motion? How does one visualize the mechanism of a gas,
unless by means of such ideas as momentum interchange, energy
conservation, and forces of attraction?

Let us emphasize here, lest we be misunderstood, that we are
considering collegiate courses. We do not doubt that descriptive
physics may be given after one fashion to farmers, quite differently
to engineers, and from still a third point of view to medical
students. Unfortunately some collegiate courses never get beyond the
high school method. Our aim is not to discuss descriptive courses, but
those that approach the subject with the spirit of critical analysis,
for these alone do we deem worthy of a place in the college
curriculum.

=The course in college physics differentiated from the high school course=

The problem of the descriptive course is the problem of the high
school. Because of failure there, too often we see at many a
university courses in subfreshman physics. These are made necessary
where entrance requirements do not demand this subject and where
subsequent interest along related lines develops among the students a
tardy necessity of getting it. From the point of view of the
collegiate course it often appears as if the subfreshman course could
be raised to academic rank. This is because familiarity with the
material must precede an analysis of it. Credit for high school
physics on the records of the entrance examiner, unless this credit is
based on entrance examination, is often found to stand for very
little. Consequently the almost continual demand for the high school
work under the direct supervision of a collegiate faculty. The number
of students who should go into this course instead of the college
course is increasing at the present time in the immediate locality of
the writer.

As contributory testimony here, witness the number of colleges that do
not take cognizance at all of high school preparation and admit to the
same college classes those who have never had preparatory physics with
those who have had it. We are told the difference between the two
groups is insignificant. Perhaps it is. If so, this fact reflects as
much on the college as on the high school. If we are looking for a
solution of our problem in this direction, let us be undeceived; we
are looking backwards, not forward.

=Need of adequate high school preparation in physics=

No one will affirm that to a class of whose numbers some have never
had high school physics a