The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-11-05


and examine the more certain danger
Of making the anatomy, physiology,
and hygiene OF civics mean a pseudo
scientific representation Of sociology
to the immature minds of the public
schools. n., r~ -
The speaker would say that the
greatest difficulty with the teaching
of ctvics in the past and sociology in
the present to pupils In the public
schools In the result Of our present
day tendency to teach every subject
as a more or less completely formuiat-
ed science. This tendency is wrong.
1t crowds the. curriculuna with a num-
Der of courses and classes and text
book subjects that are the bane of the
modern American school, Worse than
this 1t actually prevents the pupil
from learning to think for himself; by
presenting an already though out
system Of knowledge the elements Of
which are absolutely unknown to the
pupil. The result is meaningless
repetition of other mems generaliza-
lions and the memorizing of lifeless
junk. We believe that this process
should be discontinued not only in
ctvics and sociology but In several
other subjects, notably history.
1t has always Deen necessary for the
race to gather together a considerable
amount Of knowledge and even to be-
come more or less adept in APPLYING
II, long before it could formulate the
knowledge into a science and master
the application Of the more abstract
principles. The child is no execution
to this rule. If Shakespeare could
gather wide range of knowledge Of
Versification and apply it. with con-
summate skill, without knowing that
there was science Of English verse,
the Child can learn most Of the
knowledge of history, civics. and soci
ologys for which he has any use with
out attacking the science of history,
or political science, or sociology: from
which process, IL begun before the
elements of knowledge to be classified
into science are pretty well known
by the pupil, results neither In knowI-
edge, nor skill, nor the ability to
think. We sincerely doubt whether
the difficulty has lain with the mar
rowness of the Textbook. We suspect
that 1T matters little whether the text
be narrow, or wide, If the knowledge
is first presented In the form OF a
systematized science the child will
get little of 1t. The speaker does not
know any text-forn which it. were
safe to, teach a young child geography
or history, or civics, or sociology,
Watching, one day, one OF the great
est teathersE of fESeogr Tays IN IA America
| at work before a cias II he leaker
casually remarked, You do not zap
pear ito use your own text book efor
the great teacher was an author OF
one sof the best geograph text -books)
mo- he replied, %"I made the book for
other teachers. T. imagine he meant,
less !skilfulG teachers Z; .,.'.'.,t :. 49,
TnoHunrfantIxy
| the right solution. It Is in the teach
er. What We need is great teachers
rather than more books. incidentally
we need more liberty for such teachers
to present the various groups of
knowledge =. without enslavement to
either textbook -. or scientific outline,
not. OF course, without an outline nor
without perfect, understanding of just
What use each, element of knowledge
would ultimately, be in, the lformulat-
Ing Of the several siepces when the
pupil shall reach the age for the clas-
sifylng scientifically of his various
fragments of useful knowledge ,
Such a teacher would need many
books but few textbooks. He would
need the. whole. range of the worlds
best literature, for in literature the
child may be made to live over the
best ideas, thoughts and feelings of
the race. He would need science and
nature, for man must learn to know
the great elemental forces if he would
know other men who were limited by
these. He would need life, both as a
point of interest and" as the gauge
with which to measure. the value of
any Kind OF knowledge or skill.
Other Papers.
Other papers on the history sections
programme were by Howard e. Simp-
son Of the state university faculty on
Physiographic Basis of History in
Secondary School Work. and commit
tee reports on reports from the 1918
meeting of the Mississippi Valley His
tory association.
Science and Mathematics.
The science and mathematics Sec
t1on OF the association. held also at
the" high school building, was crowded
this morning. Many fine papers were
heard which shed much light on mod
ern methods for the instruction of
mathematics and the application Of
scientific courses.
| Speaking On the modern views or the
nature OF electricity, Prof. A. Hoyt
Iaylor Of the university of North Dak
science section: 1>-
! 4. discussion of Modern Views of the
Nature OF Electricity is in view Of re-
&c cent @ns,o deveiopments R Identical with, a dis
Structure of Matter. Since the epoch
making work of Dalton placed the
stom1c theory of matter on firm
roundation na,l4 and started the develop
there has been very pronounced tend
ency toward an atomistic philosophy v
am among al scientific thinkers. Side by
we have had the development of the,
theory of continuity. 1t lis fan1iliar
saying that natures laws are written
In differential coefficients and observed
tions.
These two tendencies In modern
PHILOSOPHY are not necessarily antago-
nistic. In general we deal with mole
cules. atoms and electric charges In
enormous groups with many million in
dividuals In each group but not with
the individual itself.
The philosophy which is applicable
TO observable groups may well. there
fore, be philosophy of continuity. a
philosophy which states that in nature
there are no absolutely abrupt transit
tons; philosophy which originated
the idea of transition layers at the
boundary surfaces between different
media. -
when we come, however, to consid-
Grafton Of the individual atoms and
electric charges, we are forced by the
great preponderance of experimental
evidence to the acceptance Of the ato-
mistic conception of the structure OF
both matter and electricity.
Within the last five years the ex-
tension of the atomistic theory to cleo
tricity has received remarkable justi-
fication In the work OF Prof. R. Al Mil
$likan of the university of Chicago who
has succeeded In isolating and obsery-
ing for two hours at a time individual
doubt that there is limit to the divisibi-
lity OF the electric charge. q
Recently 1t has been proposed by
Professor Plank Of the university OF
Berlin and others to extend the atonnis-
tic theory OF structure to energy. This
indeed is the Keynote of the so-called
i auan tnrn theory which definitely