High school physics…a report of the Joint Committee on High School Teaching Materials

Anyone who doubts the serious concern of the scientific community about the state of the teaching of mathematics and science in the secondary schools will be reassured, even if not completely comforted, by viewing a list of the activities now being carried forward by professional societies. A recent summary, issued by the Science Teaching Improvement Program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, includes reports of such activities by 24 distinct and separate groups during the past six months. Any review of the growing literature on the subject indicates that physicists have been much slower in coming to grips with this nationally important problem than have their colleagues in chemistry, in mathematics, and in related fields. Although we cannot yet be proud of our record, the last two years have been marked by growing interest on the part of physicists in general and of the American Institute of Physics and its member societies in particular.