Nearly everywhere the principal emphasis in instruction is on knowledge. Tests or examina- tions on knowledge are the basis of ratings and promotions, and therefore the goal both of pri- vate study and of class work. While method is a frequent subject of discussion, it is the method rather of the teacher than of the learner, and even it is judged by the extent to which it leads to acquisition of knowledge. The fact that young people have a method of their own, that its quality is of vital importance, and that it needs great improvement is generally overlooked; for it is unrelated to tests. A very different conception of teaching is represented in this monograph. Physical Science is shown to owe its progress to improvement in the method of studying it; and as a result of such improvement a single day now brings a greater advance in knowledge of the physical world than did the first thousand years of the Christian era. Since method has been the secret of the marvelous progress, the principal object of in- struction in Physics should not be merely the --- 111 IV INTRODUCTION comprehension of a lot of facts or even laws, but rather the control of the method of investigation that has proved so fruitful in the discovery of those facts and laws. Furthermore, Physics should be primarily a study of scientific method, because skill in that method has a much broader application than knowledge of subject matter in that field. The implications for general Education in this point of view are far-reaching. If the idea is sound, the principal object of instruction in some or possibly all other subjects might well be greatly modified, and the method of the learner might be brought into prominence. And since Physics offers the most nearly perfect example of the scientific method, it might be taken as the standard for the other subjects; they differ from it rather in degree than in kind. How sound are such implications? Certainly modern Education is moving toward this point of view.Fernando Sanford (February 12, 1854 - May 21, 1948) was an American physicist and university professor. He was one of the 22 "pioneer professors" (founding faculty) for Stanford University. Sanford was born on a farm near Franklin Grove in Lee County, Illinois on February 12, 1854. He was the son of Faxton and Maria Mariah (Bly) Sanford. He attended Carthage College, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in 1879. He taught school until the mid-1880s, then studied physics in Germany under Hermann von Helmholtz for two years. Returning to the United States, he became a Professor of Physical Science at Lake Forest College. David Starr Jordan, president of Stanford University, chose him as one of the founding professors for Stanford, where he remained until his retirement in 1919. At Stanford he was the founder and first president of the Science Association. He was an early promoter of the use of laboratory instruction for undergraduates. He also helped to formulate the entrance requirements for Stanford. His book Elements of Physics (published in 1902, digitized in 2007) was an important textbook in the field. Other books and monographs included The Scientific Method And Its Limitations (1899), The Electrical Charges of Atoms and Ions (1919), A Physical Theory of Electrification, and How To Study; Illustrated Through Physics. His interest in electricity led to his construction of a "terrestrial electric observatory," whose results were published over many years in his Bulletin of the Terrestrial Electric Observatory of Fernando Sanford. His research included an early type of electric photography. His former residence is now one of the most important structures in the historic district of Professorville in Palo Alto, California. He died May 21, 1948 in Santa Clara, California.