abreast, but it is in no way necessary to successful laboratory-work. This will mean, in addition to the equipment that is used in common, three sets of apparatus for those experiments in which it is necessary for two pupils to work together and twice that number for those experiments where individual work, which is always desirable, is possible. For working the class abreast three times as many sets will be required. This is on the basis of eighteen pupils as a maximum laboratory division and twice that number for a classroom division. Dr. Millikan estimates that a set of apparatus for the somewhat commonly accepted number of experiments can be provided at a cost of from $60 to $75. As already implied, the environment has very material influence in determining this, but for the ordinary-sized high school in the city of from 5,000 to 15,000, I should consider that a satisfactory laboratory equipment could be provided under that estimate, assuming the permanent fittings of the laboratory as previously furnished.

I think I have now covered in essentials the field indicated by the topic "What Equipment Is Required to Successfully Teach Physics in Secondary Schools?" Let me summarize:

The prime essential—the teacher, capable, progressive, tactful, resourceful; the teacher with capacity for clear, correct thinking, for understanding of mechanism and deft in manipulation; with some degree of mechanical knowledge and skill; a teacher with vision, with qualities of leadership, and with appreciation of citizenship.

Second, equipment in apparatus and accessories, somewhat determined by the environment, to enable the teacher to demonstrate before the classes qualitatively, and in part quantitatively, such phenomena as will complement the fund of knowledge already possessed by the pupils.

Third, equipment for personal experimentation, largely quantitative, to supplement the conception of, and acquaintance with, the subject obtained in the classroom; to enable the pupil to have a "realizing sense of things by coming into contact with them." This apparatus equipment should be presentable in design and workmanship, reliable in operation, sufficiently simple in construction, so that its operation and manipulation is within the comprehension of the pupil. It should be provided in sufficient duplication to permit the laboratory work to be co-ordinated with the classwork into an integral whole, and permit the pupil to do individual work whenever possible.

And, finally, the guiding precept thru it all should be utility with economy, the application of it all, the making of men.

DISCUSSION

IRVING O. PALMER science master, Newton High School, Newtonville, Mass.I am fully convinced that the ultimate object of all physical science is to facilitate the labor and ameliorate the conditions of life. I feel that all teaching of physics and physical science in secondary schools should be arranged in accordance with this idea. The tremendous advances in civilization which have been made during the last century are largely due to the practical application of the principles of physical science. Advances in applied science

-new applications of science-can be made only as the men who are devoting their lives to original investigation, to research, learn new truths. We must have the truths before we can have their application. We must have the work of the investigator in physics as well as that of the engineer.

My notion is that the equipment which we need for successfully teaching physics in secondary schools is the same whether the students taught are to become, in later life, original investigators, engineers, or, as graduates of industrial or trade schools, the trained mechanics who execute the plans of engineers. It would then seem to be of supreme importance that the equipment in the secondary school be such that there is aroused and maintained in the boy a compelling interest in the subject of physics to the end that there may be an ample supply of the very best material from which other institutions may develop our scientists, our engineers, our highly skilled mechanics. This brings me to my real subject, to the one point which I am especially anxious to make—namely, that every secondaryschool physical laboratory ought, in my judgment, to have a workshop and in that workshop, at least a part of the time, a worker who can repair and build apparatus-not necessarily apparatus that has a piano polish and an abundance of German lacquer, but good apparatus that will work.

With us in the East, local makers of and dealers in physical apparatus are furnishing more and better material than ever before; general manufacturers of tools and machinery are very kind in aiding teachers of physics to obtain models and samples; the apparatus of the European makers is more easily obtained than ever before, but if we are deeply to interest the boy, if we are to humanize the matter as far as is consistent with sound work, if we are to bring it into fields that more intimately concern man, a great deal of apparatus and material is needed which I, in my experience, have been able to procure only by equipping and using a workshop in my own school.

I maintain that every teacher of secondary-school physics ought to be a pretty good mechanic. He should be able to do a fair piece of cabinet work, he should be thoroly at home in the machine-shop, and he ought to be somewhat skilled in glass-blowing. His shop should depend in size and equipment largely upon the size and equipment of his school in general. It ought to be just as large and just as fully equipped as he can make it. It will justify its existence and constitute one of the most valuable parts of the laboratory layout whether it be a small workbench having only a hammer, saw, soldering iron, box of nails and screws, and roll of wire the sole dependence of a small country school, or the fully equipped shop of a large city school furnished with power-driven engine lathe, planer, shaper, vertical drill, saws, etc., and having a well-appointed room for glass-blowing.

I have said that the workshop ought to have in it a worker who can repair and build apparatus, and that the teacher of physics ought to be a good mechanic. That I fully believe, but I would not be misunderstood. I do not for a moment think that, in the large school, the teacher ought himself to work much in the shop; he should design apparatus and supervise its construction. He should have an assistant, a mechanician, a portion of whose time at least is given to the building of apparatus in the shop. This assistant ought to be a good glass-blower, a skilled worker in wood and metal, and a pretty good draftsman. Further, in order that he may be a valuable assistant in the lecture-room, he ought to have a pretty good general knowledge of physics and mathematics and to be endowed with a modicum of common sense. In short he should be that combination of student, skilled mechanic, and expert laboratory assistant to which the Hollanders give the

name amanuensis.

To sum up: The secondary-school physical laboratory should include in its equipment an enthusiastic teacher who is a good mechanic, a workshop as large and as fully equipped as the school can be made to provide, and a well-trained amanuensis whose services are to be given to shop, to laboratory, and to lecture-room.

DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION

SECRETARY'S MINUTES

THURSDAY MORNING, JULY 11, 1907

The meeting of the Department of School Administration was called to order by President J. W. McClymonds, Oakland, Cal., in Alhambra Hall, Fraternal Brotherhood Building, July 11, at 9:30 A. M.

The chair appointed Wm. C. Bruce to act as secretary, pro tem.

The president then stated that the addresses on the program must necessarily be dispensed with, owing to the absence of the speakers.

The election of officers for the ensuing year was then taken up and the chair appointed as Nominating Committee Superintendent C. L. McClain, Fresno, Cal., chairman, Principal A. Harvey Collins, Covina, Cal., and Birney Donnell, Los Angeles, Cal. The Committee on Nominations recommended the following names: For President-W. O. Thompson, president, Ohio State University, Columbus, O. For Vice-President J. W. McClymonds, superintendent of schools, Oakland, Cal. For Secretary-Wm. Geo. Bruce, editor of School Board Journal, Milwaukee, Wis. Mr. Collins moved that the secretary be instructed to cast the ballot for the persons nominated. The motion was carried and the ballot cast, and the chair announced the persons nominated as elected.

The meeting then adjourned.

WM. C. BRUCE, Acting Secretary.