the United States and in Canada. An- 

 swers were invited to a number of questions framed in an attempt 

 to ascertain how far the physics teachers themselves were in agree- 

 ment as to the essentials of the subject. The particular question of 

 most general interest was " What in your opinion is needed to make 

 physics more interesting, stimulating and instructive ; and more use- 

 ful as an educative factor?" Replies were received from eighty 

 colleges, thirty normal schools and one hundred and sixty-five high 

 schools (only two being from Canada). These revealed a most re- 

 marable diversity of opinion, even as to the fundamental points that 

 ought to be treated in a first-year school course in physics, and the 

 answers to the question quoted above showed an equally wide di- 

 vergence. Fifty-five of those replying thought that physics should 

 be brought into closer relation with the daily life and experience of 

 the pupil. Twenty-five claim that too much material is forced into 

 the available time. Some say that more attention must be paid to 

 the quantitative relations involved ; and about an equal number are 

 quite certain that unless all the mathematics is eliminated from the 

 first-year work there can be no hope for school physics. Thirty-three 

 hold that the most pressing need is that of better-prepared teachers, 

 and some of this last group lay the whole blame on " inappreciative 

 school boards," who not only engage cheap men but who insist on 

 overloading those they do take. The synopsis of the replies to this 

 one question covers two pages of small type. All of it is interesting 

 to the specialist, and most of it valuable, in that it directs attention 

 to points found unsatisfactory by others; but as may be judged from 

 the above given extracts, it affords little help in determining 

 what are the essential features of the problem. " It must then be 

 evident," comments the committee, " that we are not yet as well 

 agreed as we might be on this most important point. Perhaps the 

 whole thing may be summed up by saying that we teachers do not 

 comprehend two things as clearly as we should, namely, (1) we fail 

 to understand the nature and needs of the adolescent mind; and (2) 

 we comprehend even less of the nature of science and the real mean- 

 ing of her services to civilization." This is certainly very severe 

 self-criticism but it is probably, in a large measure, true. The most 

 encouraging announcement of this second circular (June, 1906) is 

 that seven other Teachers' Associations in the central and eastern 

 states had joined in the work, thus giving it a much broader basis. 

 A series of theses, based on the decisions of the French and 



