Education Dean Asks Cooperation; Scientists Seek More Fundamentals

Educators are "passing the buck" by expecting the Natural Sciences program to fill the gaps of a student's inadequate scientific preparation, asserted Cecelia H. Payne-Gaposchkin, Phillips Astronmer and chairman of the Department. Substantial training in mathematics and physics for all students must begin in the secondary schools, she said.

J. Allen Hynek, Associate Director of the Smithsonian Observatory, backed his co-lecturer of Natural Sciences 9, claiming that students' "lack of adequate training in mathematics was appalling" and that many "blush at the sight of a logarithm."

Hynek feels that the goal of the Natural Sciences program is to take potential legislators, doctors and writers and "place them in society with a solid knowledge of what science is all about. Science," he said, "is a force that has shaped our existence, and it is ludicrous for universities to turn out students who don't know what this force is."

Both Hynek and Mrs. Gaposchkin would require students, who are intellectually capable, to complete three years of algebra, as well as trigonometry and geometry. Furthermore, they would require a year of physics, which Hynek labelled as "basic to the understanding of all the sciences."

Jabez C. Street, chairman of the Physics Department, and George B. Kistiakowsky, Abbott and James Lawrence Professor of Chemistry, both affirmed the need for thorough mathematical training in secondary schools, although they were dubious about requiring physics.

Street felt that "every student should have good preparation in at least one science, advanced algebra, trigonometry and geometry," while Kistiakowsky pointed out the need for students to get a feeling for a few of the sciences.