Reflections on the High School Curriculum*

Abstract

I welcome this opportunity to address the Central Association of Science and Mathematics Teachers. Your group is an important force in the training of the young people of our country and I know that you are concerned with the problems of improving scientific curricula for them. I hope that my remarks will be a helpful addition to the interchange of ideas and experiences taking place at this meeting. The teaching of physics and the training of physics teachers have been major interests of mine for many years while I was a Professor of Physics and later Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Michigan. At the University, as many of you know, we instituted the Master^s degree in science teaching to enable high-school science teachers to broaden their science training with the help of special new courses in physics, chemistry, geology, mathematics, and biology, and we have conducted many year institutes and summer institutes for them. My interest in the high-school curriculum has been heightened by my recent appointment as Acting Director of the American Institute of Physics. The Institute is very much concerned about the highschool science curriculum and, of course, about physics in particular. At the AIP we are involved in many programs designed to strengthen the education of high-school students. Science and technology have become extremely important in our world today. The interest being shown in the science curriculum by many individuals and groups reflects that fact. We are living in what has been variously called the Space Age and the Atomic Age. A new era of space exploration and of exciting new scientific discoveries is before us. There are great opportunities for young people today who pursue scientific studies. New fields for research and discovery are opening up. There are still frontiers to conquer in the realm of science and technology. Equally important today is a basic knowledge of science for every citizen. Every high-school graduate must have a basic grasp of science to deal intelligently with the modern devices and equipment of everyday life, to vote intelligently in the face of the complex technological issues that face us, even to get and hold a job today. A look at any daily newspaper will provide evidence that new advances in science are permeating our everyday life. National and world political deci-