原文：
If it were only necessary to decide whether to teach elementary science to everyone on a mass basis or to find the gifted few and take them as far as they can go , our task would be fairly simple . The public school system , however , has no such choice , for the jobs must be carried on at the same . Because we depend so heavily upon science and technology for our progress , we must produce specialists in many fields . Because we live in a democratic nation , whose citizens make the policies for the nation , large numbers of us must be educated to understand , to support , and when necessary , to judge the work of experts . The public school must educate both producers and users of scientific services .
In education , there should be a good balance among the branches of knowledge that contribute to effective thinking and wise judgment . Such balance is defeated by too much emphasis on any one field . This question of balance involves not only the relation of the natural sciences , the social sciences , and the arts but also relative emphases among the natural sciences themselves .
Similarly , we must have a balance between current and classical knowledge . The attention of the public is continually drawn to new possibilities in scientific fields and the discovery of new knowledge ; these should not be allowed to turn our attention away from he sound , established materials that from the basis of courses for beginners .
翻译：
如果只需要决定是传授普罗大众基础科学还是为少数具有天赋的人极力的开发他们潜能，那我们的任务就相当的简单了。然而，公立学校体系没有这样的选择， 基础科学教育和精英人才培养的工作必须同步进行。因为我们的进步是如此的依赖科学和技术，我们就必须在各个领域培养专家人才。因为我们生活在一个由公民制定国家政策的民主国家，大多数人就必须接受教育以便理解、支持，并且在必要的情况下，评判专家们的工作。公立学校必须同时培养科学服务的制造者和消费者。
在教育上，需要很好的平衡知识带来的有效思考和明智决断之间的分歧。这样的平衡会被过多的关注任何单方面而破坏。这个关于平衡的问题包含的不仅仅是自然科学、社会科学和艺术之间的关系，同时也与自然科学自身之间的重点有关。
同样的，我们必须平衡现在的和过去的知识。公众注意力不断被科学领域里新的可能性及发现的新知识所吸引。这使得我们不能忽视这样一个声音，从基础课程中为初学者创造条件。