ule that the teacher
must first of all know and understand his subject. Right here lies
probably nine tenths of the fault with our pedagogy. No amount of
study of method will yield such returns as the study of the subject
itself. The honest student, and every teacher should belong to this
class or he has no claim to the name, is well aware that most of his
deficiency in explaining a topic is in direct ratio to his own lack of
comprehension of it. In physics, as in every other walk of life, we
suffer from lack of thoroughness, from a kind of superficiality that
is characteristically human but especially American. We have yet to
know of any one who really ranks as a scholar in his subject from whom
students do not derive inspiration and enthusiasm. Such a one usually
pays little attention to the methods of others, for the divine fire of
knowledge itself does not need much of tinder to kindle the torches
of others. Our greatest plea is for our teachers to be men of
understanding, for then they will be found to be men of method.

=The method of analysis dominant in physics=

The sequence in which heat, electricity, sound, and light follow
mechanics seems quite immaterial. Several equally logical plans may be
organized. Preference is usually accorded one or the other on the
basis of local conditions of equipment, and needs little reference to
pedagogy. If one gives to mechanics its proper importance, the
difficulty in giving instruction in the other topics seems very much
less. The momentum acquired seems to serve for the balance of the
year. Always must analysis be insisted upon, if our college course is
going to differ from that of the high school. If we are to let
students be content to read current from an ammeter with a calibrated
scale and not have the interest to inquire and the ambition to insist
upon the knowledge of how that calibration was originally made, we
have no right to claim any collegiate rank for our courses. But if we
define electrical current in terms of mechanical force which exhibits
a balanced couple on a system in rotational equilibrium, there can be
no dodging of the issue, for in no other way than by the study of the
mechanics of the situation can the content and the limitations of our
definition be understood. Any college work, so called, that does less
than analyze thus is nothing more than a review and amplification of
the material that should be within the range of the high school
student an