CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE DA^E r^uE M. -_ ^>^; y / ^ r\r/^ - r 1Q7JI IW - Oetrt^ 13/4. J « GAYLORD PRINTED IN U 5 A. LB2361.F7°5"a2""'™""'"-"'™'^ ^iffiiMiiMiKKiil.?' "^^ college curriculum olin 3 1924 032 713 665 The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://archive.org/details/cu31924032713665 ADMINISTRATION OF THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM ADMINISTKATION OF THE COLLEGE CUKEICULUM BY WILLIAM T. |OSTER President of Reed College BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY ^ 3® « /If I ^4 2. COPYRIGHT, I9II, BY WILLIAM T. FOSTER ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 74 s PREFACE The chief movement in the history of the college curriculum in America is the break- down of prescribed programs through the evo- lution of the Elective System. Accordingly, this movement is the dominant interest in any study of the curriculum, historical or critical. A generation ago it was interesting to specu- late on what might happen if this principle of free choice should work its way down to the freshman year. Since then, opinions on this subject have lost their charm, for a vast body of actual experience now invites organization and interpretation. In the archives of Har- vard College alone are the records of nearly half a century of elective studies. Here is a well-equipped laboratory awaiting students of higher education. Interpreted by proper sta- tistical methods, these records can give guid- ance in the administration of the college cur- riculum beside which the opinion of any man, or any body of men, is insignificant. Yet such vi PREFACE records have not been asked to tell a tenth o£ what they know. The criticism of the Ameri- can college which has been so abundant of late has yielded a hundred opinions to one fact. It was the hope of increasing the proportion of fact — indeed, the urgent necessity for sci- entific guidance in pressing problems of ad- ministration — that prompted the following studies. If these studies merit considersttion, it is because they throw the light of history txpon present problems and venture few suggestions which are not based on the careful organiza* tion of facts. One of the studies alone em- bodies nearly 100,000 college grades, covering the total experience of 4311 college students under the Elective System at Harvard Colleg'e for fifteen years. Another study summarizes the data contained in the pubhcations of two hundred colleges, and is, so far as I know, the only comprehensive presentation of contem- porary practices in the administration of the curriculum. Here and there, in Chapters I, XI, XII, and XIV, I have used paragraphs whicih 1 recently wrote for Monroe's Cyclopedia of Education, PREFACE vii published by the Macmillan Company, and for the Educational Review, the School Review, Science, and the Nation. For some of the data used in these studies I am indebted to the officers o£ two hundred colleges. Especially I should acknowledge the help of Dean LeB. R. Briggs and Professor A. 0. Norton of Harvard University, Profes- sor V. P. Squires of the University of North Dakota, Professor W. G. Manly of the Uni- versity of Missouri, President C. H. Spooner of Norwich University, and the librarians of Bowdoin College. The men who read the manuscript have my gratitude, — President WiUiam DeWitt Hyde and Professor Charles T. Burnett of Bowdoin College, and President A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard University. Above all, I wish here to record my apprecia- tion of the generous help and the rare spirit of the men of Teachers College, Columbia University, to whom I dedicate as much of this volume as will bear their scrutiny. W. T. F. CONTENTS PART I — HISTORICAL I. Brief History of the College Curriculum IN THE United States 3 II. William Smith and the New Education in Pennsylvania 23 in. Thomas Jefferson and the Elective Sys- tem at the University of Virginia . . 37 IV. George Ticknor and the Beginnings of the Elective System at Harvard College . 65 V. Contemporary Reforms at Other Colleges 85 VI. The Evolution of the Elective System at Harvard College 110 Vn. The Evolution of the Elective System in the Small College 129 Vin. Breakdown op the Frescbibed Regime . 143 PART n — CRITICAL IX Present Requirements fob the A. B. De- gree 159 X. Concentration and Distribution of Studies 176 X CONTENTS XI. Relation between College Studies and Success m Life 200 XII, Counting Quality as well as Quantity FOR College Degrees 233 XIII. The Need or a Scientific Distribution of College Credits 250 XIV. Our Democratic American College : Some Conditions affecting the Administra- tion OF ITS Curriculum 304 Bibliography 341 Appendixes 351 Index 387 ILLUSTRATIONS rAoa FiQUBE 1. Bowdoin College, classes of 1890 and 1909. Showing degrees of specializa- tion in the electives of classes twenty yeais apart 189 FiGUBE 2. Showing per cent of honor students and of other stadents at Harvard Col- lege, classes 1886 to 1900, who took snap courses. (See Tahle XV) . . 219 FiGUEE 3. Showing per cent of men taking mainly elementary courses. (See Ta- ble XV) 219 FiGiTBE 4. Showing per cent of stadents at Har- vard College, classes 1886 to 1900, who dropt the classics after Freshman year. (See Table XV) 221 FiGUKE 5. Showing per cent of students who dropt the classics on entering college. (See Table XV) 221 FiaUBB 6. Showing per cent of students at Har- vard College, classes 1886 to 1900, who showed marked specialization as early as Sophomore year. (See Table XV) 223 xu ILLUSTRATIONS FiGUHB 7. Showing per cent of students who specialized in mathematics. (See Tar ble XV) 223 FiGUEB 8. Showing average number of courses taken in each subject in Harvard Col- lege by the honor men for twenty years in the Harvard law and med- ical schools, compared with the same facts for other men. (See Figures 9 and 10 and Table XVI) .... 227 FiGUKE 9. Showing (A) the relation between sub- jects studied in college and success in law school; and (B) the relation be- tween scholarship standing in college and success in law school. (See Table XVI) 229 Figure 10. Showing (A) the relation between sub- jects studied in college and success in medical school ; and (B) the relation between scholarship standing in col- lege and success in medical school. (See Table XVI) 231 Figure 11. Showing the distribution of the Grades A, B, and C, in the largest elementary courses in Harvard College, 1903- 1904. (See Table XVH) .... 253 Figure 12. Showing the distribution of the Grades D and E in the elementary courses in- ILLUSTRATIONS mi eluded in Figure 11, for Harvard Col- lege, 1903-1904. (See Table XVII) . 255 FiQUHE 13. Showing the distribution of the Grades A and B for the courses in group II (Intermediate) in Harvard College, 1904-1905. (See Table XVni) . . 257 FiGtTBE 14. Showing the distribution of Grades C, D, and E for the courses shown in Figure 13, for Harvard College, 1904- 1905. (See Table XVIU) .... 259 FiGUBE 15. Showing how the Grades A and B, at Harvard College, vary in different courses for the same year, and in the same courses for difEerent years. (See Table XXI) 261 FiGTJBE 16. Distribution of Grade A, of Grade B, and of Grades A and B, at Bowdoin College, by each instructor giving over 100 grades in 1907-1908 .... 263 Figure 17. Distribution of Grades C, D, and E at Bowdoin CoUege in 1907-1908 by each instructor giving over 100 grades 265 FiGUEE 18. University of California. Distribution of first grades and of conditions in 1906, showing the proportion of highest and of lowest grades given by each depart- ment having over 50 students . . . 267 DY ILLUSTRATIONS FxGUJSB 19. A. Form of distribution of the surface of frequency of the normal proba- bility integral 275 B. Theoretical distribution of grades. (Cattell) 275 C. Distribution of 15,275 grades by the College Entrance Examination Board, in 1904 275 J). Memory span for digits of 123 American women students. (Thorn- dike) ..... 276 FiGDEE 20. Heavy blapk curve showing a theo- retically defensible distribution of col- lege grades in accord with the nor- mal surface of frequency, as shown in Figure 19, A. The curves for the mean and extreme distribution of grades at Bowdoin College are given for comparison 279 Figure 21. Showing the distribution of grades in elementary, intermediate, and ad- vanced courses in Haryard College. The heavy curve shows how close to normal is the distribution of 8969 grades in elementary courses. (See Table XX) 277 ADMINISTRATION OF THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM PART I HISTORICAL CHAPTER I BRIEF HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE CDEEICTILUM IN THE UNITED STATES The origin of the American college as the one distinctively American educational type, and the complex problems that confront that institution to-day in the administration of its curriculum, cannot be understood apart from their historical setting. With the early Renais- sance in Europe came the university, with its four departments, — the arts course and the professional schools of law, medicine and theology. The Arts course, of which the American college is the lineal descendant, was everywhere regarded as preparatory to profes- sional studies. Its purpose was to lay a broad and general foundation for the specialized studies of the higher faculties. Not long after the close of the Middle Ages, a modification of the Arts course began which has continued to the present day. The ele- mentary studies were gradually crowded down 4 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM Into the programs of preparatory institutions and more advanced studies took their places. The trivium — grammar, rhetoric and dialec- tic — which at first led to the B. A. degree, was gradually relegated to a new type of school which developed to prepare students for the Arts course. But even after the Re- naissance and the Reformation had thus af- fected the trivium, the Arts course retained its distinct relationship to the professional schools. The Renaissance, with the ideal of culture for its own sake, left a lasting humanistic im- pression on the old Arts course. The wider vision of learning regarded the college course no longer as a mere preparation for the study of three traditional professions, but rather as a liberal training leading directly to effective participation in scores of new activities. With the Reformation in Germany came changes which led to a new type of univer- sity, and eventually to a school system with no intermediate institution comparable to the early Arts course. Gradually the college with its dormitory system and secluded life disap- peared, and in the commercial towns of Ger- HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM 5 many the modern type of university developed. At the same time several new types of pre- paratory schools were founded, which grad- ually grew into the modern gymnasia with courses leading directly to the universities. This was not, however, without periods of tran- sition characteristic of the origins of schools in all countries. The new type of preparatory school edged its way in between the old gram- mar school and the Arts course, overlapping in both directions. After a long period, during which the fields of the several types of insti- tutions were but vaguely defined, a line was drawn in the nineteenth century between the gymnasium and the university, leaving to the former virtually the entire Arts course of the early universities. Thus the German uni- versity abandoned the old ideal of liberal edu- cation and general mental discipUne in favor of specialized technical training. The Eeformation in England had no such effect on English higher schools. The col- leges of the English universities, with their separate buildings, organizations and com- munity life, were so firmly established, so fortified by tradition, so safe from the en- 6 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM croacbments of state secondary schools, that they have survived, with insignificant changes, even the loud demands of modern times. In- stead of the somewhat antagonistic gymnasia, there arose in England the great Public Schools — such as Winchester, Eton, Rugby — dominated by the universities and in full sympathy with them. Thus the English col- lege has retained as its aim the training of the faculties for use in all the needs of life, — its ideal a liberal rather than a technical edu- cation. It was this Arts course and this ideal that the early settlers sought to transplant in America, and here almost at once began the old world custom of crowding down the ele- mentary subjects into the programs of the lower schools. From the founding of Harvard College in 1636 to the present day, this pro- cess has continued. Toward the end of the eighteenth century, it resulted in the establish- ment of the Academy, an intermediate school between the colleges and the old Latin gram- mar schools. The Academy repeated the his- tory of its prototype in Europe. It took over more and more of the work of the early col- HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM 7 lege ; and the college responded, at first rather reluctantly, to the constant pressure to add new subjects to its curriculum. When the prescribed course was found to give the stu- dent a little of everything and not much of anything, the overloaded curriculum broke down of its own weight. Then the Elective System evolved as a means of relief and helped to continue the process that had been going on for centuries. Inevitably the average age of graduation from college was increased by several years, demands came for a shorten- ing of the college course, and the whole ques- tion of the place of the College of Liberal Arts in American life became one of increas- ing importance. Meantime the most significant influence on the college from below has been the growth of public high schools. Under independent municipal management and enthusiastic pub- lic support; responding more and more to the demands for practical education ; of recent years conscious of its power and throwing ofE the pernicious shackles of college control; reaching farther and farther into the domain once held by the college alone, the public 8 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM high school has produced in America a situa- tion similar in some respects to the one which in Germany long ago resulted in the elimina- tion of the Arts course as a separate institu- tion. From above two movements have come to fill out the parallel: first, the establishment of many professional schools with high school graduation as the standard for admission; and, second, the development of graduate schools of Arts under the influence of German universities. Inevitably the old English Arts course and the new German Arts course, with conflicting ideals, have produced some con- fusion wherever they have been placed side by side in the same institution. Few adminis- trators have seen clearly the distinct sphere and function of each type of Arts course. The result has been what is called the invasion of the Liberal Arts course by professional studies. Inevitably the college within the university has suffered by this confusion with graduate schools. It has failed to keep its distinct sphere, to retain a faculty of ablest men devoted pri- marily to its needs, or to develop a pedagogy of its own made imperative by changing con- HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM 9 ditions of size of classes, curriculum and social needs. All of these historical movements, ex- cept the development in America of the gradu- ate Arts course under German influence, have affected alike the college within the university, whether under state or private control, and the isolated small college. Out of it all the great problem of the college has come insist- ently to the front. The early years of the twentieth century mark a period of trial and transition for the college, the outcome of which is not yet evident. From the founding of Harvard College in 1636 to the Revolutionary War, the college curriculum in America was for the most part a faithful following of the studies that had been pursued in English universities by the promoters of higher education in the new world. As late as 1764 the influence of the mother country is shown in the Charter of Brown University, which impowers the insti- tution to " Confer any and all the Learned Degrees which can or ought to be given and conferred in any of the Colleges and Univer- sities in America, Europe and particularly in the University of Cambridge, and Edinburgh 10 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM in Great Britain." The avowed object of all these colleges, on both sides of the Atlantic, was to raise up a body of learned men, espe- cially men for the Christian Ministry. The laws of President Dunster of Harvard, adopted in 1642, and now preserved in the archives of the university in the President's own handwriting, indicate the scope of the first college curriculum in America. The docu- ment opens as follows : (Translation of the Latin original, as published in The College Curriculum m the United States, by Louis F. Snow) : " Every scholar that on proof is found able to translate the original of the Old and New Testament into the Latin tongue, and to resolve them logically, and shall be imbued with the beginnings of natural and moral philosophy, withal being of honest life and conversation, and at any public act hath the approbation of the Overseers and Master of the College, may be invested with his first de- gree ; but no one wiU expect this degree un- less he shall have passed four years in college and has maintained therein a blameless life and has sedulously observed all public exercises." In advocating the change from the three- HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM 11 year course with which the college started to a four-year course, President Dunster is at pains to point out that the scholars will not thus remain in our college one minute longer before they become M. A. than ordinarily they do in all the Cambridge colleges in England. The requirements for the degree of Baccalaureate in Arts at this time read : " The first year shall teach Ehetoric, second and third years Dialectics, and the fourth year shall add Phi- losophy. ... In this course of four years each one shall dispute twice in his public schools and shall respond twice in his own class ; which if he performs, and is found worthy after the regular examination, he shall become an A. B." This was the curriculum of Oxford and Cambridge which all but one of the American colleges sedulously followed dur- ing the period of colonial dependence, and the influence of which survives to-day in our oldest institutions. The curriculum was itself a heritage of the ancient trivium (grammar, rhetoric and dialectic) and quadrivium (arith- metic, geometry, music and astronomy). In- fluenced by the Church, however, the cur- riculum at Cambridge, England, in the early 12 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM years of the college at Cambridge, Massachu- setts, had become little more than Latin and Greek, -with much drill and disputation in Aristotelian logic and philosophy, to which were added some elementary mathematics and a few scraps of physical science. The first college curriculum in America, as published in New England's First Fruits, re- veals a three-year course, as follows : — (1) Mondays and Tuesdays : Philosophy, com- prising logic and physics for the first year, ethics and politics for the second year, arithmetic, geometry and astronomy for the third year. For each morning, theory ; for each afternoon, practice in philoso- phical disputations. (2) Wednesdays: Greek for all classes. For the first year, etymology and syntax, with afternoon practice in the rules of gram- mar; for the second year, prosody and dialectics, with practice in poesy after dinner ; for the third year, more Greek in theory and practice. (3) Thursdays: theory of Hebrew, Chaldee, and Syriac grammar with practice in cor- responding Biblical texts. HISTORY OP THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM 13 (4) Fridays: rhetoric, with English compo- sition and declamation. (5) Saturdays : mornings, " Divinity Catechet- icall" and "Common Places," i. e. scho- lastic disputations; afternoons, history in the winter, nature of plants in the summer. This curriculum of President Dunster re- mained substantially unchanged during the entire seventeenth century. Yale owed its early curriculum to Harvard and, in turn, passed it on to Princeton. For nearly a century after the founding of Har- vard, there was no important change in the studies. Then Yale received some "valuable philosophical apparatus " : surveying instru- ments, a telescope, a microscope, a barometer. This was the humble beginning of the scien- tific studies which, just a century later, were to demand a curriculum of their own, parallel to the classical course and leading to the B. S. degree. During the middle of the eighteenth cen- tury, we find some provision for the study of chemistry, astronomy, geography, algebra, trig- onometry, conic sections and fluxions. Benja- 14 THE COLLEGE CUKRICULUM min Franklin's gift of electrical apparatus is received at Yale, and James Bowdoin's " gen- erous donation of an Orrery" at Harvard. French is now and then permitted as an extra course. But divinity, supported by Hebrew, remains the crowning study of the curriculum ; and the General Assembly of Connecticut, in 1753, declares anew "that one principal end proposed in erecting the college was to supply the churches in this Colony with a learned, pious and orthodox Ministry." Up to this time the new world seems content with the meagre curriculum of the old world. The new ideals and the new studies were to come with the breakdown of traditions in the Revo- lutionary period, the consciousness of national life and the need of training for citizenship. The announcement of King's College (now Columbia University) in 1754 heralded a broader course of study. Children are to be taught not only goodness, but " such useful knowledge as may render them creditable to their Families and Friends, Ornaments to their Country and useful to the public Weal in their Generations. ... As to Religion, there is no intention to impose on the Schollars, HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM 15 the peculiar Tenets of any particular Sect." About this time William Smith drew up his General Idea of the College of Mirania, the first independent effort in America to con- struct a logical curriculum and the first clear statement of the modern aim of good and ef&cient citizenship. The author of this enlightened plan was elected First Provost of the " Academy " in Philadelphia. There, in 1756, he secured the adoption of a liberal scheme of studies. It included not only the classics and elementary mathematics, but surveying, navigation, dialing and EucHd. In the third year came ethics and physics, the laws of nations, government, trade and commerce. Physics included mechanics and experimental philosophy, astronomy, nat- ural history, chemistry and agriculture. For private hours readings were recommended in a wide range of subjects. Throughout the three years of the course the professional needs of theologians, of first importance in the contemporary curricula of Harvard, Yale and Princeton, were at Philadelphia subordinated to the practical needs of all students. William and Mary College, from its foun- 16 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM dation in 1693 to the Revolution, had virtu- ally the Oxford curriculum. In 1779 came radical changes. That year, Thomas Jefferson became governor of Virginia and one of the Visitors of the College. He says, " I effected during my residence in Williamsburg that year a change in the organization of that in- stitution, abolishing the grammar school and the two Professorships of Divinity and Orien- tal Languages, and substituting a Professor- ship of Law and Police, one of Anatomy, Medicine and Chemistry, and one of Modern Languages ; and the Charter confining us to six professorships, we added the Law of Na- ture and of Nations and the Fine Arts to the duties of the Moral Professor, and Natural History to the Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy." President Madison said, in 1780, "The Doors of ye University are open to all, nor is even a knowledge in ye ant. Languages a previous Requisite for En- trance." This liberal program of William and Mary, freed from the control of any particular sect, instituted by statesmen, dominated by the democratic ideals of the American Revolution, marks the close of the Colonial Period in HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM 17 the history of the college curriculiun in America. It must not be supposed, however, that there was any sudden and general expansion of college programs. Academic groups are too conservative to admit anything but the most gradual evolution. Even after the new light was brought from without to shine on the old college of WilHam and Mary, the program at Yale for the first three years of the course, as indicated by President Stiles's Memo- randa of November 29, 1783, was stiU mainly Latin, Greek and mathematics, although some time was given to Enghsh grammar, logic, geography, rhetoric and philosophy. In the senior year the Greek Testament was pre- scribed, with Locke's Human Understanding, Clap's Ethics and the occasional addition of such books as " Edwards on the Will." At Harvard, about this time, the first sig- nificant change in the colonial curriculum permits those who are not preparing for the ministry to take French instead of Hebrew. Before the close of the century considerable attention is given to scientific studies, begin- ning with a course of lectures on Natural 18 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM History for "such students as shall obtain permission under the hand of their parents or Guardians to attend." Even more liberal in its recognition of science and government is the course of study adopted at Columbia Uni- versity, though Princeton and Rhode Island College under its influence are not much affected by the new trend. Chemistry, the first science to attain a wor- thy place in the college curriculum, was first taught in the medical schools of Pennsylvania and Harvard. By 1820 the subject was in- cluded in the curriculum of nearly every Amer- ican college, covering several topics, such as heat and electricity, that were later differen- tiated under the name of physics. The decade 1820-1830, as we shall see later, marks a virtual renaissance in higher educa- tion in America. Most conspicuous in this movement is Thomas Jefferson and the Uni- versity of Virginia. Its program of studies was not only the most comprehensive of its time, but was the first university curriculum in America to be administered under a virtually complete Elective System. During this same decade, Rensselaer Polytechnic, the first tech- HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM 19 nical school in this country, was established, and economics found a place at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Bowdoin, Dartmouth and Princeton. American translations of Say's Political Economy and mathematical texts of Laplace and La Croie gave an impulse to these studies. Yet in this same decade Yale University gave its powerful influence to a retroactive movement. The report of its committee on a liberal course of study, published in 1827, pre- scribed every subject that a liberal education demanded, and attempted to place the entire curriculum on a basis of formal discipline and to fix it once and for all in final perfection. The doctrines of this Eeport not only hin- dered progress at Yale for many years but cramped college programs wherever the in- fluence of Yale was felt. Western Reserve College in Cleveland aimed to become the " Yale of the West," and many another little Yale preserved its conservative traditions in the West and South. It was in 1822 that William and Mary College established the first professorship in history. Such teaching of history as had long 20 THE COLLEGE CUBRICULUM been given by professors in the classics and in theology was unsystematic and subsidiary to the traditional college subjects. Even after Jared Sparks, in 1839, became the first pro- fessor of history at Harvard College, the sub- ject received but scant recogpiition in most colleges, and this as incidental to politics or philosophy. It was not until after the Civil War that Yale established a chair of history. The subjects oE history and economics, as we know them to-day in American colleges, are thoroughly modern. From the remarkable awakening of the third decade until the close of the Civil War, the development of the college curricula under the influence of such ideals was necessarily slow. The "new" ideas adopted at Cornell in 1867 were in essence those of the Amherst report of 1826. The whole period was one of conflict between the old doctrines and the Lehr und Lemfreiheit that inspired many an American student in Germany with a truly liberal idea of university study. If any date indicates roughly the final dominance of Ger- man ideals and the consequent beginnings of the modern period, it is the year 1869, when HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM 21 Charles William Eliot became President of Harvard University. As the dominant influ- ence on the early curricula was English, and later French, so the dominant influence during the latter half of the nineteenth century was German. Throughout the century the history of the college curriculum is the record of institutions, under conservative influences, forced by the growth of human knowledge and the demands of an increasingly complex civilization, to take up one new subject after an- other, and present them in more vital relations to present social, industrial and poUtical needs. It is in response to such felt needs, rather than in conformity with any theory of what should constitute a liberal education, that eco- nomics and sociology, in numerous branches, history, government and allied subjects, have such prominent places in the colleges of to- day. Courses in education, for example, were offered twenty-five years ago in barely half a dozen higher institutions; to-day they are found in nearly three hundred. Equally note- worthy during this period has been the devel- opment of college instruction in English lan- guage and literature. 22 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM In 1846, the Lawrence Scientific School was established at Harvard to offer a course parallel to the classical course and leading to the degree of B. S. From that time to the present day, at first slowly and then rapidly, scientific courses have taken their place in nearly all colleges. They have risen from sus- picion, and from the real inferiority of their beginnings, until to-day the problem in many institutions is to save the traditional A. B. course from being crowded out by the more practical scientific studies. The adoption of the laboratory method has quickened the study of the sciences that thus edged their way into the programs of a century ago, and at the same time has brought recognition to geology, biology and psychology. Finally, the general adoption of the Elect- ive System, with or without requirements for concentration and distribution of studies, has left the subject-matter of the curriculum open to indefinite development, unhampered by the protective tariffs imposed by the formal dis- cipline theorists of earlier days. CHAPTER II WILLIAM SMITH AND THE NEW EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA At the founding of King's College, an adver- tisement appeared in the New York Gazette or Weekly Post Boy announcing courses of study so comprehensive as virtually to herald the coming of the Elective System to any per- son who grasped the significance of the new trend in education. This advertisement, dated May 31, 1754, and signed by " Your real Friend And most humble Servant, Samuel Johnson," declared that " a serious, virtuous, and industrious Course of Life being first provided for, it is further the Design of this College to instruct and perfect the Youth in the Learned Languages, and in the Arts of reasoning exactly, and writing correctly, and speaking eloquently ; and in the Arts of numbering and measuring, of Surveying and Navigation, of Geography anA History, of Husbandry, Commerce and Government, and in the Knowledge of all Nature in the Heavens above us, and in the Air, Water, and Earth around us, and in the various kinds 24 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM of Meteors, Stones, Mines, and Minerals, Plants, and Animals, and of every Thing useful for the Comfort, the Convenience and Elegance of Life, in the chief Manufactures relating to any of these Things ; And, finally, to lead them from the Study of Nature to the Knowledge of themselves, and of the God of Nature, and their Duty to him, themselves and one another, and every Thing that can contribute to their true Happiness, both here and hereafter." Some time before the institution that was to become Columbia University was actually started, a group of promoters of a college for the Province of New York had in mind an institution of higher learning quite different from Harvard and Yale with their meagre offerings for prospective ministers. The plans for the proposed college are set forth, with a completeness and breadth hitherto unknown in America, in a pamphlet called the General Idea of the College of Mirania.^ At the out- set this prospectus declared that there are two great classes of people to be educated by our colleges ; first, those designed for the learned professions, and, second, those designed for the mechanical professions and all the remain- W. Smith, Discourses on Public Occasions in America, London, 1762. Second edition. Appendix II, No. 1. NEW EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA 25 ing people of the country. ' Having thus enun- ciated a principle that shocked both Cambridge and New Haven, this pioneer pamphlet con- tinued with a statement of educational doctrine that contained, potentially, the plan of volun- tary study — a plan, we may note in passing, that just a century later was vigorously op- posed by President Sparks at Harvard through both the Corporation and the Faculty. This plan further declares that "Any scheme, that either proposes to teach both these grand classes after the same manner, or is wholly calculated for one of them, without regarding the other, must be very defective. And yet so it is, that public seminaries are almost universally calculated for the first class ; while a collegiate school for the instruction of the latter is rarely met with. This class of people, by far the most numerous, and also the hands and strength of every government, are overlooked, and have nothing but this al- ternative left them, either to be satisfied with what small portion of the arts and sciences they can glean at private schools, or to go • W. Smith, Discourses on Public Occasions in America, p. 47. First published, 1753. 26 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM through a course of learning at colleges for which they have neither time nor use." The curriculum of the College of Mirania is next set forth. This plan of studies is so comprehensive that had any attempt been made to carry it into efEect as a prescribed course, it would have fallen down of its own weight. As no human being could have pur- sued half of its subjects in any reasonable number of years, the principle of election would have been the only possible relief. In- deed, the Miranians seem to have had some inkling of the impossibility of realizing their liberal plan according to the prevailing custom of requiring all students to take all the courses offered ; for the General Idea provides mas- ters of French, Italian, Spanish, German and Fencing, with the proviso that no student is obliged to attend any of these courses. These were to be "extra" studies. It is clear that the Miranians, although they devised a plan of study that could have been administered only on the elective principle, had nevertheless no clear conception of that principle. An "extra" study was permitted in this same decade even at Harvard College. This is NEW EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA 27 mentioned by Paine Wingate, of the class of 1759, in a letter about the course in Hebrew, Mr. Monis, he says, " attended to the instruc- tion of the scholars one afternoon in the week, but none were compelled to attend who did not choose to learn Hebrew, and but a small portion of the scholars paid any attention to his instruction, as a correct reading of Hebrew, according to Mr. Monis' s rule of pronunciar tion, required considerable time and study." ' It has been inferred from this letter that "at the time that Mr. Wingate was in college, He- brew seems to have become well-nigh what was afterwards known as an elective study." ^ There is, however, an important difference between such "extra" subjects, which students were allowed to take up in addition to their required work, and " elective " subjects, in the modern sense of the word, which students may substi- tute on even terms for subjects formerly pre- scribed. It is only in this modern sense that ' Benjamin Pierce, in writing his history of Harvard Col- lege, secured letters regarding the Course of Study from E. A. Holyoke, of the class of 1746, and Paine Wiiigate, of the class of 1759. ■^ L. F. Snow, The College CuTriculum in the United States, J. 60, 28 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM the term "elective" will be here employed. Almost all American colleges introduced such "extra" subjects, in an apologetic way, long before they were ready to adopt the elective principle. But these "extra" subjects have never commanded academic respect, or the time devoted to the credited courses, until such extra subjects have become " electives " in the modern sense. Indeed, nearly every subject in the university catalogues of to-day, from Greek to Bookkeeping, began its career as a merely tolerated and uncredited side-study, or as the ofEering of some more or less despised private and unchartered enterprise. Although the curriculum of the College of Mirania, Hke that of many a modern institu- tion, never got beyond the paper stage, yet the author of this cathohc scheme, William Smith, did have an opportunity to put into practice some of his remarkably progressive ideas. He became the first Provost of that " Academy " in Philadelphia which is now the University of Pennsylvania. Under the energetic leader- ship of this inspired young clergyman from England, the institution at once acquired dig- nity and definiteness of aim, and announced a NEW EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA 29 systematic course of study that prevailed from 1756 to the Revolution. This course of study is virtually the Mira- nian plan adapted to the practical requirements of a three-year course. Realizing the absurdity of the prevailing idea of " completing " an education at college, and the impossibility of demanding of all students in a three-years' course every subject in a long list of equally valuable subjects, the new Provost seems on the point of enunciating and practicing the Elective System over a century ahead of his time. Instead, he adopted the alternative of placing in parallel columns the prescribed studies and those for "private hours, — books recommended for improving the youth in various branches." In his account of the Academy at PhHadelphia, 1762 (p. 126), WU- liam Smith said : "As to the plan of educa- tion, great care has been taken to comprehend every useful branch of it, -without being bur- densome, or launching into those that are un- necessary." Quite apart from the books recom- mended for private hours, however, the schedule was too extensive to be required of all students without danger of the superficial results that 80 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM later condemned all such ambitious prescribed programs of study. To this schedule, he added the following explanation : — Concerning the foregoing plan, it is to be remarked that life itself being too short to attain a perfect ac- quaintance with the whole circle of the sciences, nothing can be proposed by any scheme of collegiate education, but to lay sach a general foundation in all the branches of literature, as may enable the youth to perfect them- selves in those particular parts, to which their business or genius may afterwards lead them, and scarce any- thing has more obstructed the advancement of sound learning, than a vain imagination, that a few years, spent at college, can render youth such absolute mas- ters of science, as to absolve them from all future study. Those concerned in the management of this semi- nary, as far as their influence extends, would wish to propagate a contrary doctrine ; and though they flatter themselves that, by a due execution of the foregoing plan, they shall enrich their country with many minds, that are liberally accomplished, and send out none that may be justly denominated barren, or unimproved; yet they hope, that the youth committed to their care, will neither at college, nor afterwards, rest satisfied with a general knowledge, as is to be acquired from the public lectures and exercises. They rather trust that those, whose taste is once formed for the acquisition of solid NEW EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA 31 ■wisdom, will think it their duty and most rational satis- faction, to accomplish themselves still further, by manly perseverance in private study and meditation. . . . No doubt, those who compare this plan with what is laid down in the preceding essay, will think the terra of three years too scanty a period for the execution of every- thing here proposed. And it must be acknowledged that a longer period would be necessary. The significance of this program in the his- tory of the college curriculum in America may be seen by comparing the senior studies pro- vided at Philadelphia in 1756 ' with the senior studies provided just a century later at Cam- bridge, Massachusetts. In 1856, French was again made an "extra" study at Harvard, two of the three subjects Latin, Greek and mathematics were required throughout the Junior year, and at the same time the number of studies that a Senior or Junior could elect and receive credit for on the college books was reduced from two to one. In 1862, the elective studies of Senior year were limited to Latin, Greek, mathematics and advanced Italian. ' W. Smith, Discourses, pp. 116-117. Appendix IV, " An Account of the College and Academy of Philadelphia." THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM SENIOR YEAR STUDIES At Philadelphia, 1756 At Cambridge, 1856 Ethics Natural and Ciyil Law Civil History Laws and GoTemment Trade and Commerce Light and Colours Optics, etc. Ferspectire Astronomy Natural History of Vegetables Natural History of Animals Chemistry Of Fossils Chemistry of Agriculture N. B. Through all the French may be studied at leisure hours Greek Latin English composition Declamation Holy Bible recommended to be read daily Declamation in Moral Subjects Philosophy acts held History Constitutional Law Political Economy Physics Anatomy and Zodhgy Geology German Greek Latin or Spanish Rhetoric, Themes, English Language Declamation Italian Religious Instruction " Ejrtra " subjects in italics. NEW EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA 33 The liberality of this Philadelphia plan of studies and the sharpness of its departure from New England conceptions of the college course are further emphasized by contrast with the views of President Clap of Yale. The very year following the publication of William Smith's plan for the College of Mirania, the projected institution for the Province of New York, President Clap of Yale set forth in his Reli- gious Constitution of Colleges {1154^) the early colonial idea of a college education in its nar- rowest form. "Colleges," he said, "are Reli- gious Societies, of a Superior Nature to all others. For whereas Parishes, are Societies, for training up the Common People ; Col- leges, are Societies of Ministers, for training up persons for the Work of the Ministry. . . . Some indeed, have supposed, that, the only design of Colleges, was to teach the Arts, and Sciences. . . . But it is probable, that there is not a College, to be found upon Earth, upon such a Constitution." Provost Smith tells us that his plan of stud- ies was faithfully carried out in its details ; the note books of his own lectures sbow that the instruction in Natural and Moral Philosophy 34 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM was given as scheduled ; and his great grand- son assures us that this curriculum was adopted by James Madison in 1776 for the College of William and Mary.' Any person, however, who has looked into the abundant first-hand ma- terial concerning the long and active interest of Thomas Jefferson in the cause of higher education in America is ready to inquire whether the credit for the reformed curricu- lum of William and Mary may not belong, as Jefferson said, to Jefferson himself. Indeed, to Thomas Jefferson we must now turn as the most interesting figure in the early history of the Elective System in America, — to Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declara- tion of Independence of American colleges from the traditional prescribed systems of Ox- ford and Cambridge. President Madison, in a letter to President Stiles of Yale, August 27, 1780, gives an ac- count of the College of William and Mary from the beginning in 1693 to the reformation of 1779. He says that the Professorship of Divin- ity has been abolished. " It was formerly insti- ' H. M. Smith, Life and Correspondence of Bev, William Smith, D. D., vol. i, p. 124. NEW EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA 35 tuted for ye purpose of ye Church of England, wh. was here established, but it is now thought that Establishments in Favr. of any particular sect are incompatible with ye Freedom of a Republic." The next sentence strikes like a thunderbolt into the petrified old-world col- lege customs that had up to this time shackled the college curriculum of the new world : " The Doors of ye University are open to all, nor is even a knowledge in ye ant. Languages a pre- vious Requisite for Entrance. The Students have ye liberty of attending whom they please, and in what order they please, or all ye diffr. Lectures in a term if they think proper. The time of taking Degrees was formerly ye same as in Cambridge, but now depends upon ye Qualifications of ye candidate. He has a cer- tain course pointed out for his first Degree, and also for ye next. When Master of Either, ye Degree is conferred." Although this new plan of studies for the College of William and Mary was not the Elect- ive System as we now understand it, — since certain courses were pointed out for certain degrees, — yet the gates of the college were opened wide; and while the Revolutionary 36 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM forces were achieving political freedom on the battlefield, academic freedom was achieved in the field of higher education. For at William and Mary, at least one of the principles was recognized that Thomas JefBerson at this time formulated and later realized more effectively in the University of Virginia. Where can we find the origin of the idea ? Shall we credit the words of the biographer of William Smith, his own great-grandson, that Jefferson owed the idea to Smith? If so, we shall have to overlook the total absence of any evidence that Jefferson ever heard of Smith's program. Yet Jefferson wrote and talked at length of numerous other plans for higher education that he had examined with care, and he was always frank and generous in recognition of whatever seemed to him good. It is highly improbable that Jefferson felt, and failed to credit, the influence of Dr. Smith. Moreover, as we have seen, the writings of the author of Mirania give nowhere a clear expression of the elective principle that was potentially car- ried by his extensive plans of study. We must look elsewhere for the origin of Jefferson's ideas on higher education. CHAPTER III THOMAS JEFFERSON AND THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM AT THE UNIVEESITT OF VIRGINIA It was at Williamsburg, at the College of William and Mary, that Thomas Jefferson, of Albemarle, the son of a Virginia planter, re- ceived his early ideas of higher education. And the first efforts of his life-long struggle for the establishment of a university were directed toward the transformation of William and Mary College into a state university. This memorable college of the Church of England, next to Harvard the oldest college in America, enjoyed the services of Jefferson who, as Gov- ernor of Virginia, was one of the Visitors of its college. But this staid old institution, mod- eled on the inflexible Oxford type, and ow- ing allegiance to an established Church, could hardly have inspired Jefferson with his ideas of academic breadth and freedom. Even after the reformation that Jefferson helped to bring about, the student at William and Mary, as 38 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM we have already observed, had a certain course pointed out for his first degree, and also for his second. Nor could Jefferson's ideas have reached him through Harvard, Yale or Prince- ton, — all of them at that time slavish fol- lowers of the English type of university.^ We must look rather to the influence of European institutions. It is certain that Jefferson was living in Paris at the very time that the ChevaUer ' The curriculum for the B. A. Course at Cambridge Uni- versity (Trinity College) at this time, as given by M. Ru»- sel in his View of the System of Education . . . of Scotland, Appendix I (Edinburgh, 1813), was as follows : — I. (1) Term A Greek play and Euclid. (2) " A Greek prose author, algebra and arith- metic. (3) " Some Latin author and plane trigonometry. II. (1) " Mechanics. (2) " Spherical trigonometry, conic sections, the gospel of St. Luke, Locke, and Faley. (3) " Astronomy. III. Frincipia of Newton, fluxions and increments, higher parts of algebra, arithmetic of sines. This is the prescribed range for the lectures. There are lectures on chemistry, mineralogy, theology, on ciyil law, on domestic medicine, on Arabic, on experimental philosophy, on modern history, on the laws of England. The attendance on these lectures is optional. THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM IN VIRGINIA 39 Quesnay de Beaurepaire, inspired with the enthusiasm of a Lafayette for this young country, conceived the brilliant scheme of es- tablishing in the capital of Virginia a kind of French Academy of Arts and Sciences, with branches in all the principal cities of the new world.' Quesnay succeeded in securing sub- scriptions from nearly a hundred of the lead- ing men of Virginia ; and, although Jeffer- son's name does not appear on the list of first subscribers, his name was conspicuously used by the promoters of the Academy throughout the United States. Jefferson certainly favored the idea. It had much in common with the project for a state university in Virginia to which he later gave such devotion ; and the boldness of the Chevalier's design for scatter- ing French culture and science broadcast through the American wilderness is recalled ^ A more comprehensive account of the services of Thomas Jefferson to higher education is given in Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia, by Herbert B. Adams, which is Circular of Information No. 1, 1888, of the United States Bureau of Education. Almost equally valuable is the same author's College of William and Mary ; a contribution to the history of higher education, United States Bureau of Educa- tion ; Circular of Information No. 1, 1887. See also the Bibliography in the Appendix of this volume. 40 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM when, after the failure of the French plan, we find JefEerson urging the first President of the Republic to support his astounding scheme for uprooting the entire faculty of the Academy of Geneva and planting it in the State of Virginia.' It would be interesting to speculate on the possible results, had the proposed Academy of the United States of America for the dif- fusion of French influence been established according to the liberal plans of its pro- jectors. It is sufficient for our purposes to note that the very year after the publication of Quesnay's pamphlet,^ the French Revolu- * Writings, ix, 291, 297. The letter from JefEerson to Washington, the original of which is in the government col- lection, is reproduced in the Writings, six, 108. ^ Memoire, Statuts et Prospectus concernant VAcademie de$ Sciences et Beaux-Arts des iStats-Unis de VAmerique, etahlie a Richemond, capitale de la Virginie ; prhentes a Leurs Majea- th, et a la Famille Royale, par le Chevalier Quesnay de Beau- repaire. A Paris, de I'lmprimerie de Cailleau, Imprimenr de 1' Academic de Richemond, rue Gallande, No. 64, 1788, 118 pp. Professor Adams says of this valuable source, " If it had not been for one copy of Quesnay's Memoir, picked up years afterward among the drift-wood of the Revolutionary period by President Andrew D. White, it is doubtful whether the project for a French academy in Richmond would have THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM IN VIRGINIA 41 tion broke out in all its mad fury ; and in its rapacious grave, along with many another bright hope, was buried the prospect for a French Academy of Arts and Sciences in America. And so it happens that the main chapter in a history of the New Education in America must concern itself with the found- ing of the University of Virginia. As that in- stitution is said to be " the lengthened shadow of one man," so it is true that the Elect- ive System in American higher education is the lengthened shadow of that same Thomas Jefferson. The extent of French influence on Jeffer- son's ideas is difficult to estimate. He himself tells us that he met in Paris some of the Geneva teachers and other leading represent- atives of French university culture. During his study of the universities of Europe from 1784 to 1789, Jefferson at first thought Rome the most attractive of them all. After his meeting with Swiss professors, he came to re- gard Geneva as the type most worthy of imi- tation. He called Edinburgh and Geneva " the found its present place in the educational history of Vir- ginia." 42 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM two eyes of Europe." * It was in 1794 that the faculty of Geneva, through Jefferson, endeav- ored to secure the cooperation of the Vir- ginia legislature in a project for moving the College bodily to America. Although the ardor of Jefferson for this impractical scheme was somewhat cooled by the sensible objec- tions of Washington, there is no doubt that Jefferson was deeply impressed with French institutions. This much is certain : Quesnay's proposed " Schools" of higher learning, which received the favor of Jefferson, so nearly cov- ered the main departments of a twentieth cen- tury university that the studies could have been administered only on some kind of an elective basis. Furthermore, the whole idea tended toward the liberal principles that Jefferson embodied, nearly two score years later, in the first plan of study at Charlottesville. Finally, ' Writings, xix, 109. In 1795 he wrote to Washington, " The colleges of Geneva and Edinburgh were considered as the two eyes of Europe in matters of Science, insomuch that no other pretended to any rivalship with either." See also Writings, ix, 291. la 1791, JefEerson wrote to Mr. McAlister, " With respect to the schools of Europe my mind is perfectly made up, and on full inquiry. The best in the world is Edinburgh." THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM IN VIRGINIA 43 it is significant that Jefferson, on his return from Paris, abandoned all hope of instilling new life into the decrepit College of William and Mary. After his return from France, Jefferson de- clined to cooperate with De la Coste, a French scientist, and Joseph Cabell, in their attempts to provide the College of William and Mary with a museum of natural history. Through his private secretary, Jefferson advised Cabell in 1807 as follows : " Instead of wasting your time in attempting to patch up a decaying institution, direct your efforts to a higher and more valuable object. Found a new one which shall he worthy of the first State in the Union. This may, this certainly wUl one day be done; and why not now ? You may not succeed in one session, or in two, but you will succeed at last." Later he wrote to Dr. Cooper : " The long and lingering decline of William and Mary, the death of its last president, its loca- tion and climate, force on us the wish for a new institution more convenient to our coun- try generally, and better adapted to the pre- sent state of science." Among the sources of French influence 44 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM upon the university ideas of Thomas Jefferson must be included a work on National Edu- cation in the United States, completed near New York in 1800 and published in Paris. The author, Dupont de Nemours, said that he wrote the treatise at the request of Jeffer- son, then Vice-President of the United States. The comprehensive plan of education devel- oped in this treatise breaks away from the traditional college organization, with its four faculties of theology, law, medicine and phi- losophy. The new plan provides for a grand system of education, national in its scope and control, from elementary schools to the highest types of technical and professional schools. It contemplates a system of centralized adminis- tration of education that this country is as far from attaining in the present century as it was at the beginning of the last century. And yet, profoundly interested as Jefferson must have been in the plan of Dupont de Nemours, the influence of this writer on Jefferson's views has probably been overestimated.' Be- fore 1800, Jefferson himself had outlined ' John B. Minor, in the Old Dominion Magazine, March 15, 1870. But cf . Jefierson's letters to Dr. Joseph Priestly. THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM IN VIRGINIA 45 equally broad courses of university study. Furthermore, — and this is the point o£ our immediate interest, — neither in this French scheme of 1800, nor in the other sources of French influence, do we find any such expres- sion as Jefferson himself gave of the principle of unrestrained freedom of choice as applied to the undergraduate studies of the college curriculum. 1 Nor could Jefferson's radical views have been stimulated by his correspondence with such crabbed conservatives as Dr. Cooper and President Dwight, to whom he turned for ad- vice. The educational views of Dr. Thomas Cooper, then Professor of Chemistry in Car- lisle College, Pennsylvania, Jefferson seems to have held in higher regard than those of any other man in academic life, with the exception of Dr. Joseph Priestly.^ Yet Cooper, in a let- ter advising the Governor of Virginia about • F. Lot, L'enseignement superieure en France ; ce qu'il est et ce qu'il devrait etre. Paris, 1891. L. Laird, L'enseignement superieure en France : 1789-1893. Paris, 1888-94. 2 vols. L. von Savinguy, Die franzosischen Rechtsfakulldten. Ber- lin, 1891. * Writings, x, 141. 46 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM the plan of studies for the new university, says : " The basis of the system being clas- sical and mathematical knowledge, I should not fear for a young man who was well grounded in these alone." Nothing could be farther from the ideal of JefEerson. President Dwight proved an equally useless adviser. Verbosely evading JefEerson's questions, he sent a copy of the Yale Laws of 1816, adding that " here these laws have had a happy effi- cacy." Prescribed Latin, Greek and mathe- matics, with some moral philosophy, — this was virtually the suggestion of Yale's presi- dent to a man who was about to declare the independence of American institutions from the tyranny of that ancient Triumvirate. In view of the liberality of Jefferson's uni- versity ideas, it is easy to understand why he regarded Edinburgh as one of the eyes of Europe. The model for Edinburgh was the very institution that Jefferson had endeavored to transplant in America.. The Scottish Kirk still looked to Geneva as the fountain-head of its doctrine and discipline, — the same Geneva that had been the asylum for refugee Scottish THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM IN VIRGINIA 47 reformers from 1554 to 1560.i And the Uni- versity at Geneva in the eighteenth century became the leading French exponent of the German idea of university freedom. Halle, the first university to declare the principle of Ubertas philosophandi, of free research and instruction, had been founded in 1694.^ Got- tingen, which soon surpassed Halle, was founded in 1737. Meantime we find the same breakdown of mediaeval ideas in the Univer- sity of Edinburgh. Under the new Arts curriculum of 1708 at Edinburgh, the faculty became one of special- ized professors, in contrast to the class tutorial systems of English universities. There is also evidence of a reaction against the Procrustean uniformity of the old system, and the intro- duction even at this early date of Lehr-und Lern Freiheit,^ under which teaching and • A. Grant, Story of the University of Edinburgh, vol. i, p. 126. ^ In 1711, when Halle celebrated the birthday of its founder. Professor Gundling declared : Veritas adhuc in medio posita est ; qui potest, ascendat, qui andet, rapiat : et applaudemus. (Paulsen, German Universities.') ^ Paulsen defines Lernfreiheit (in German Universities, p. 201) as follows : " Freedom for the learner, Lernfreiheit, is the corollary of 48 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM learning came to be more desired than a fixed term of residence and graduation. * From 1778 onward, attendance at the Arts classes was purely voluntary. freedom for the teacher. As the latter is implied in the as- sutnption that the academic teacher is an independent in- vestigator, so the former is implied in the demand that the student be led on to independence of thought. And, like the Lehrfreiheit, the Lernfreiheit in German Universities is to- day as good as unlimited. The student selects for himself his instructors and course of study, as well as his university and his profession ; what lectures he shall attend, in what exer- cises he shall take part, depends entirely on his will ; there is no exertion of official influence, hardly so much as advice is griven him ; and he is at liberty to choose to attend no lec- tures and to do no work." Oesterley gives the current practice at Gottingen : " Der unschassbare Vorzug unsere deutscben UniversitS- ten, Freiheit im Lehren und im Lernen, ist in Gottingen unverkiimmert anfrecht erhalten. Jeder Lebrer kann in den Grenzen seiner Facultat, — bei Frivatdocenten mach Maas- gabe der ihnen ertheilten Befugniss — lehren was und in welohen Stunden er will und wenn auoh s. g. Nominal pro- fessoren ertheilt sind, so hindert dies andere Lebrer nicbt, iiher die dabin geborenden gegenstande zu lesen. Jedem Studirenden steht es frei, welcbe Yorlesungen und bei welchem Lebrer er sie horen will." Oesterley, Geschichte der Universitat GBltingen, p. 182. Gottingen, 1838. ' An article concerning the studies at Edinburgh was written by Colin Drummond in 1731, and printed in the Scots Magazine for 1829. Programs of the classes are given in Scots Magazine for 1741. THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM IN VIRGINIA 49 At the beginning of the nineteenth cen- tury Edinburgh was the leading exemplary in Great Britain of the Lernfreiheit and Lehr- freiheit that Halle and Gottingen had long practiced in Germany. Accordingly Edinburgh was roundly con- demned by scholars indoctrinated with the Oxford idea of a university education. We shall allow one of these contemporary scholars to tell us how Edinburgh appeared to him at the time it won such high favor with Jeffer- son. " The students at Edinburgh," said M. Russel ' in 1813, " are not subjected to com- pulsory attendance, or to a regulated plan of study, because such means are not reconed necessary for their improvement. . . . Every one is left to study, or not to study, just as his inclination, unaided and unprompted, shall direct him." After declaring that " there ' M. Bussel, View of the system of education . . . in tlie schools and universities of Scotland, pp. 162 ff., Edinburgh, 1813. John Moir. We know that Jefferson owned a copy of Russel's tract on the Universities of Great Britain and loaned it to Cabell. See also the approving reference to Edinburgh in the let- ter of Jefferson to Ticknor reproduced at the close of this chapter. 50 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM reigns an uninterrupted stagnation of animal spirits, an eternal sinecure within her -walls," the writer declares that, in unhappy contrast to the practices of other universities, the order in which the classes are attended at Edin- burgh " rests entirely with the students. . . . The jurisdiction and regimen of Edinburgh are exceedingly lax. . . . The voluntary at- tendance of the students is a strong proof of this allegation." The writer sums up his con- demnation of the Edinburgh plan of adminis- tering the course of study with the sarcastic observation that " if the University of Edin- burgh has fallen upon the best plan of teach- ing, she has the merit of exclusive excel- lence." » It seems safe to conclude that Jefferson was considerably influenced in the formulation of his Elective System by the contemporary advanced administration of the University of Edinburgh. Whatever may have been the in- fluence of Germany on the Scotch reformers, and on the French promoters of American education with whom Jefferson was well ac- • The contemporary cniriculum at Cambridge University (Trinity College) is given on page 38 above. THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM IN VIRGINIA 51 quainted, there is no evidence that Je£Eerson was directly impressed by the voluntary sys- tems of German universities.' On the con- trary, we find him declaring that " the Ger- manic body is a burlesque on government; and their practice, on any point, is a sufficient authority and proof that it is wrong." ^ This ^ Prof. J. M. Garnett, in the Andover Review, April, 1886, says that the plan of having the Chairman of the Faculty of the University of Virginia appointed annually by the Board of Visitors was " a pet idea of Mr. Jefferson's, derived, per- haps, from the annual election of a Rector Magnificus in the German universities." But why speculate on a foreign origin for this idea, when most of our own state and national offi- cers, from the President down, had short terms to guard against the dangers of autocracy which the men of Revolu- tionary days had reason to fear. If we must seek a Euro- pean precedent, it would be more reasonable to look to the University of Paris, the organization of which we are sure that Jefferson studied. There, in the thirteenth century, the tenure of oftice of the Rector was only three months. (Cf. H. Rashdall, Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, i, p. 315 ; Bulaeus, iii, 444 ; Chartvl. t. i. pt. 1, No. 492.) It is interesting to trace at this same time the influence of Edinburgh in the founding of the first American high schools, at Boston, 1821, and at New York, 1825. An account of John Griscom's visit to Edinburgh and study of the city schools is given in the North American Review, January, 1824 (published in Boston). See also E. E. Brown, Making of Our Middle Schools,^^. 304 fB. ' Writings, i, 62. 62 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM we must bear in mind when we consider the relations of George Ticknor with Thomas Jefferson, the efforts of Ticknor for academic freedom at Cambridge, and the question to what extent Harvard College owes the begin- nings of its Elective System to German influ- ence. The first clear statement of the conviction that led Jefferson to the adoption of an Elect- ive System is found in a letter to Peter Carr, President of the Trustees of Albemarle Acad- emy, dated September 7, 1814. It tells of Jefferson's comparative study of numerous curricula at home and abroad, — a kind of study which, in the course of the next century, was to convince most men of the futility of prescribed courses of study. This letter first appeared in the Richmond Enquirer. It de- fines Jefferson's educational views more than thirty years after he first drafted a bill for the more general diffusion of knowledge. In summarizing his views, Jefferson said : I have long entertained the hope that this, our na- tive State, would take up the subject of education, and make an establishment, either with or without incorpora- tion into that of "William and Mary, where every branch THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM IN VIRGINIA 63 of science, deemed aseful at this day, should be taught in its highest degree. With this view, I have lost no oc- casion of making myself acquainted with the organiza- tion of the best seminaries in other countries, and with the opinions of the most enlightened individuals on the subject of the sciences worthy of a place in such an in- stitution. In order to prepare what I had promised our trustees, I have lately revised these several plans with attention ; and I am struck with the diversity of arrange- ment observable in them, no two being alike. Tet I have no doubt that these several arrangements have been the subject of mature reflection by wise and learned men, who, contemplating local circumstances, have adapted them to the condition of the section of society for which they have been framed. I am strengthened in this con- clusion by an examination of each separately, and a conviction that no one of them, if adopted without change, would be suited to the circumstances and pur- suit of our country. The example they have set, then, is authority for us to select from their different institu- tions the materials which are good /or us, and, with them, to erect a structure whose arrangement shall correspond with our own social condition, and shall admit of en- largement in proportion to the encouragement it may merit and receive. After the failure in the Virginia Senate of the elaborate education bill of 1817, Jefferson drew up a bill providing more definitely for a state university. Here he proposed to have the following subjects offered : " history and 64 THE COLLEGE CUKBICULDM geography, ancient and modem ; natural phi- losophy, agriculture, chemistry, and the theo- ries of medicine ; anatomy, zoology, botany, mineralogy, and geology ; mathematics, pure and mixed ; military and naval science ; ide- ology, ethics, the law of nature and of nations ; law, municipal and foreign; the science of civil government and political economy ; lan- guages, rhetoric, belles-lettres, and the fine arts generally; which branches of science shall be so distributed and under so many professor- ships, not exceeding ten, as the visitors shall think most proper." ' Evidently the scope of the instruction was such that it could never be confined within the limits of the traditional prescribed curriculum. To observe, even at the distance of nearly a century, the solicitude with which this pa- triot of seventy-five years followed the fortunes of his long-cherished hope for a system of public education, makes one glow with admir- ation and sympathy. To Cabell, whom he had inspired to further the cause in the legisla- ture, Jefferson wrote : " Pray drop me a line when any vote is passed which furnishes an * Writings, xvii, 436. THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM IN VIRGINIA 55 indication of the success or failure of the gen- eral plan. I have only this single anxiety in this world. It is a bantling of forty years' birth and nursing, and if I can once see it on its legs, I will sing with sincerity and pleasure my nunc dimittas." A month later he wrote, " A system of general instruction which shall reach every description of our citizens, from the richest to the poorest, as it was the earli- est, so will it be the latest of all the public concerns in which I shall permit myself to take an hiterest. Nor am I tenacious of the form in which it shall be introduced. Be that what it may, our descendants will be as wise as we are, and will know how to amend and amend it until it shall suit their circumstances. Give it to us, then, in any shape, and receive for the inestimable boon the thanks of the young, and the blessings of the old, who are past all other services but prayers for the prosperity of their country and blessings to those who promote it." One of the brightest hopes of the Kepublic springs from the fact that the dreams of this prophet, Utopian as they then appeared, are the realities of to-day, and that there arises 66 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM now and again, above the dreary level of poli- ticians, a statesman-educator with the wisdom and sacrificial devotion of a Jefferson. In 1818, the Virginia Legislature provided a 1 15,000 annual appropriation for a univer- sity to teach all branches of useful science. The same year a Board of Commissioners, ap- pointed by the Governor, met at the tavern in Rockfish Gap, in the Blue Ridge, to make plans for the new institution.* As a matter of course, Jefferson was unanimously elected President of the board of trustees. In his re- port to the legislature, he formulated the aims of higher education with such wisdom and foresight that the most progressive state uni- versities of the present day are only beginning to realize his ideals. In this report he classified the objects of the higher education as follows : (1) To form tlie statesmen, legislators, and judges, on whom public prosperity and individual happiness are so much to depend ; (2) To expound the principles and structure of gov- ernment, the laws which regulate the intercourse of nations, those formed municipally for our own govern- ' For an account of this meeting, see " Jefferson's Pet," an article by Professor Scheie de Vere, of the University of Virginia, Harper's Magazine, May, 1872. THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM IN VIRGINIA 57 ment, and a sound spirit of -legislation, which, banishing all unnecessary restraint on individual action, shall leave us free to do whatever does not violate the equal rights of another ; (3) To harmonize and promote the interests of agri- culture, manufactures, and commerce, and by well-in- formed views of political economy to give a free scope to the public industry; (4) To develop the reasoning faculties of our youth, enlarge their minds, cultivate their morals, and instil into them the precepts of virtue and order ; (5) To enlighten them with mathematical and phy- sical sciences, which advance the arts, and administer to the health, the subsistence, and comforts of human life ; (6) And, generally, to form them to habits of re- flection and correct action, rendering them examples of virtue to others, and of happiness within themselves. The branches of learning to be taught were those heretofore recommended by Jefferson, but now arranged in ten homogeneous groups, to be assigned to ten different professorships, as follows : I. Languages, ancient : Latin, Greek, Hebrew. IL Languages, modem : French, Spanish, 68 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM Italian, German, Anglo-Saxon. m. Mathematics, pure : Algebra, Fluxions, Geometry, elementary, transcendental, Architecture, military, naval. IV. Physico-mathematies : Mechanics, Statics, Dynamics, Pneumatics, Acoustics, Optics, Astronomy, Geography. y. Physics, or natural philosophy : Chemistry, Mineralogy. VI. Botany: ZoSlogy. Vn. Anatomy: Medicine. VIII. Government: Political economy. Law of nature and nations. History, being interwoven with politics and law. THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM IN VIRGINIA 69 IX. Law, municipal. X. Ideology : General grammar, Ethics, Bhetoric, Belles-lettres and the fine arts. At a meeting of the Visitors of the Uni- versity, held at Charlottesyille, Octoher 4, 1824, at which there were present Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Brecken- ridge, John H. Cocke, George Loyall, and Joseph C. Cabell, the following resolutions were entered on the records : "Each of the schools [i. e. subjects] of the University shall be held two hours of every other day of the week ; and that every student may be enabled to attend those of his choice, let their sessions be so arranged, as to days and hours, that no two of them shall be holden at the same time." Here follows the first sched- ule of wholly elective studies ever devised for an existing institution of higher education in America. That there might be no doubt of their intentions, this remarkable group of trus- tees — Governors of states and Presidents of the United States — added the following reso- 60 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM lution : " Every student shall be free to attend the schools of his choice, and no other than he chooses." The University of Virginia was opened to students on the 7th of March, 1825. Jeffer- son, in his seventh annual report to the Presi- dent and Directors of the Literary Fund, dated October 7, 1825, said there were forty stu- dents present at the beginning ; " others con- tinued to arrive from day to day at first, and from week to week since ; and the whole num- ber matriculated on the last day of September was 116. Few more can be expected during the present term, which closes on the 15th of December next; and the state of the schools on the same day was as follows : " In the school of Scholars.* Ancient languages 55 Modern languages 64 Mathematics 68 Natural philosophy 33 Natural history 30 Anatomy and medicine 20 Moral philosophy 14 " ' Reprinted in the first volame of the American Journal of Education, 1826, p. 123. THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM IN VIRGINIA 61 This is the first table of electives published in the United States. If any one had doubted the determination of Jefferson to introduce this complete Elect- ive System ^ at the very opening of the school, such doubt would have been dispelled if one could have stood in his study at Monticello on the 16th of July, 1823, and looked over the shoulder of the father of the university, as he wrote to George Ticknor, then a profes" sor in Harvard College : Deak Sir, — I received in due time your favor of June 16th, and with it your syUahus of lectures on Spanish literature. I have considered this with great interest and satisfaction, as it gives me a model of the course I wish to see pursued in the different branches of instruction in our University ;i.e.a, methodical, critical, and profound explanation by way of protection of every ' One can speak of a complete Elective System at Vir- ginia only with the proviso laid down by its first Faculty : " The degree of gradnate shall be conferred on those only who have acquired an accurate and extensive knowledge of the subject of one or more of the classes, or in any single lan- guage. But it is to be understood that in all cases the candi- date shall give the Faculty satisfactory proof of his ability to write the English language correctly." Plan of Examin- ations proposed by the Faculty of the University of Virginia to its visitors. Printed in American Journal of Education, ii, 313 (1827). 62 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM Bcience we propose to teach. I am not fully informed of the practices at Harvard, but there is one from which we shall certainly vary, although it has been copied, I believe, by nearly every college and academy in the United States. That is, the holding the students all to one prescribed course of reading, and disallowing ex- clusive application to those branches only which are to qualify them for the particular vocations to which they are destined. We shall, on the contrary, allow them un- controlled choice in the lectures they shall choose to attend, and require elementary qualification only, and sufficient age. Our institution will proceed on the prin- ciple of doing all the good it can without consulting its own pride or ambition ; of letting every one come and listen to whatever he thinks may improve the condition of his mind. The rock which I most dread is the dis- cipline of the institution, and it is that on which most of our public schools labor. The insubordination of our youth is now the greatest phstacle to their education. We may lessen the difficulty, perhaps, by avoiding too much government, by requiring no useless observances, none which shall merely multiply occasions for dissatis- faction, disobedience and revolt, by referring to the more discreet of themselves the minor discipline, the graver to the civil magistrates, as in Edinburgh. On this head I am anxious for information of the practices of other places, having myself had little experience of the gov- ernment of youth. I presume there are printed codes of the rules of Harvard, and if so, you would oblige me by sending me a copy, and of those of any other academy which you think can furnish anything useful. You flatter THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM IN VIRGINIA 63 me with a visit " as soon as you learn that the Univer- sity is fairly opened." A visit from you at any time will be the most welcome possible to all our family, who remember with peculiar satisfaction the pleasure they received from your former one. But were I allowed to name the time, it should not be deferred beyond the autumn of the ensuing year. Our last building, and that which will be the principal ornament and keystone, giv- ing unity to the whole, will then be nearly finished, and afford you a gratification compensating the trouble of the journey. We shall then, also, be engaged in our code of regulations preparatory to our opening, which may, perhaps, take place in the beginning of 1825. There is no person from whose information of the European in- stitutions, and especially their discipline, I should expect so much aid in that difficult work. Come, then, dear Sir, at that, or any earlier epoch, and give to our institution the benefit of your counsel. I know that you scout, as I do, the idea of any rivalship. Our views are catholic for the improvement of our country by science, and indeed, it is better even for your own University to have its yoke- mate at this distance, rather than to force a nearer one from the increasing necessity for it. And how long be- fore we may expect others in the southern, western, and middle region of this vast country ? I send you by mail a print of the ground-plan of our institution ; it may give you some idea of its distribution and conveniences, but not of its architecture, which being chastely classical, constitutes one of its distinguishing characters. I am much indebted for your kind attentions to Mr. Harrison ; he is a youth of promise. I could not 64 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM deny myself the gratification of communicating to his father the part of your letter respecting him. Our family all join me in assurances of our friendly esteem and great respect. This letter is here printed in full because it is one of the most important documents in the history of higher education, because it states clearly the principle of "uncontrolled choice," and because it connects the subject of our present inquiry with the subject that logically follows : George Ticknor and the Be- ginnings of the Elective System at Harvard College. CHAPTER IV GEOEGE TICKNOE AND THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM AT HAEVAKD COLLEGE A KECENT historian of higher education in America voices the common belief when he concludes that " in the whole movement for the enlargement and enrichment of the higher education through either the elective or other system, the German influence has been domi- nant." ' That the German influence was not dominant in the establishment of the first Elective System of studies in America, the evidence just presented tends to prove. An interesting question remains : To what extent did German influence promote the beginnings of that system in the institution that became its greatest modern champion ? In other words, what were the sources of the inspiration of George Ticknor in his efforts for reform at Harvard College? 1 C. F. Thwing, A History of Higher Education in America, p. 318. 66 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM Surely there was nothing very inspiring in his course at Dartmouth College. He himself tells us that before he was ten years old, Pre- sident Wheelock and other members of the Dartmouth faculty examined him in Cicero's Orations and the Greek Testament and gave him a certificate of admission. " Of course," he adds, " I knew very little, and the whole thing was a form, perhaps a farce." When he was fourteen, he was admitted to the Junior Class. Of his two years there, 1805 to 1807, he says : I learnt very little. The instructors generally were not as good teachers as my father had been, and I knew it ; so I took no great interest in study. I remember liking to read Horace, and I enjoyed calculating the great eclipse of 1806, and making a projection of it, which turned out nearly right. This, however, with a tolerably good knowledge of the higher algebra, was aU I ever acquired in mathematics, and it was soon forgotten. I was idle in college, and learnt little. Soon after I left college, — in 1807, — my father, who had a great regard for classical learning, and knew that I had acquired very little of it, proposed to me to study with the Rev. Sylvester John Gardiner, Rector of Trinity Church, who was in the habit of preparing a few pupils for Harvard College. To what extent Ticknor's views on college education were influenced by his years at the TICKNOR AND THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM 67 University of Gottingen is another question. Certainly he was profoundly impressed. His letters home and his journals give abundant evidence of his great admiration for the re- sources of the most favored of German uni- versities, for the earnestness and devotion of the students, for the scholarship of some of its great teachers. But with all his detailed accounts of other phases of German university life, he makes no contrasts between the vol- untary systems of that country and the pre- scribed systems of his own. Moreover, as the above comments on his Hfe at Dartmouth were offered to show, there was no comparison pos- sible at this time between the American col- lege and the German university. The only German institutions with which Ticknor and the other Americans abroad could have com- pared Harvard, Yale and Dartmouth were the gymnasia. They were then, as now, prepara- tory schools for the universities. The special Committee of the Yale faculty in 1828 cor- rectly stated the facts in declaring that " the pupils, when they enter the University [in Germany] are advanced nearly or quite as far, in literature if not in science, as our students 68 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM are when graduated. The institution in Ger- many which corresponds most nearly to our colleges, in point of attainments, and the age of the students, is the gymnasium." In this school the course of study was rigidly pre- scribed and remained so for some years to come.* • Paulsen, in Geschichte des Gelehrten UntenichU, p. 361, gives tbe Lehrplan of tbe Gymnasia for 1837, showing that even then there were no electives in tbe schedule. Tbe usual approach to the Elective System is here seen, however, in the presence of Hebrew as an " optional " or " extra " study. DER LEHRPLAN VON 1837 LEHRGEGENSTAKDE I II III IV V 10 4 2 4 3 2 2 3 2 32" VI 10 4 2 4 3 2 2 3 2 gUMME Lateinisch . . Griecbisch . . Deutsch . . . Franzosisch Religionslebre Mathematik . Rechnen Physik . . . Philosoph. Propa Geschichte u. Geoj Naturbesobreibun Zeicbnen . . Schonscbreiben Gesang . . . (Hebraiseb) . ieu jra S itik pbie 8 6 2 2 2 4 2 2 2 (2) 30 10 6 2 2 2 4 1 3 (2) 30 10 6 2 2 2 3 3 2 2 32" 10 6 2 2 3 2 2 2 1 2 32" 86 42 22 12 18 > f- 33 6 4 24 10 6 7 10 8 32 280 TICKNOE AND THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM 69 In any estimate of the early influence o£ German universities on the administration of the Course of Study in American colleges, the work of Edward Everett must he given great weight. His name appears in the Colony Book as a student at Gottingen from 1812-14 to 1817 ; and apparently the only American to precede him was Benjamin Smith Barton, who is entered as from Philadelphia in the year 1789. In 1815-16, Tichnor and Everett were apparently the only Americans at Got- tingen, and they were close friends. Their in- fluence on each other at this plastic time of life must have been considerable. The ques- tion is therefore highly pertinent to what extent Everett was inspired by his years at Gottingen to promote the Elective System at Harvard College. In answer to this question, it has been said^ that the residence in the same town of George Ticknor and Edward Everett " created a profound and what proved to be a lasting influence. The most direct effect of this residence is seen in the changes wrought in the Harvard curriculum through • C. F. Thwing, A History of Higher Education in Amer- ica, p. 310. 70 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM George Ticknor." The evidence about to be presented tends to prove, on the contrary, that the direct influence of this residence prompted neither Everett nor Ticknor to pro- mote the Elective System at Harvard College. The Inaugural Address of Edward Everett as President of Harvard College, in 1846, was mainly the traditional defense of the Classics and the doctrine of formal discipline in its worst form, together with certain stric- tures on the prevailing curriculum that looked rather to its curtailment than to its expansion. His remarks on the voluntary plan of studies show that, far from having been won to the cause of the New Education in Germany, he had not even in 1846, a score of years after the pubUcation of Ticknor's Remarks, be- come a disciple of his Gottingen companion. *' The Elective System," he says, "has within a few years been introduced among us, which, under the proper reservations, affords the student a choice of those studies deemed most likely to promote views of future usefulness, or to fall in with the present taste or bent of the faculties. The theory of this system seems reasonable ; it has, however, been introduced TICKNOR AND THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM 71 since my own academical experience terminated, and I have had as yet no means of forming an opinion for myself of its practical opera- tion." After he did form an opinion, he be- came one of those Presidents of Harvard Col- lege whose opposition to the Elective System retarded the progressive movements for an- other generation. And this was the man who had been longest exposed to German influence. Mr. Ticknor has left us even more positive evidence of the influence of German univer- sities on his views. In a letter to Mr. N. A. Haven, October 26, 1825, he says : — When I came home from Europe (1819), not having been educated at Cambridge, and having always looked upon it with great veneration, I had no misgivings about the wisdom of the organization and management of the College there. I went about my work, therefore, with great alacrity and confidence ; not, indeed, according to a plan I proposed in writing, . . . but according to the estab- lished order of things, which I was urged to adopt as my own, and which I did adopt very cheerfully. In about a year and a half, I began to find out that there was much idleness and dissipation in College, of which the resident teachers were ignorant, and I began to feel that $2000 per annum were spent nominally to teach the French and Spanish languages and literatures, when in fact no such thing was done. 72 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM "We can hardly assume that a man who lived on Beacon Hill in Boston, whose home was a centre of social life, who had studied the classics with a man intimately acquainted with the course of study at Harvard, who had sought vainly in Boston for a person who could teach him German, and vainly for a German dictionary in the Harvard library, who had graduated from a college that pro- fessedly imitated Harvard in the administra- tion of its curriculum, who had accepted a professorship at Harvard on November 6, 1817, — it is indeed wholly unreasonable to assume that such a man in the year 1819 was not acquainted with the regime of prescribed studies at Cambridge; and yet he says that, after his return from Gottingen in that year, he " had no misgivings about the wisdom of the organization and management" of Har- vard College, that, on the contrary, he adopted "the established order of things • . . very cheerfully." Where, then, shall we turn for the imme- diate incentives of George Ticknor in urging the destruction of the methods of teaching by classes and prescribed subjects, that had been TICKNOR AND THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM 73 fixing their roots in Cambridge soil for nearly three centuries ? It is but natural to look to the Sage of Monticello. As a matter of fact, George Ticknor, in the year 1815, just before his departure for Europe, spent hours at Monticello, at a time when the university pro- ject was dearest to Jefferson's heart. In a letter, February 7, 1815, George Ticknor wrote to his father : We left Charlottesville on Saturday morning, the 4th of Fehruary, for Mr. Jefferson's. . . . On Sunday morning, after breakfast, Mr. Jefferson asked me into his library, and there I spent the forenoon of that day as I had that of yesterday. . . . On Monday morning I spent a couple of hours with him in his study. . . . To-day, Tuesday, we told Mr. Jefferson that we should leave Monticello in the afternoon. He seemed much sur- prised, and said as much as politeness would permit on the badness of the roads and the prospect of bad weather, to induce us to remain longer. It was evident, I thought, that they had calculated on our staying a week. At din- ner, Mr. Jefferson again urged us to stay, not in an oppressive way, but with kind politeness ; and when the horses were at the door, asked if he should not send them away ; but, as he found us resolved on going, he bade us farewell in the heartiest style of Southern hospitality, after thrice reminding me that I must write to him for letters to his friends in Europe. I came away almost 74 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM regretting that the coach returned so soon, and thinking, with General Hamilton, that he was a perfect gentleman in his own house. The friendship with Jefferson, begun at this impressionable age, had a profound influence on the young scholar. Jefferson, who called Ticknor " the best bibliograph I have met with," sought from the beginning to interest him in the university plans. And this with a definite purpose. In 1817 Jefferson spoke of that purpose in a letter to John Adams : " We shall be ready for a professor of lan- guages in April next, for two others the fol- lowing year, and a fourth the year after. How happy should we be if we could have a Tick- nor for our first. A critical classic is scarcely to be found in the United States. To this pro- fessor, a fixed salary of five hundred dollars, with liberal tuition fees from the pupils, will probably give two thousand dollars a year. We are now on the lookout for a professor, meaning to accept of none but of the very first order." ' * Writings, xv, 137. Other references indicating' the in- fliieuce of Jefferson upon Ticknor will be found in Jefferson's CoTrespondence, xiv, 239, 254, 257, 301 ; zr, 207, 454. TICKNOR AND THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM 75 In pursuit of this project for making Tick- nor the first professor in the new university, Jefferson sent the following letter to Europe : Dear Sik : I received, two days ago, your favor of August 10, from Madrid, and sincerely regret that my letter to Cardinal Dugnani did not reach you at Rome. It would have introduced you to a circle worth studying as a variety in the human character. I am happy, how- ever, to learn that your peregrinations through Europe have been successful as to the object to which they were directed. You will come home fraught with great means of promoting the science, and consequently the happi- ness of your country; the only obstacle to which will be, that your circumstances will not compel you to sac- rifice your own ease to the good of others. Many are the places which would court your choice; and none more fervently than the college I have heretofore men- tioned to you, now expected to be adopted by the State and liberally endowed under the name of "the Uni- versity of Virginia." ... I pass over our professorship of Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and that of modern lan- guages, French, Italian, Spanish, German and Anglo- Saxon, which, although the most lucrative, would be the most laborious, and notice that which you would splen- didly fill, of Ideology, Ethics, Belles-Lettres and Fine Arts. I have some belief, too, that our genial climate would be more friendly to your constitution than the rigors of that of Massachusetts ; but all this may pos- sibly yield to the hoc coelum, sub quo natus educatusque essem. I have indulged in this reverie the more credu- 76 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM loasly, because you say in your letter that " if there were a department in the central government that was de- voted to public instruction, I might have sought a place in it ; but there is none, there is none even in my State government." Such an institution of the general govern- ment cannot be, until an amendment of the Constitution, and for that, and the necessary laws and measures of execution, long years must pass away. In the mean while we consider the institution of our University as supply- ing its place, and perhaps superseding its necessity. With stronger wishes than expectations, therefore, I will wait to hear from you, as our buildings will not be ready under a year from this time ; and to the affection- ate recollections of our family, add assurances of my constant and sincere attachment. Th. Jeffeeson. Nearly a year before this letter was written, Ticknor had accepted the offer of Harvard Col- lege. Nevertheless, Jefferson persisted. After the agreement with Dr. Cooper had been can- celed on sectarian grounds in the fall of 1820, the Visitors of the University of Virginia, fol- lowing the accustomed leadership of Jefferson, sought to secure Ticknor of Boston and Bow- ditch of Salem. As compensation, they offered salaries and fees amounting to $2500, together with apartments. Such liberal offers, consid- ering the standard of living, are rarely made TICKNOR AND THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM 77 in our own day. Even at that time, Harvard College had secured Ticknor as Professor of French, Spanish and Belles-lettres at a salary of 1 1000, of which Ticknor regularly left $400 to the use of the struggling institution. It was while Ticknor was urging certain re- forms at Harvard College that he received the pregnant suggestions in that remarkable letter, quoted at the close of the previous chapter, from the one man in all America whose educa- tional opinion! he most valued. At that time Ticknor was by no means prepared to advocate a system of completely voluntary elections. In July, 1823, before his visit to Virginia, and probably before his receipt of Jefferson's let- ter of the previous month, Ticknor felt that the old prescribed system had " in some re- spects its peculiar advantage. The majority of young men who come to Cambridge," he added, " should not be left entirely to themselves to choose what they will study, because they are not competent to judge what will be most im- portant for them," {lAfe, Letters, and Jour- nals, p. 357.) It will be recalled that the letter from Jefferson declared his unquaKfied approval of the Elective System, and his dis- 78 THE COLLEGE CURKICULUM trust of the practices at Harvard. The Uni- versity of Virginia, he said, was not to hold all students to one prescribed course of study, but, on the contrary, would allow them uncon- trolled choice. Considering the critical time of its arrival, the influence of the writer, and the views it emphasizes, this letter deserves distinction in the history of the administration of the American college curriculum. Although Ticknor did not accept the of- fered professorship in Virginia, he did accept the invitation of JefEerson to visit the Uni- versity, and on December 16, 1824, he wrote from Monticello to William H. Prescott : Yesterday we formed a party, and, with Mr. Jeffer- son at our head, went to the University. It is a very fine establishment, consisting of ten houses for profes- sors, four eating-houses, a rotunda on the model of the Parthenon, with a magnificent room for a library, and four fine lecture-rooms, with one hundred and eight apartments for students ; the whole situated in the midst of two hundred and fifty acres of land, high, healthy, and with noble prospects all around it. It has cost two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and the thorough finish of every part of it, and the beautiful architecture of the whole, show, I think, that it has not cost too much. Each professor received his house, which in Gharlottesyille — the neighboring village — would TICKNOR AND THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM 79 rent for $600, a salary of $1500, and a fee of $20 from every student who attends his instructions, which are to be lectures, three times a week. Of the details of the system I shall discourse much when I see you. It is more practical than I feared, but not so practical that I feel satisfied of its success. It is, however, an experiment worth trying, to which I earnestly desire the happiest results ; and they have, to begin it, a mass of buildings more beautiful than anything architectural in New England, and more appropriate to an university than can be found, perhaps, in the world. Mr. Jefferson is entirely absorbed in it, and its success would make a heau finale indeed to his life. He is now eighty-two years old, very little altered from what he was ten years ago, very active, lively and happy, riding from ten to fifteen miles every day, and talking without the least restraint, very pleasantly, upon all subjects. Here we find Ticknor, over six months be- fore the publication of his Remarks, saying to one of the men who later urged the writ- ing and publication of that pamphlet : " Of the details of the system [at the University of Virginia] I shall discourse much when I see you. It is more practical than I feared, but not so practical that I feel satisfied of its success. It is, however, an experiment worth trying." After his return to Harvard, Ticknor con- 80 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM tinued to gather information regarding this experiment worth trying. On the 6th of April, 1825, James Madison wrote to George Ticknor : Our University has been opened with six or seven professors, and a limited but daily increasing number of students. I shall take a pleasure in complying with your request of such information as may explain its pro- gress. In compiling a code of regulations, the University has had the benefit of that of Harvard, which was kindly transmitted. Of all exchanges, that of useful lights ought to be the freest, as doubling the stock on both sides, without cost on either. Our University is, as you observe, somewhat of an experimental institution. Such, how- ever, is the nature of our federative system, itself not a little experimental, that it not only excites emulation without enmity, but admits local experiments of every sort, which, if failing, are but a partial and temporary evil ; if successful, may become a common and lasting improvement. It is true that before this second visit to Virginia, Ticknor had urged reforms at Har- vard College. A year and a half after he " very cheerfully " took up his work there, accepting " the established order of things," he began to feel the need of reforms. But his remon- strances to the President " ended in nothing." Then, at the request of Prescott, he wrote a TICKNOR AND THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM 81 letter that prompted the Corporation to inves- tigate. In reply to the questions concerning proposed changes, the teachers returned an- swers covering nearly three hundred pages. As a large majority were opposed to any change of importance, the Corporation were unwilling to take action. After the rebelHon of May, 1823, in which the academic lives of forty stu- dents were suspended or lost, Ticknor presented a paper to certain influential officers of the CoUege. In opposition to the prevailing sys- tem, he said : There are twenty or more teachers, and three hundred students, and yet the division into classes remains exactly the same, and every student is obliged to pass through the hands of nearly or quite every instructor. Of course, the recitations become mere examinations, and it cannot be attempted to give more than the most superficial view of very important subjects, even to those who would gladly investigate them thoroughly, because they must keep with the class to which they are bound, and hurry on from a teacher and a subject to which they have, perhaps, important reasons for being attached, to another teacher and another subject, wherein their present dis- positions and final pursuits in life make it impossible for them to feel any interest. But at the same time that we at once perceive this system . . . has been carried too far, ... we must still feel that it has in some respects 82 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM its peculiar advantages. The majority of the young men who come to Cambridge should not be left entirely to themselves to choose virhat they will study, because they are not competent to judge what will be most important for them ; and yet no parent would wish to have his child pursue branches of knowledge which he is sure can never be of use to him in future life. A beneficial compromise can, however, as it seems tome, be effected between the old system still in operation and the most liberal concessions that would be demanded by one of the free and philosophical universities of Europe. After two committees of the Overseers had reported in favor of changes, as we shall see presently, "the resident teachers again de- clared themselves against all but very trifling changes." The Overseers, however, having passed unanimously the greater changes pro- posed by Ticknor, he then explained and de- fended those views in a pamphlet which is the most important single document in the early history of the Elective System at Harvard College. In the course of his Remarhs, he said : For the most that an instructor now undertakes in our colleges is to ascertain, from day to day, whether the young men who are assembled in his presence have probably studied the lesson prescribed to them. There his duty stops. If the lesson have been learnt, it is TICKNOR AND THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM 83 well ; if it have not, nothing remains but punishment, after a sufficient number of such offenses shall have been accumulated to demand it ; and then it comes, halting after the delinquent, he hardly knows why. The idea of a thorough commentary on the lesson ; the idea of mak- ing the explanations and illustrations of the teacher of as much consequence as the recitation of the book, or even more, is substantially unknown in this country, except at a few preparatory schools. The consequence is, that, though many of our colleges may have a valuable apparatus for instruction, though they may be very good, quiet, and secluded places for study, and though many of the young men who resort thither may really learn not a little of what is exacted or expected from them, yet, after all, not one of our col- leges is a place for thorough teaching ; and not one of the better class of them does half of what it might do, by bringing the minds of its instructors to act directly and vigorously on the minds of its pupils, and thus to encourage, enable and compel them to learn what they ought to learn, and what they easily might learn. The increasing demands of the community may bo here met, and our high places for education may easily accommodate themselves more wisely to the spirit and wants of the times in which we live. And this, if done at all, must be done speedily ; for new institutions are springing up, which, in the flexibility of their youth, will easily take the forms that are required of them, while the older establishments, if they suffer themselves to grow harder and harder in their ancient habits and systems, will find, when the period for more important 84 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM alterations is come, and free nniversitles are demanded and called forth, that, instead of being able to place themselves at the head of the coming changes and di- recting their course, they will only be the first victims of the spirit of improvement.^ Apparently the " Remarks " were too pro- gressive for the staid pages of the North American Review. After the Editor had in- vited and accepted the article, — indeed, after it was already in type, — he decided, " by the advice of friends," that it would be " inexpe- dient" to publish it. It would be interesting to consider whether there ever was an epoch- making proposal in the history of education that was not first rejected as inexpedient, by the advice of friends. • Life, Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor, vol. i, pp. 362-364. The italics are not Ticknor's : the change is here made to call attention to the evident reference to the Univer- sity of Virginia. CHAPTER V CONTEMPOBAUT BEFOEMS AT OTHEE COLLEGES " This is emphatically an age of improvement, especially in the science of education." With these words the Faculty of Amherst College introduced to the Trustees, in 1826, a note- worthy report "upon the great and popular question of college reform." During this decade, 1820-30, the movements for the re- construction and more efficient administration of the college curriculum were by no means confined to Charlottesville and Cambridge. Indeed, this period in the history of higher education may be called the American Re- naissance. Especially in the years 1825 and 1826, the history of the Elective System was fast in the making. It was in 1825, when the University of Vir- ginia put into operation the first extensive Elective System in a chartered American col- lege, and when George Ticknor published his revolutionary Remarks, that Henry W. Long- 86 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM fellow, who was to carry the reforms forward as Ticknor's successor in the Smith professor- ship, completed the rigidly prescribed course at Bowdoin College. It was in June of this year that the efforts of William Prescott and Judge Story carried Ticknor's Jeffersonian ideas to favorable votes in the meetings of the Harvard Corporation and Overseers. It was in 1826 that the American Journal of Education was established in Boston, and presented in its very first volume certain ex- tracts from Professor Jardine's Outlines of Philosophical Education that called for re- forms in the prevailing systems of collegiate education. He does not marvel at the fact that the character of the age in which an in- stitution is founded is deeply impressed upon it, but he holds it a reasonable expectation that, in proportion as knowledge advances, and the objects of business or ambition assume a new form, the system of instruction should undergo a corresponding change. "Such, however, is not found to be the case. On the contrary, in some establishments of this kind, possessing great wealth and antiquity, the statutes of the founder, or the example of REFORMS AT OTHER COLLEGES 87 former generations, continue to exert a much more powerful influence on the practice of teachers than any considerations which might be deduced from the extension of science, or even the wants and probable destination of their pupils. But I humbly conceive, that if Classical Knowledge be not ample, it is in a great measure useless ; and that no time is less profitably spent than that which is passed in acquiring a mere smattering of the ancient languages." This looks toward a more liberal curriculum. It is distinctly modern doctrine. In fact, it is a more advanced conception of the aims of education than several of the ad- dresses at the annual meeting of the New England Association of Colleges and Prepara- tory Schools, A. D. 1909. In this same initial volume of the American Journal of Education (July, 1826) there were published certain extracts from a " Lecture on Education " by Captain Partridge, indicating that he already had in operation, though not in a chartered college, some of the plans that we have associated with the names of Jefferson and Ticknor. Captain Partridge discussed six defects of the education of the day. After de- 88 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM daring that it is not sufficiently practical, nor adapted to the needs of American citizens, that it utteriy neglects physical education, that it allows students too much idle time and too much spending money, he sets forth the foUowinof defects in the administration of studies : A fifth defect is the requiring all the students to pursue the same course of studies. All youth hare not the same inclinations, nor the same capacities ; one may possess a particular inclina- tion and capacity for the study of the classics, but little or none for the mathematics and other branches of sci- ence ; with another it may be the reverse. Now it will be in vain to attempt making a mathematician of the former, or a linguist of the latter. Consequently, all the time that is devoted in this manner will be lost, or some- thing worse than lost. Every youth, who has any capa- city or inclination for the acquirement of knowledge, will have some favorite studies, in which he will be likely to excel. It is certainly then much better that he should be permitted to pursue those, than that, by being forced to attend to others for which he has an aversion, and in which he will never excel, or ever make common proficiency, he should finally acquire a dislike to all study. A sixth defect is the prescribing the length of time for completing, as it is termed, a course of education. By these means, the good scholar is placed nearly on a REFORMS AT OTHER COLLEGES 89 level with the sluggard ; for whatever may be his exer- tions, he can gain nothing in respect to time, and the latter has, in consequence of this, less stimulus for exer- tion. In a Prospectus of 1820, announcing the opening of the American Literary, Scientific and MiKtary Academy, this same Captain Partridge begged "leave respectfully to in- form the American public," that this proposed institution at Northfield, Vermont, offered the following courses of instruction : * Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, English, Arithmetic, Logarithm, Algebra, Geometry, Plane and Spherical Trigonometry, Planometry, Stereometry, Mensuration by Trigonometry and also Geometrically, practical geometry generally, Surveying, Leveling, Conic Sec- tions, use of the Barometer, Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Hydraulics, Chemistry, Electricity, Optics, Astronomy, Navigation, Geography, Composition, Logic, History, Ethics, Natural and Political Law, Laws of Nations, Military Law, Constitution of the United States and of the states severally, Metaphysics, Agriculture, Per- manent and Field Fortifications, Field Engineering generally, Construction of Marine Batteries, Artillery duty. Principles of Gunnery, Attack and Defense, Mili- tary Tactics, Castramentation, Ancient Fortification, An- cient Tactics, Book-keeping, Music, Fencing, Military Drawing, Topography, Civil Engineering, Architecture. ' Ellis, Norwich University, p. 478. 90 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM Evidently a new star had appeared in the firmament of American colleges, and its light was to shine on all men. That this new institution, which was open to students six years before the University of Virginia, and which illustrates the influence academies were beginning to exert on colleges, had administered its extensive curriculum under an Elective System, was made clear by the founder in his " Lecture on Education." Captain Partridge's school was opened in the fall of 1820 at Northfield, Vermont, with one hundred students. From 1825 to 1828, it was continued at Middletown, Connecticut. During this period nearly twelve hundred stu- dents enrolled, of which there were over one hundred from South Carolina alone. The great and immediate popularity of the institution is sufficient proof that its scientific and military studies, its attention to physical education, its unfixed term of residence, and perhaps, above all, its Elective System, met a demand that existing colleges had utterly failed to satisfy. Yet Yale and Trinity appear to have pre- vented Captain Partridge from securing a Connecticut charter and the privilege of grant- REFORMS AT OTHER COLLEGES 91 ing degrees. He accordingly returned to North- field, where meantime he had heen using his old building as a preparatory school ; and in 1834 he had the institution chartered by the State of Vermont as Norwich University. At this time the prospectus declared that : Ancient and Modern Languages are taught to all who may wish to pursue them ; and those who attend to one or all of them, will, in addition to his diploma, be entitled to a certificate signed by the president and yice- president, stating the progress made in such languages. Each student is permitted to advance as rapidly as possible in his studies, . . . and whenever he has com- pleted a course, is entitled to an examination, and the honors of the University, if found qualified for the same. The Modern Languages, Music and Fencing, will be taught to those students, who may wish to attend to any or all of them ; for each of which they will be charged four dollars per quarter. It is thought that a period of from three to five years will, in general, be necessary. The educational awakening in the South, the beginnings of which we have traced in an earlier chapter, appears to have reached even to the northernmost college in the United States during the notable year of 1825. The men who took their degrees at Bowdoin Col- 92 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM lege that year have been called the most dis- tinguished class that ever graduated from an American institution. Among its members were Hawthorne and Longfellow. Whether it was the inspiration of a class like this, or the spirit of the era, that called for an enriched course of study, certain it is that the manu- script records of the Trustees of Bowdoin Col- lege contain the following entries : Sept. 7th, 1825. . . . Voted. That a committee of the Trastees and Overseers be appointed to take into con- sideration the whole subject and course of instruction, and to report at the next annual meeting a list of books to be studied and a system of instruction to be pursued in this institution. Voted. That a professorship be established for the instruction of the Junior and Senior classes in the mod- ern languages of Europe, particularly French and Span- ish.i This is the first evidence of any considera- tion by the Bowdoin authorities of the curricu- lum as a whole. Although detailed records of the Boards are preserved from the year 1794, the course of study seems to have grown up piecemeal in blind allegiance to Harvard and 1 Archives of Bowdoin College. Manuscript Records of the Board of Trastees, vol. i, September 7, 1825. REFORMS AT OTHER COLLEGES 93 its English traditions. A president was elected in 1801, at a salary of one thousand doUars. A professor was elected a few months later with promise of five hundred dollars, where- upon he delivered an inaugural address in Latin and proceeded to teach the whole col- lege. It was not until 1805 that a professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy was secured. Whenever a few hundred dollars of new funds vouchsafed the services of another tutor, additional instruction was offered ; but up to the Renaissance of the third decade, the young college on the frontiers of Massachu- setts had hardly caught up with the tradi- tional curriculum. Its Trustees and Overseers record their serious deUberations concerning Charles Cof&n's bill of one dollar, sixty-two and one-half cents, Ebenezer Crosby's allow- ance of one dollar and a half for services as constable at Commencement, the painting of the president's house, the deepening of the college well, the fine of fifty cents for each neglect of a theme or forensic disputation ; but not until 1825 did they decide to take up, in a thorough-going manner, the whole question of the curriculum. 94 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM It 18 easy to trace in the Records of the Overseers the steps that were leading to this action of 1825. In 1820 French had been re- ceived on suspicion, and allowed at Bowdoin its usual place outside the college gates. Stu- dents might embrace the subject only on pen- alty of an extra fee of five dollars. The next year two hundred dollars was appropriated for religious instruction, and it was " Voted, that in addition to their other studies now required by law the Junior class shall be required to study the Acts, Epistles and Revelations in Griesbach's Greek Testament, and the same shall hereafter constitute a portion of their theological collegiate course ; that candidates for admission into college, who are not pre- pared to pass an examination in the Acts, Epistles and Revelations may in lieu thereof be admitted to an examination in Xenophon's Cyropaedia at the election of the persons offer- ing such candidates for admission.'" It is interesting to note, in passing, that this, the first clear case of " election," actually appears in the entrance requirements. In 1823 came a Professor of Logic, Metaphysics and Ethics. • Records of the Trustees, August 21 and 22, 1822. REFORMS AT OTHER COLLEGES 95 The following year the Trustees voted that " the Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory . . . is also permitted to deUver occasional lectures on the subject of civil polity and political economy," and " that it be also incumbent on the Professor of Metaphysics and Moral Philo- sophy, to prepare and deliver a course of Lec- tures on Biblical Literature as soon as con- venient." ' Evidently the course of study was making its usual approach to a demand for thorough revision. Not only was there need of a new apportionment of studies in the fall of 1825, when the committee of revision was appointed, but there was need of considering at Bowdoin the animating principle of the American Renaissance. Apparently the stage- coaches had brought to Brunswick the Re- ports of the Harvard Overseers and Ticknor's Remarks of 1825, if not the later Reports of the Amherst Faculty ; for not only did Bow- doin College provide in 1827 for an "op- tional " course in Hebrew, but in the same year the Visiting Committee raised the ques- tions : " Whether the study of one or more of ' Records of the Trustees, August 31 and September 1, 1824. 96 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM the modern languages o£ Europe ought not to be made a prominent part of the regular course of education in this institution," and " Whether the course of instruction ought not to be more of a practical and less of a scho- lastic character and to this end whether the study of the Greek Language in this College ought not to be optional with the student." * Apparently the Faculty had not taken kindly to the innovations, for in 1828 the Visiting Committee reported that, In turning our attention to the " course of instruction pursued " we find that the provision of Law No. 22, which unequivocally requires that the course of study shall comprehend Modern Languages, has not been car- ried into effect. ... In September, 1825, the Trustees and Overseers established a Professorship of Modern Lan- guages, and by the same vote authorized the Executive Government to expend a sum not exceeding five hun- dred dollars, annually in procuring instruction in the French language until a Professor shall be elected. . . . No instruction in the French language for the past year has been provided and no such Professor has been elected.' > Archives of Bowdoin College, Manuscript Reports of Visiting Committees, 1826-33, p. 30. ° Archives of Bowdoin College, Manuscript Report of Visiting Committee, September 2, 1828. REFORMS AT OTHER COLLEGES 97 In 1829 the Visiting Committee changed their tentative suggestion to a declaration in favor of elective studies : It has been suggested that the system of instruction may be so modified as to allow the students within a limited range a choice of studies. If this principle is introduced the liberty of choice ought to be confined to certain prescribed courses. It has been proposed to allow an option between prosecuting the study of Greek and that of one or more of the modern languages. Another obvious cause for option would be between the higher branches of pure mathematics and a course of the moral sciences and philology. That invaluable advantages would arise from allowing this option we think is too dear to admit of question.^ While the first Professor of Modern Lan- guages at Harvard was proving the worth of the Elective System, by the highly successful administration of his own department, the man who was to succeed him in the Smith Professorship began to infuse new life into Bowdoin College. In September, 1828, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was elected Instructor in the French, Spanish, Italian and German languages at a salary of six hundred dollars. ' Archives of Bowdoin College, Manuscript Reports of Visiting Committee, 1826-33, pp. 76-77. 98 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM The next year the Boards rescinded their vote of 1825 restricting the instruction in Modern Languages to Senior and Junior years. Long- fellow's courses were opened even to Fresh- men. The very year after he took up his work, the Bowdoin catalogue announced the first real electives. " Instead of the Ancient Lan- guages and the Calculus, the student may at his option study the Spanish and Italian lan- guages." Thus at Bowdoin, as at Harvard, it was the modern languages that forced the first concessions to the elective principle, and at the expense of those tyrants of old, — Latin, Greek and Mathematics. It was in the summer of the same eventful year of 1826, that the Faculty of Amherst College presented to the governing boards an inspired report on "the state of that Semi- nary." That it was wholly inspired by Jeffer- son and Ticknor, it would be impossible to prove; for in several important respects — notably in its far-sighted provisions for the training of teachers — it was in advance of even the Virginia and Harvard reformers. The following quotations from the " Report of the Amherst Faculty" show how clearly REFORMS AT OTHER COLLEGES 99 they diagnosed the ills of the American Col- lege: One fact, we take it, is becoming more and more obvious every day. The American public is not satisfied with the present course of education in our higher semi- naries. And the great objection is, that it is not suffi- ciently modern and comprehensive, to meet the exigen- cies of the age and country in which we live. Not that the general voice seems to be hostile to the Ancient Classics. Any College may, without serious opposition, retain both the Latin and Greek languages for the ma- jority of its sons — may insist more strenuously than heretofore upon the study of the abstruse sciences, and may multiply its requisitions in every existing depart- ment, provided it will at the same time open its doors to that large class of young men, who are not destined to either of the learned professions, and carry them through a course, which they think better adapted to their future plans and prospects. The complaint is, and if our ears do not deceive us, it daily waxes louder and louder, that while every thing else is on the advance, our Colleges are stationary ; or if not quite stationary, that they are in danger of being left far behind, in the rapid march of improvement. Why, it is demanded, such reluctance to admit mod- ern improvement and modern literature ? Why so little attention to the natural, civil, and poUtical history of our own country and to the genius of our government ? Why so little regard to the French and Spanish languages, especially considering the commercial relations which are 100 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM now so rapidly forming, and which bid fair to be indefi- nitely extended between the United States and all the great southern Bepublics ? Why should my son, who is to be a merchant at home, or an agent in some foreign port ; or why, if he is to inherit my fortune, and wishes to qualify himself for the duties and standing of a pri- vate gentleman, or a scientific farmer — why, in either case, should he be compelled to spend nearly four years out of six, in the study of the dead Languages, for which he has no taste, from which he expects to derive no ma- terial advantage, and for which he wiU in fact have but very little use after his senior examination ? Such questions as these are every day asked by men whose strong good sense, education and standing in so- ciety, entitle them to be heard ; and it does not satisfy them to be told, even from the halls of science, that a knowledge of the Ancient Classics is in all cases of pre- eminent importance ; that no man can speak, or write English correctly, who has not read them ; that the pre- sent system has the advantage of great age, and the sanci tion of long experience ; that innovations are dangerous ; and that, if the young men of this generation profit as much by a liberal education as their fathers did, the pub- lic will have no reason to complain. To such admonitions as these, coming as they do from some of the highest literary authorities in the land, the advocates of reform may lend a civil and patient atten- tion : and the profound veneration of many for old estab- lishments, may half prevail over their better judgment ; but the majority will be apt still to contend, that in an age of universal improvement, and in a young, free, and REFORMS AT OTHER COLLEGES 101 prosperous country like ours, it is absurd to cling so tena- ciously to the prescriptive forms of other centuries ; and to meet every call for instruction in Modern Languages, Literature and Improvements, with the cry of innova- tion. What, they will ask, are our liberties, and indeed all our civil and religious rights and blessings, but the fruits of innovation ? But however that large class of enlightened men, of whom we have just been speaking, may differ in regard to the practicability, or expediency of modernizing our Colleges, in one thing they are entirely agreed. These Institutions do not at present, afford all the facilities which they want, for the liberal education of their sons ; and we are convinced, that if the Colleges cannot so modify their systems, as to meet the public demand, or if they do not choose to do it, other seminaries, equal in rank and of surpassing popularity, will spring up by their side. How detrimental this would be, to the prosperity of existing establishments, especially such of them as derive their support chiefly from tuition, we need not stop to inquire. Let our Colleges promptly lead on in the mighty march of improvement, and all will be well ; but let them hesitate and linger a little longer, and many of their most efficient friends will go on without them. That there are serious difficulties in the way of such changes and modifications as are called for, is certain ; but we hope and believe, that they will not be found in- superable. "Would it not, for example, be practicable to connect a new and liberal course, with that which is now pursued, under the direction of a common Faculty, and for the most part, under the same teachers, so as not 102 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM very materially to increase the expense, while both courses would derive some important advantages from the union ? We have nothing matured on this subject, to submit to your consideration ; but it does appear to us, that something like this is practicable, and would be of great public advantage. The amount of study required in each course might be the same ; it might be left op- tional with candidates for admission which to take ; and they might all graduate together. More instruction, in- deed, would be required in two courses than in one ; but would not the number of students be sufficiently in- creased to defray the greater part of the additional expense ? But whatever may be thought of these suggestions, there is one new department of great practical impor- tance, which it appears to us, should be annexed to the College, as soon as funds will any how permit — we mean the Science of Education. When it is considered how this lies at the very foundation of all improvement ; and when so many Professorships have been established in all the other sciences, as well as in literature and the arts, it is truly wonderful to us, that so little attention has been bestowed upon the science of mental culture, and that there is not (as we believe there is not), and never has been, a single Professor of Education, on this side of the Atlantic. Will it not be an honor to that College, which shall be the first to supply this deficiency, and open a department for the thorough education of teachers ? But we have no room for detail, or enlarge- ment in the present Report, and can only add in conclu- sion, that should the Board judge it expedient, to refer REFORMS AT OTHER COLLEGES 103 the several topics which it embraces to a select commit- tee, we fondly indulge the persuasion, that much good might result from the reference. The Second Report of the Amherst Faculty, presented December 6, 1826, added the fol- lowing detailed plan : Our decided and unanimous judgment is, that if a new course is introduced, it ought to proceed on a most liberal scale. By whatever name it may be called, it should be fully equivalent to the course which we now pursue. It should fill up as many years — should be car- ried on by as able instructors — should take as wide and elevated a range — should require as great an amount of hard study, or mental discipline, and should be rewarded by the same academic honors. In the department of Languages, an entire separa- tion is proposed, by substituting the modern for the an- cient, provided however, that in the new course, Latin may be taken instead of Spanish, at the option of the student when he enters College. Thus, with the know- ledge of Greek and Latin, which all who enter will be required to bring along with them, it is thought they may in four years, so far master the French and Span- ish, as to read and write, and even speak them with considerable readiness and fluency. Should room here- after be found for German, or Italian, or both, so much the better ; but we deem it inexpedient to begin upon so broad a scale. The adoption of our general plan, will make the two courses more distinct in the department now un- 104 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM der consideration, than in any other. But the new course will differ from the old in several important respects, which are yet to be mentioned ; as First. In the prominence which will be given to Eng- lish Literature, than which no subject has higher claims upon the American scholar, or can more richly reward his diligence. We do not mean to attach any blame to the Colleges, for having done comparatively so little hitherto, in this department, for who can teach every thing in four years ? But we believe the time has come, for the more critical study of some of the admired clas- sics in our own language, by a portion at least, of the liberally educated in every College. Second. The new course will differ essentially from the old, in the attention which will be given to French and Spanish Literature, by connecting this branch of study with the recitations and other exercises in these two rich and popular languages. Third. In Mechanical Philosophy, by introducing some such text book as, Nicholson's Operative Me- chanic and Machinist ; and by multiplying and vary- ing the experiments, so as to render the science more familiar and attractive. Fourth. In Chemistry and other kindred branches of Physical Science, by showing their application to the more useful arts and trades, to the cultivation of the soil and to domestic economy. Fifth. In a course of familiar Lectures upon curious and labor saving machines ; — upon bridges, locks and aqueducts ; and upon the different orders of architecture, with models for illustration. REFORMS AT OTHER COLLEGES 105 Sixth. In Natural History, by devoting more time to those branches which are now taught, and by introduc- ing others into the course. Seventh. In modern History, especially the history of the Puritans, in connection with the Civil and Ecclesi- astical history of our own country. Eighth. In the elements of Civil and Political law, embracing the careful study of American Constitutions. To which may he added Drawing and Civil Engineering, together with some other branches perhaps, which are not specified in the foregoing enumeration. Ancient His- tory, Geography, Grammar, Rhetoric and Oratory, Mathe- matics, Natural, Intellectual and Moral Philosophy, Anatomy, Political Economy and Theology, will, upon the plan here recommended, be common to both courses. The Board will recollect, that in our first Report, we ventured to express a decided judgment, in favor of a new department for systematic instruction in the science of education ; and all our subsequent thoughts on the subject have conspired to strengthen the opinion which we then entertained. Indeed, we look at this chasm, in the most complete and popular systems of an enlightened age, with increasing wonder. Why has it been suffered so long to remain, or rather why to exist at all in our public seminaries ? No respectable College would think itself organized, without a department of Natural Phi- losophy, and another of Chemistry — nor without Pro- fessors in Rhetoric and the Languages ; and yet, how few who enjoy these advantages in College, expect ever to be practical Chemists, or Philosophers, or Critics. 106 THE COLLEGE CDKRICULUM How then can the most distinguished and useful literary institutions in the land go on from year to year without a single instructor devoted to the science of education, when three fourths of their sons expect to be teachers, in one form or another themselves, and when the primary schools, academies, and higher institutions of learning, require twice, or thrice as many thousands to supply them, as are wanted for all the learned professions together ? Every third or fourth man we meet, is, or has been a school-master ; but who among a thousand of the best qualified, was ever regularly instructed himself in the science and art of teaching, for a single quarter ? And to rise still higher, who that daily gives lectures, or hears recitations in College, does not find reason to regret, that when he was a student, the analysis of mind was so little known or thought of, with reference to the science of education? Who, in short, is so old, or so wise, that he would not gladly take his place as a learner, under a competent Professor of this noble, but strangely neg- lected science ? We feel confident that the time has come to supply this great desideratum. The public is not only prepared for it, but loudly demands it, and will, we are perfectly assured, rejoice to see the Trustees of this College, act- ing definitively on the subject. Nor, if we judge cor- rectly, will an enlightened community be satisfied with any but the most comprehensive and liberal views, in the establishment of this new department. To occupy the whole ground, will require, 1. Much time and talent in the selection, revision and compilation of elementary school-books. REFORMS AT OTHER COLLEGES 107 2. An experimental school, consisting of young chil- dren, under the entire control of the department, where students may have opportunity to learn the art of teach- ing from example, and in which new methods of instruc- tion may be tried, and the results carefully recorded. 3. Adequate provision for the systematic instruction of school-masters, in all the branches of education, which they may have occasion to teach in our primary or dis- trict schools, together with the theory of teaching and government. 4. An able and connected review, or rather series of reviews, of all the popular systems of education now in use, particularly in our own country, with free and criti- cal remarks upon College text-books. 5. A course of lectures annually by the professor, on the science of education, for the particular benefit of the regular members of College, but which other young men, wishing to qualify themselves for teaching, might be permitted to attend. Less than this ought not to satisfy public expecta- tion from the department, when time shall have been allowed, and means provided for its complete organiza- tion. How far greater ■would have been the ser- vice of Amherst College to the Commonwealth and to the country, if the authorities that suc- ceeded this enlightened Faculty had adopted their statement as a part of the Amherst creed. The College which in 1826 was urged by its 108 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM own Faculty to welcome the honor of being the first in America to establish a Chair in Education reached the year 1910 with no such department in its curriculum. One o£ the recommendations, however, was adopted by the Board of Trustees and at once put into efEect. In the year 1827, accordingly, we have the first clearly conceived division of the coUesre curriculum into a Classical Course and a Scientific Course. (Appendix I.) In 1825, while the first class to enter the University of Virginia were enjoying wide liberty of choice, Amherst students were per- mitted a single option, — " Recitations in He- brew twice a week, if desired." ' In 1826, Amherst offered to its Seniors one real " elect- ive," — Hebrew or Greek. The next year came the promising Science Course. But, alas, it takes not only a soul to move a body, and a high-souled man to move the masses even to what they most need, — not only inspiration, but funds as well, and funds were not at hand for ' The original onrrioulum for the University of Georgia, Nov. 27, 1800, provides that " if either of the tutors should be acquainted with the French language, that may be taught in addition or instead of the Latin and Greek, as Parents and Guardians may choose." (Manuscript records.) REFORMS AT OTHER COLLEGES 109 the wise purposes of the little college in West- ern Massachusetts. Her prophets were as men crying in the wilderness, the wilderness of clas- sical culture, in whose ancient depths, bearded with moss and echoing with voices sad and pro- phetic, the light of common day seldom fell and the needs of common man dwelt in dark- ness. The success of their mission was too much to expect. Human nature seems to have decreed that the history of education shall be one long record of clear conceptions of needs a generation in advance of their realization. And thus at Amherst, in 1830, all that was left of their high hopes was a single option in the second term of Senior year, — Hebrew or Fluxions. (Appendix I.) From the catalogue, in 1834, even that single elective had disap- peared. Thus perished in the west of Massa- chusetts the hopes that were already blighted in the east. They were to rise again only with the rise of a new generation. CHAPTER VI THE EVOLUTION OF THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM AT HAKVAED COLLEGE The history of the Elective System at Har- vard College may well begin and end, not with the doings of conservative Cambridge, dominated by the academic ideals of the old world, but with that letter of Thomas Jefferson written, June 16, 1823, to Professor George Ticknor of Harvard College. Our account of the development at Harvard may well begin here, for, as we have seen, it was George Tick- nor who stood alone in the Harvard Faculty for the elective principle against the opposi- tion of his colleagues ; it was George Ticknor who established the system in his own depart- ment with a success that made certain its ulti- mate adoption for all departments ; and it was this pioneer of the New Education in New England who resigned his position only when it seemed hopeless for him to strive longer for ELECTIVE SYSTEM AT HARVARD COLLEGE 111 the extension of the principle at Cambridge. And the principle for which he there strove a half century ahead of his time came to him primarily — if the evidence we have presented is rightly interpreted — from Thomas Jeffer- son and the University of Virginia. Our account of the Elective System at Harvard College might well end with a reference to this same letter of 1823, for in it Thomas Jefferson stated with admirable clearness the principle of freedom of choice which Har- vard College accepted in its entirety only after three-quarters of a century more of painful progress. It was in acknowledging the receipt of Pro- fessor Ticknor's Syllabus of Lectures on Span- ish Literature that Jefferson, as we have seen, commended the principle of uncontrolled choice : I am not fully informed of the practices at Harvard, but there is one from which we shall certainly vary, although it has been copied, I believe, by nearly every college and academy in the United States. That is, the holding the students all to one prescribed course of reading, and disallowing exclusive application to those branches only which are to qualify them for the par- ticular vocations to which they are destined. We shall, 112 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM on the contrary, allow them uncontrolled choice in the lec- tures they shall choose to attend, and require elementary qualification only and sufficient age. Our institution will proceed on the principle of doing all the good it can, without consulting its own pride or ambition ; of letting every one come and listen to whatever he thinks may improve the condition of his mind. Between the -writing of this letter in 1823 and the opening of the University of Virginia ■with a complete Elective System on March 7, 1825, there had been appointed at Cambridge two successive committees of the Board of Overseers to inquire into the condition of the University. Both of these committees had re- ported and the Overseers had accepted, Jan- uary 25, 1825, the report drawn up by the first of these committees, of which Joseph Story was chairman. This report recommended several important changes. Among them were the following : " that the College studies shall be divided into two classes ; the first embrac- ing all such studies as shall be indispensable to obtain a degree ; the second, such in respect to which the students may, to a limited ex- tent, exercise a choice which they will pursue." In June, 1825, three months after the open- ing of the University of Virginia to students^ ELECTIVE SYSTEM AT HARVARD COLLEGE 113 a new code of laws was adopted by the Har- vard Corporation and Overseers. It provided for the admission of what came to be known as "special students" — persons not candi- dates for degrees ; for the divisions of courses into departments with a professor at the head of each department ; for the division of classes according to proficiency ; and for the consid- eration, to a limited extent, of the desires of students in the arrangement of their students.' These provisions of Judge Story's report, con- taining as they do the germs of the Elective System, are the first official statement of a plan for which Harvard University, nearly a half- century later, began to assume an acknow- ledged, though often a distrusted, leadership. These changes were adopted by the Corpora- tion and Overseers contrary to the recom- mendations of the Faculty. As might be ex- pected, the immediate result was slight. The opportunity was provided, however, for George Ticknor to carry out in a single department, the French and Spanish Languages and Lit- erature, that voluntary system with which, as ' Statutes and Laws of the University at Cambridge, 1826 : 11, 68, 60, 61, 63. 114 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM we have seen, he had become so strongly im- pressed at the University of Virginia. In 1824 all studies were required, except that Juniors were permitted to choose a sub- stitute for the thirty-eight lessons in Hebrew, and Seniors could choose between chemistry and fluxions. French and Spanish were re- garded merely as " extra" subjects, which stu- dents might take or not, as they pleased. In 1826, under the new Statutes, students could take modern languages after the first third of Freshman year in place of specified courses in Greek, Latin, Topography, Hebrew and nat- ural science, and Seniors might substitute natural philosophy for a part of intellectual philosophy. As modern languages were almost the only subjects available for election, the freedom of choice was less than it appeared to be.' * President Thwing probably wishes to be understood only in a relative sense when he says that " under the influence of George Ticknor ... a large latitude of choice was allowed students." — History of Higher Education in America, p. 316. The Annual Report of the President of Harvard University to the Overseers on the state of the University, 1825-26, gives the schedule, ofEering Modern Languages or Mathe- matics, and " Hebrew or substitute " to Junior Sophisters. A footnote says that " the substitute is Latin and Greek, ELECTIVE SYSTEM AT HARVARD COLLEGE 115 The immediate result of the adoption of the voluntary plan in Ticknor's department is stated in his letter to the Corporation, April, 1827: The object of the law was in part, if I rightly under- stand it, to lead to instruction by subjects rather than by books, so that, for instance, a student should not merely read Livy and Horace, but learn Latin. This has been attempted in the modern languages, and I believe the effect has been valuable, though undoubtedly less so than if the same system had been pursued and an attempt made to execute the law in other studies. In the modern languages, especially, the operation of the principle of choice was decisive. The right to choose was presented, it appears, in two hundred and forty instances, and was accepted in two hundred and twenty-seven. That it has been beneficial in this branch I have had fuU proof, in the alacrity and earnestness with which a very large proportion of those who have been permitted to choose have pursued the studies they have chosen. In President Quincy's Eeport for 1830-31, he said : " an enlarged sphere of action has been Modern Foreign Languages, or Mathematics." Senior So- phisters have Intellectual Philosophy or Natural History, and Ancient or Modern Languages as a substitute for Chem- istry, Mineralogy and Geology. Brown University at this time offered its Juniors, in the Third Term, Calculus or French, and its Seniors, in the Third Term, Hebrew or French. There were no other options. 116 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM opened for the encouragement of the spirit of voluntary study ; not only by the facilities and inducements held out for the pursuit of the modern languages, beyond what the gen- eral laws of the University require, but also, recently, by the establishment of a philologi- cal department, for teaching the theory and practice of instruction. . . . The institution can be considered at present in the light only of an experiment." President Quincy's later reports make no mention of this subject. In 1833 Professor Ticknor said : " The sys- tem of volunteer study was beg^n in this department in 1826 with thirteen students. The number of students embracing it has con- stantly increased every year ; and now exceeds the number of regular students. The teachers are particularly gratified with the proficiency of these volunteer students." In that year the classes in modern languages numbered 210 students, of whom 103 were volunteer stu- dents. In his report for 1833-34, Professor Ticknor added that, " owing to the adoption and f uU application of the volunteer system, the amount of study and progress in each modern language has been greatly increased; ELECTIVE SYSTEM AT HARVARD COLLEGE 117 in some sections doubled within the last eight years." In 1834 the Faculty adopted regulations for voluntary studies, which established a mini- mum in mathematics, Greek, Latin, modern languages, theology, moral and intellectual phi- losophy, logic and rhetoric, level to the capa- city of faithful students in the lowest third of a class, and provided that students who had attained the minimum in any branch might elect the studies which they would pursue in place thereof, being formed into sections of not less than six members, without regard to classes. In spite of these occasional official state- ments that seemed blessed with an exotic breadth of view, it appears from the meagre offering of elective courses, as well as from the letters of Professor Ticknor, that, except in modern languages, the administration of the college curriculum remained in 1835 sub- stantially what it had been before the adoption of the statutes of 1825. In 1835, when Ticknor resigned his pro- fessorship, he reviewed his fifteen years' work at Harvard in a letter from which the follow- 118 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM ing significant passage is taken : " Within the limits of the department I have entirely broken up the division of classes, established fully the principle and practice of progress according to proficiency, and introduced a system of volun- tary study, which for several years has embraced from one hundred and forty to one hundred and sixty students, so that we have relied hardly at all on college discipline, as it is called, but almost entirely on the good disposition of the young men and their desire to learn. If, there- fore, the department of the modern languages is right, the rest of the college is wrong ; and if the rest of the college is right we ought to adopt its system, which I believe no person whatsoever has thought desirable for the last three or four years." At the same time Pro- fessor Ticknor wrote to a friend: "In my own department I have succeeded entirely, but I can get these changes carried no further. As long as I hoped to advance them, I continued attached to the College : when I gave up all hope I determined to resign." Thus the elective principle was discredited at the beginning of progress by a body of men indoctrinated with the venerable idea of ELECTIVE SYSTEM AT HARVARD COLLEGE 119 ■what constitutes a liberal education. Thus Harvard University spurned an opportunity for consistent and progressive leadership which retarded its growth until a similar opportunity was seized shortly after the Civil War. In 1838, the Corporation provided that stu- dents who had completed the Freshman mathe- matics might discontinue the subject and take in its place natural history, civil history, chem- istry, a course in geography, and the use o£ the globes, or studies in Greek and Latin addi- tional to the prescribed course. It is sugges- tive of the early difficulties in providing any real freedom of choice that the college, after announcing this apparent extension of the elective system, felt obliged to add the warn- ing that the College might not be able to pro- vide the proposed alternative of natural history, civil history and chemistry. In 1838, Professors Beck and Felton pro- posed " to require of all only the classical studies of the Freshman year." "It is prob- able," they added, "that a liberty of choice will increase the zeal and application of stu- dents in the classical departments, and raise materially the standard of scholarship." In 120 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM 1841, this recommendation was adopted by the Corporation and the Overseers, and the Fac- ulty announced a far broader scheme of stud- ies than any previously permitted at Harvard College. (Appendix II.) It was provided that the students who discontinued Greek and Latin might choose substitutes among the following branches : natural history, civil history, chem- istry, geology, geography, popular astronomy, modern languages, modern oriental literature. In defending this extension of the elective system, President Quincy made use of most of the arguments that have since become tra- ditional ; but he urged most emphatically the contention that a high standard of scholarship could not be maintained, even in the classics, under the old prescribed system. Theophilus Parsons then presented, for the Overseers, a report in which he set forth clearly those fun- damental ideas of the Elective System which were not fully accepted as the guiding princi- ples of the College until Charles William Eliot became President. That elective studies were still regarded with suspicion by the majority of the Faculty is indicated by the regulation attached to the ELECTIVE SYSTEM AT HARVARD COLLEGE 121 new curriculum : " In forming the scale of rank at the end of a term, there shall be de- ducted from the aggregate marks given for an elected study one-half of the maximum marks for each exercise in such elected study." Un- der the provisions of this tarifE, the prescribed studies still remained highly protected, though by no means infant industries. From Professor Longfellow's annual re- ports, French appears to have been a required study for three years, 1839 to 1842 ; ' but in his annual reports from 1842 to 1848, there regularly appears the statement that " all the modem languages are elective." During this period — one of vigorous growth for the mod- ern languages under the new system — the Faculty voted that no student might study more than one modern language at one time. Professor Longfellow protested against this restriction, and appealed in vain to the Cor- poration to set aside the vote of the Faculty.^ This suspicion with which the real interests of the students were regarded, this tyranny of * The statements of the catalogues are at variance with Professor Longfellow's reports, but the latter are unques- tionably the better authorities. " College Papers, vol. xiii, p. 13. 122 THE COLLEGE CURKICULUM vested interests, and the consequent struggle of the modern languages for due recognition, is but the early history of every subject in the college curriculum from Greek itself to the commercial subjects of the new Graduate School of Business Administration. Between the adoption of the curriculum of 1841 and the accession of President Everett in the spring of 1846, various new regula- tions were made. These changes are here enu- merated because they show the way in which courses of study have been patched up, with rare exceptions, throughout the history of education. The curriculum of the moment is the motley production of numerous transient causes, of pulling and hauling, of tyrannical tradition and personal preference, of accident and compromise, rather than the deliberate and consistent adherence to any fixed princi- ples whatever. Thus, during these five years of vacillation, of fruitless attempts to follow several contradictory policies at one and the same time, the program of 1841 was modified in the following ways : Chemistry became required in Freshman year instead of elective in Sophomore year. ELECTIVE SYSTEM AT HARVARD COLLEGE 123 Geology became elective in Senior year in- stead of in Sophomore year. Geography, as an elective, was dropped. Story's Constitution became required for Juniors instead of for Seniors. Psychology and ethics became elective in- stead of required for Juniors. Political ethics became required instead of elective for Seniors. Modern languages became elective instead of prescribed for Sophomores and Seniors. Any one who thus follows the varying for- tunes of the numerous subjects of instruction, through almost any series of years in any in- stitution, is perplexed to find any indication of enlightened and authoritative leadership. It seems at times as if an equally good curric- ulum could have been constructed by chance drawings from a box in which a score or so of subjects had been shuf&ed. The new president at once (1846) requested the eighteen members of the Faculty to give their opinions in writing on the advantages and disadvantages of the Elective System. The Faculty was about evenly divided on the 124 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM merits of the system, but those who most fa- vored it were the ones who had seen most of its actual working in their own departments.' President Everett himself — the companion of Ticknor at Gottingen — was radically op- posed to the system. Two committees were appointed, one to prepare a wholly prescribed curriculum, the other to devise a plan of studies that should preserve the Elective Sys- tem. As might be expected, neither commit- tee could propose an acceptable program. A compromise committee was named to patch up a compromise curriculum. This curriculum, which probably satisfied nobody, was prescribed for all Harvard stu- dents, in its framework, for the next twenty years. It allowed Seniors to elect three of the following studies : Greek, Latin, Mathematics, German, Spanish and Italian. Juniors could elect three from the same list, Italian excepted. All other studies were prescribed. The election of President Sparks, in 1849, brought into power a new opponent of elect- ive studies. In 1850, the freedom was further ' College Papers, vol. xiv. Also Haryard President's Re- port, 1883-84, p. 16. ELECTIVE SYSTEM AT HARVARD COLLEGE 125 restricted in that Seniors and Juniors were al- lowed only one elective study, and these elect- ives, as before, included nothing but languages and mathematics. A student might take one extra study, but this was a liberty for which no credit was allowed on the rank lists. Pro- tests against this backward step are recorded to the credit of Professors Beck, Longfellow and Pierce.' In the last report of President Sparks (1851-52), he unwittingly made a statement concerning the college curriculum which, as President Eliot says, has remained an unan- swerable argument for the Elective System : " The voluntary system, as it has been called, is still retained to a certain extent, rather from necessity than preference. The number and variety of the studies, for which the University has provided instruction, are so large that it is impossible for any student, within the period of four years, to give such a degree of atten- tion to them all as will enable him to acquire more than a hmited and superficial knowledge from which little profit can be derived." ' Harvard President's Report, 1849-50. Also Recoids of the College Faculty, vol. xiii, April 8, 1860. 126 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM In 1856, through another curtailment of elective privileges, the system reached its low- est ebb, and here it remained until after the Civil War. (See Appendix III.) The Faculty of 1865-66 (twenty men with 414 students) was no better prepared to provide a broad curriculum than the Faculty of twenty years before. Yet it set out at once upon that policy of decreasing prescribed studies and increas- ing elective studies which Harvard College followed consistently during the long admin- istration of President Eliot. The very first words of President Eliot's In- augural Address, delivered October 19, 1869, enunciate the elective principle as the estab- lished policy of Harvard College : The endless controversies whether language, philo- sophy, mathematics, or science supplies the best mental training, whether general education should be chiefly literary or chiefly scientific, have no practical lesson for us to-day. This University recognizes no real antagonism between literature and science, and consents to no such narrow alternatives as mathematics or classics, science or metaphysics. .' . . Only a few years ago, all students who graduated at this College passed through one uniform curriculum. Every man studied the same subjects in the same pro- portions, without regard to his natural bent or preference. ELECTIVE SYSTEM AT HARVARD COLLEGE 127 The individual student had no choice of either subjects or teachers. This system is still the prevailing system among American colleges, and finds vigorous defenders. It has the merit of simplicity. So had the school meth- ods of our grandfathers — one primer, one catechism, one rod for all children. . . . These principles are the justification of the sys- tem of elective studies which has been gradually devel- oped in this College during the past forty years. At present the Freshman year is the only one in which there is a fixed course prescribed for all. In the other three years, more than half the time allotted to study is filled with subjects chosen by each student from lists which comprise six studies in the Sophomore year, nine in the Junior year, and eleven in the Senior year. The range of elective studies is large, though there are some striking deficiencies. . . . The elective system fosters scholarship, because it gives free play to natural preferences and inborn apti- tudes, makes possible enthusiasm for a chosen work, re- lieves the professor and the ardent disciple of the presence of a body of students who are compelled to an unwel- come task, and enlarges instruction by substituting many and various lessons given to small, lively classes, for a few lessons many times repeated to different sections of a numerous class. The College therefore proposes to persevere in its efforts to establish, improve and ex- tend the elective system. Its administrative difficulties, which seem formidable at first, vanish before a brief ex- perience.^ • C. W. Eliot, Educational Reform, chap. L 128 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM The curriculum was no longer at the mercy of chance and compromise : a principle was to guide the administration of studies at Harvard College for the next forty years. In 1872, the Senior year became wholly elective ; in 1879, the Junior year ; in 1884, the Sophomore year ; and in 1894, the single requirement that re- mained in the entire college course — English A — coidd be anticipated by an entrance ex- amination. Any one who wishes to follow in detail the development of the system at Har- vard College under the enlightened leadership of President Eliot, should read with care his annual reports and those of the Dean of Har- vard College. (See Appendix IV.) Abundant materials are there present, all of great value to men of every shade of opinion regarding the merits of the system that President Eliot has so long and so ably defended. CHAPTER VII THE EVOLUTION OF THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM IN THE SMALL COLLEGE To recount the vacillations and vicissitudes of the small college curricula of the past cen- tury is mainly to trace the influence of radical Harvard and conservative Yale. The small colleges of the United States divide themselves into the Radicals and the Conservatives about as clearly as the political forces of Europe align themselves under the same names. It is true that even the most radical colleges, judged by the standards of extra-academic groups, have been culpably conservative. It is also true that some of the small colleges, pulled this way by the influence of Harvard and that way by the influence of Yale, and subject to the changing personal whims of changing facul- ties, and the controlling influence now and again of a man with the power of leadership, present in the administration of their studies such a series of dissolving views that only a 130 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM rash man would venture to classify them any- where in particular. Nevertheless, two fairly distinct groups can be corralled, — one respond- ing to the call of Harvard radicalism, the other to the call of Yale conservatism. Furthermore, the story of each college re- veals the recurrent internal conflicts of these two forces. The books of each college registrar recount the fertilizing influence of new ideas and the birth pains of new curricula. Every- where the old has struggled with the new. Usually the old has held its own by the force of mere numbers. New members of the fac- ulty have had no votes until they have proved themselves docile followers, safe custodians of tradition. No bodies of men, if we except cer- tain dying church societies, have been so bound by tradition as college faculties. " What has been should be," is the nearest approach to a guiding principle that many an institution has conceived. Old professors have selected as their successors men who have succumbed to the system rather than those who have re- volted. Thus, on the whole, teachers have al- ways preferred to teach the subjects they were taught, and to teach them in much the same ELECTIVE SYSTEM IN SMALL COLLEGES 131 ■way. Self-perpetuating corporations and other boards of college government have also helped to stem the tides of the new education by elect- ing to the places of deceased members men of the same generation. When, for example, WU- liam DeWitt Hyde, at the age of twenty-six, became President of Bowdoin College, he had to institute reforms, if at all, through a Board of Trustees whose average age was sixty-five years. No wonder that the courses of study of the small colleges during the past century ap- pear, at this perspective, to have trailed along reluctantly a generation behind the just de- mands of the multitude they were supposed to serve. " The progress of this institution," said a young professor in a New England college, fresh from university study in Ger- many, " wiU be directly proportional to the death-rate of the faculty." It seems a cruel observation, and not wholly warranted, for " young fogyism " is no less deadly than that " old fogyism " that is often unjustly maligned. But on the whole, college records show that each new subject has fought its way, almost literally inch by inch, against the prolonged 132 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM opposition of the older professors. Seldom has a program of study been constructed in ac- cord with any accepted educational principles, revealing coherence, consistency, and breadth of view. Eather, each course of study has been patched up for the year, or even for the terra, from the vested interests that contrived to hold their own and the new interests that managed to wrest an hour here and there from the con- servators of the past. It would be tedious to follow the fortunes of the liberal ofEerings of modern electives through all their struggles in the five or six hundred institutions that are still ornamented with the name of college or university. And, happily, it is needless to do so. The develop- ment of the Elective System in a single college is typical enough to illustrate the whole move- ment. And if we choose one of the more con- servative of the colleges that grew up under the influence of Harvard, we shall find less divergence from the mean type than in any other example we could select. Such an insti- tution is Bowdoin College. From the beginnings of instruction at Bow- doin College in 1802 until 1867-68, with the ELECTIVE SYSTEM IN SMALL COLLEGES 133 few exceptions already noted above [p. 98], the curriculum of the traditional type was prescribed for all students. That year three " optional " studies appear on the schedule : Junior Class, Third Term, Plato's Apology of Socrates, Spanish Language (Soone's Neuman and Baretti's Dictionary, AUendorfE's Gram- mar, and Novelas Espaiiolas) ; Senior Class, Second Term, Italian Language. Here we have the characteristic approach to the Elective System, both in the subjects themselves and in their inferior position as " extra studies." Two years earlier, as we have seen. Harvard, with seven elective studies in Junior year and ten in Senior year, had finally launched on her career as the modern champion of the elective principle. The next year at Bowdoin, Plato's " Phaedo " took the place of the " Apology," and the following year Spanish took the place of Italian. There were no other changes. The year 1871 brought a new President, General Joshua L. Chamberlain, and with him a new Science Course, offering options in the Sophomore year, and with this course the char- acteristic apology : " Attention is again di- rected to the fact that in this aim and effort 134 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM nothing is detracted from the high standard of the established College Course. On the con- trary, the tendency is to raise this beyond its previous measure. A glimpse is taken of noble fields of labor, and the real business of life. The appUcation, use and value of the abstruse sciences and dry details insisted on in the Clas- sical Course are seen, and the whole form and spirit of study is quickened into new life and meaning." The adoption of Science Courses in Ameri- can classical colleges was in the first instance an attempt to stave off the Elective System by giving the new, attractive subjects a place of their own, in the hope that they would no longer dispute the right of eminent domain of the Triumvirate. That this was the case at Bowdoin is clear from the further apology that accompanied the presentation of the first Sci- ence Courses.' The demand for what is deemed a more practical Course of Instruction than that afforded by the estab- lished College System, has induced the Trustees and Overseers to provide for a Department of Study so con- stituted and directed as to afford a symmetrical and * For the elaborate curricula that were offered in the upper years of the Science Courses, see Appendix VI. ELECTIVE SYSTEM IN SMALL COLLEGES 135 liberal education, and at the same time to place the stu- dent in more immediate relations with the active world and his own work in it. The attempts which have hitherto been made to meet this demand, have resulted in crowd- ing a variety and amount of study into the old College curriculum which is desultory, confusing, and incom- plete ; or in driving out many studies long tested and ap' proved as the basis of a Classical education or a learned profession. The present plan withdraws these encroach- ing studies, for the most part, from the Classical Course, and incorporates them into a new one ; thus bracing up the classics in their former position — maintaining and confirming the prestige of " Old Bowdoin," while giving organization and ample scope to the studies which a large class of young men find adapted to their circumstances, talents, or aims in life. The conditions of the case have made it necessary that the requirements for admission to the new Department should be less in some respects than for the Classical ; but it will be found that the kind and degree of study required throughout the Scientific Course is the reverse of superficial, and that the two courses, viewed at their completion will be as nearly equal as the different phases and directions of the studies permit.' To give this new and therefore suspected curriculum the " dignity " of the traditional A. B. course, there was actually more Latin pre- scribed for the science students in Freshman year than for the classical students; and twelve ' Catalogue of Bowdoin College, 1871, p. 19. 186 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM lectures on Greek and its uses in English were provided as an antidote for the " practical " subjects of Junior year. As suggestive of the notion of "equivalents " which governed these early experiments, it is interesting that in 1872, in all branches of the Science department, stu- dents were ofEered a single option in the third term of Sophomore year. They might risk all the baneful effects of the Elective System by choosing either " 60 Recitations in Differen- tial and Integral Calculus ; or 30 Recitations in Parliamentary Rules and Practice, and 30 Recitations in Logic." Almost any of the op- tions that at this time were vigorously opposed at Bowdoin might have been reasonably de- fended ; but it is difficult to see how Parlia- mentary Practice could be regarded as the equivalent of Differential and Integral Calcu- lus, or, indeed, how college Sophomores or any- body else could profitably spend thirty recita- tions on Parliamentary Rules. It was soon found that such electives as these, attached more or less accidentally to a course that was generally regarded as inferior to the Classical Course, would not satisfy the demands of the time. Since the days of Thomas • ELECTIVE SYSTEM IN SMALL COLLEGES 137 Jefferson, the reign of the Oxford Triumvirate had been doomed. Already at Harvard its sceptre had been wrenched with an unlineal hand, no son succeeding. Rebuffed by the vic- tory of the German invaders, it had retreated to its chief strongholds at Williams and at Bowdoin. And now, exactly half a century after the opening of the University of Virginia, the Triumvirate is mortally wounded in the struggle at Bowdoin. In 1880-81, when the separate Science course was abandoned, the College announced that "instead of separate and distinct courses called classical and scientific, the regular course has been reconstructed, giving more place to scientific studies, and after the second year affording a liberal range of electives within which a student may take such studies as he prefers, to the extent of one quarter of the whole amount pursued. In these electives the Modern Languages have more place than they have hitherto held in the course." In this pro- gram of study, the " liberal " electives occu- pied one-quarter of one-half of the students* work! (See Appendix VII.) Ten years later, 1890-91, when the Elective 138 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM System had won half of the three upper years, the catalogue stated the situation as follows : The course of study is adapted solely and strictly to students desiring a liberal education. Every student must acquire the discipline of Algebra, Geometry, and Trigonometry, ability to read Latin, Greek, French, and German, and an elementary knowledge of Hygiene, Elocution, Bhetoric, Logic, Physics, Chemistry, Geology, Astronomy, Psychology, Ethics, and Political Economy. The required studies occupy the whole of the Freshman year, and one-half of each of the last three years. The remainder of the curriculum is elective, and includes courses in Botany, ZoBlogy, Physiology and Histology, Chemistry, Physics, and Astronomy, on the side of natural science ; and courses in Latin, Greek, Fi'ench, German and English Literature, Bible Study, History, Sociology, and the Science of Government, on the side of literature and the life of man.* In 1894-95, when all required subjects had been pushed back as far as the first term of Sophomore year, the catalogue said : The course of study is adapted solely and strictly to students desiring a liberal education. Every student is required to master the elements of Latin, Greek, Mathe- matics, French, German, and Rhetoric. Having acquired these tools of literary and scientific work, the student is allowed to elect the rest of his studies. The required • Catalogue o/Bowdoin College, 1890-91, p. 23. ELECTIVE SYSTEM IN SMALL COLLEGES 139 work occupies the whole of the Freshman year and one- third of the Sophomore year. The work of the remain- ing two-thirds of the Sophomore year and of the whole of the Junior and Senior years is elective. . . . The scrappy and haphazard study of isolated suhjects by single terms, chiefly for the information to be gath- ered therefrom, has been superseded by a curriculum in which every department ofEers a general course, con- secutive throughout the year ; and this general course in every department except Philosophy, which is not introduced until the Senior year is followed by one or more courses, also consecutive throughout a year. . . . The elective studies are so grouped that, while a reason- able degree of concentration is encouraged, excessive and premature specialization is prevented. "^ To indicate in brief compass how the elect- ive principle edged its way into the curricu- lum and inch by inch drove the prescribed studies back, and at the same time to show the almost accidental way in which the cur- riculum evolved, it is necessary only to scan the column of innocent changes that were effected year by year : 1 Bowdoin College Catalogue of 1894-95, p. 27. 140 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM ANNUAL PROGRESS OF THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM AT BOWDOIN COLLEGE (For oonTenient comparison, the dates are giTen for corresponding steps at Harvard College-) 1873. Greek and mathematics become optional in Junior year. 1874. Latin gives way to French in the science course. 1875. Sutler's Analogy gives way to comparative anatomy. 1876. Latin and mathematics become elective in the first term of Junior year. Greek becomes optionaL (First use of the word " elective.") 1877. In Sophomore year, " students elect two of the three studies, Latin, Greek and mathematics." 1878. Ancient history is added to Sophomore year; English and United States history are added to Junior year. 1879. Military science is added to Senior year. 1880. Zoology becomes elective in Junior year, Spanish, Italian and Anglo-Saxon are offered as " extras." The classical course and the science course are combined. 1881. International law and military science are added to Senior year. 1882. International law and military science are dropped from Senior year. 1883. Scott's " Development of Constitutional Liberty in the American Colonies " added to electives of Junior year. 1884. Sanscrit added to electives of Senior year. ELECTIVE SYSTEM IN SMALL COLLEGES 141 1885. Vertebrate anatomy added to electives of Senior year. 1886. Natural history, now called biology, elective for Juniors. 1887. Elective System extended to Sophomore year, third term. The electives are Latin, Greek, mathe- matics, physics and English Literature. The first course offered in English Literature is Bacon's Essays and Milton's Areopagitica. Astronomy becomes elective for Seniors. 1888. Bible study becomes elective for Seniors. 1889. French as an elective is pushed back to Sopho- more year. There are electives in all three terms. Five subjects are prescribed. (Five years earlier, the last prescribed Sophomore study became elect- ive at Harvard.) 1890. Anthropology and sociology become elective for Seniors. Biology is no longer prescribed. 1891. Bibliography, astronomy, geology, and the his- tory of philosophy become elective. 1892. Rhetoric becomes elective for Juniors. 1893. Contemporary Social Questions becomes elective for Seniors. This year one prescribed subject clings to each term of Senior year : i. e. psycho- logy, economics and ethics. Two still cling to each term of Junior year : i. e. astronomy and chem- istry, logic and chemistry, mineralogy and United States history. 1894. All the prescribed studies disappear from Senior and Junior years. (Fifteen years after the same step at Harvard.) 142 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM 1896. Drawing becomes elective in Freshman year. 1898. German becomes elective in Sophomore year for six of the nine groups. 1900. Rhetoric becomes elective for those Sophomore candidates for B. S. or B. L. who offer French. 1902. The entire Sophomore year (except Themes) be- comes elective for all students who offer German or French for admission. 1908. By the removal of the requirement of Themes, the Sophomore year becomes elective. (Twenty- four years after the same step at Harvard.) During the decade 1900-1910, complicated attempts were made, at Bowdoin as at all small colleges, to keep pace with the develop- ment of the Elective System in preparatory schools and yet retain some semblance of the prescribed regime. A plan of major and mi- nor requirements was also adopted ; but the consideration of this administrative device will be left for the second part of our study, where we shall examine critically the present administration of the coUege curriculum. CHAPTER VIII BKEAKDOWN OF THE PEESCEIBED E^GIME This story of the conflict between the radi- cal and conservative forces and the resultant breakdown of the prescribed programs, which we have traced in detail for one of the larger and for one of the smaller colleges, is recorded in the archives of nearly every college. Clear- est of all is the story of the conflict at Harvard and at Yale. During the third decade of the nineteenth century, while Harvard, under the influence of the young and untrammeled Uni- versity of Virginia, was feeling cautiously for something better suited than the venerable Oxford curriculum to a new democracy in a new world, the university at New Haven fought valiantly for the old regime. Nowhere is the protest against the trend of the past century better expressed than in the reports published in 1828 by a committee of the Yale faculty and a committee of the Yale corporation. These Yale reports dismiss the whole ques- 144 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM tion at issue by declaring that the learned world long ago settled the matter. The one aim of a college is liberal culture, a thorough education by mental discipline. This is utterly impossible without Latin and Greek. " Hardly a question can be named where the practical decision of mankind has been more absolute." If the classics were not required, " this college would probably, at no distant day, sink into a mere academy, while its degrees, being no longer evidence of great literary and scientific attainments, would become valueless. . . . The ' ancient languages having been made the organ of communicating revealed religion to man, the originals must be considered the standards of accuracy and truth. . . . The single consid- eration that divine truth was communicated to man in the ancient languages ought to put this question at rest, and give to them per- petuity." The report of the committee of the Corporation concludes by urging "much greater requirements, especially in the class- ics." It is interesting to observe how frankly in these days men stressed the social and artifi- cial va,lue of classical knowledge. Harking BREAKDOWN OF PRESCRIBED RJ^GIME 145 back to the barren aims of the Middle Ages, the Yale report declares that " classical learn- ing is interwoven "with every literary discus- sion. . . . High respectability without its aid may indeed be attained, as it has been, by lawyers of extraordinary mental endowments ; but such, it is presumed, will generally be found to lament their inability to command the rich illustrations and embellishments, which the scholar copiously draws from classic learn- ing." Although, the committee admits, not all college students will become ministers or law- yers, yet as some men who are to take up these professions may not know it when they enter college, the authorities should safeguard their future rhetorical efforts by prescribing classical embellishments for all students. Both committees beg the question through- out by assuming that an education with Latin and Greek is " complete," whereas an educa- tion without Latin and Greek must be " par- tial." To give up the classics, they declare, is to give up all " high and solid attainments," to be a college only in name, and to fall into the " fallacy of substituting a diploma for an education." Ticknor's ideas are scorned and 146 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM the modern languages are said to require chiefly efforts of memory. As a final argu- ment the classics are said to be the necessary foundation for all other studies, since every- thing throws light upon everything else. These reports, replete with fallacies as they are, had a strong influence on higher education up to the time of the Civil War. They did much to postpone the day when the reform movements of Jefferson at Virginia and Ticknor at Har- vard and the later efforts of Wayland at Brown were to modify every college curriculum in America. The inaugural address of President Lord of Dartmouth College, delivered the year these reports were published, is one instance of the conservative influence of Yale. Of the Har- vard reforms, he is wary. Possibly, he says, institutions that have become venerable by age, powerful in resources and patronage, may go forward to introduce doubtful changes ; but feebler institutions cannot leave the ground of general principles. " However, in the zeal of innovation, the utiUty of classical learning has been decried, it is not probable that the name of scholar will ever be awarded to one who has BREAKDOWN OF PRESCRIBED BfiGIME 147 not loved to spend his days and nights upon these pages of antiquity, nor drunk deep from these original sources of taste, and genius, and philosophy." So profoundly was he impressed with Yale views that he feared the Harvard reforms, should they prevail, would leave our country to " degenerate into comparative bar- barism." Thus has the coUege curriculum al- ways lagged behind the clear vision of need. Venerable institutions could not, and new ones dared not, lead the way. That the same paralysis affected American colleges in 1842 appears from President Way- land's virile Thoughts on the Present Col- legiate System. The system is much the same, he says, throughout the country. " With but very few exceptions it consists of a four years course, terminating in graduation, all the stu- dents pursuing the same studies, the same labor being required from all, and the same time being allotted to each. . . . The older in- stitutions have in no important respect even ventured to deviate from it, and the new ones have considered their own organization per- fect in just so far as they have been able to approximate to it." Except for such reform 148 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM movements as we have recorded, this was a correct summary of the history o£ the college curriculum in America. How superficial the prescribed patchwork curriculum became is shown by the catalogue of Union College for 1849. No less than thirty-three subjects are mentioned for juniors and seniors. During the third term of senior year, in the time that could be spared from Hebrew, BibHcal literature, moral philosophy and Butler's Analogy, students were required to take "botany, geology, mineralogy, ana- tomy, physiology, with a Synoptical View of the Sciences in Lectures." Lest this Cook's Tour through the realms of human knowledge should seem too restricted, a footnote gives assurance that lectures are also delivered on natural philosophy, rhetoric and oratory, po- litical economy, metaphysics, and the philoso- phy of history. Maryville College, Tennessee, the first year after the Civil War, prescribed for all students seventy-seven subjects. Presi- dent Wayland of Brown said that the amount which the college was required to teach had doubled, if not trebled, while the time re- mained to a day the same as before. When BREAKDOWN OF PRESCRIBED REGIME 14» he told English and Scottish instructors the number of studies required of all students in American colleges, he received the uniform reply, " The thing is impossible." From this impossible thing there seemed to be but one escape, — the Elective System. In the early seventies the old ideas and the new clashed with the din of real battle. At the inauguration of Noah Porter at Yale, in 1871, President Woolsey declared that " the general tradition of what a college ought to be is tolerably fixed," and he appeared bliss- fully unaware that the Yale faculties were not then " in the van of the sciences." Presi- dent Porter, in condemning the Elective Sys- tem, spoke with a fine sense of superiority of " that millennium which the prophets of the new dispensation declare to have already come in the schools which they have reared." His address implied throughout that the tradi- tional curriculum, so ably defended by the men of 1828, is the only one that can give " habits of systematic research," " culture that is truly liberal," and men who " refine upon our vulgarities and introduce amenities into our social life." At the same time President 150 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM Eliot was declaring that the average student, •with the help of his instructors, friends, and natural advisers, makes a more judicious se- lection of studies for himself than the faculty could make for him, with any knowledge which they are likely to have of his tastes, capacities and purposes, — a much better se- lection, moreover, than the old prescribed cur- riculum of Harvard College, or the present prescribed curriculums of any other college, would be. In an historical sketch of St. Louis Univer- sity written at this time, the orthodox Catho- lic view of the college course was set forth. The writer attempted to show that the Ratio Studiorum of 1599 is as comprehensive in its scope as any true friend of Education could desire : St. Ignatius comprises in his scheme of studies the entire range of human knowledge, each separate part complete in itself. . . . The foundation is laid by the knowledge of words, their meaning, their forms, and etymology. Words are next marshalled into sentences, which syntax renders correct, precise, perspicuous. Co- piousness of diction, as well as elegance, is taught by poetry and rhetoric, whilst the main object of these arts is fully developed in the various kinds of poetical and BREAKDOWN OF PRESCRIBED REGIME 151 oratorical composition. And thas far the Tarioas acces- sory sources of erudition have heen kept open to the youthful mind, — history, geography, antiquities, — in addition to the elementary branches of mathematics, all tending to train, to enrich the mind, and to furnish ma- terials for future use. Next comes logic, which teaches the art of reasoning; metaphysics, in its various divi- sions, — so little esteemed, and yet so worthy of constant study, the science of the mind, the highest and noblest of all sciences purely human. Along with this, the phy- sical sciences and the higher mathematics for the study of which the mind is only then sufBciently developed, claims the students' attention. Thus, the whole sphere of what nature offers to man's knowledge is embraced in the course of philosophy. And all this . . . though magnificent in itself, yet receives its crown and its ulti- mate perfection from theology, and has its centre there. Theology is the end of all because God is the end of all.* What the college curriculum was in some institutions at this time is suggested by the experience of David Starr Jordan in a well- known college in Illinois. *' As Professor of Natural History," he says, " I taught zoology, botany, geology, physiology — a little of each and to little purpose. Then physics, chemis- try, mineralogy, natural theology, and politi- * Hill, W. H., Historical Sketch of St. Louis University, 1879, p. 154. 152 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM cal economy, also, as a matter of course. With these went German, Spanish, and evidences of Christianity, because there was no one else to take them. There finally fell on me the literary work of the college — the orations, essays, declamations, and all that flavorless foolishness on which the college depended for a creditable display at Commencement. When to this was added a class in the Sunday- school, you will see why it seemed necessary that the naturalist and the professor must sooner or later part company." It was not only the extension of the college curriculum that led to the breakdown of the prescribed program, but as well additional high-school studies which college requirements ignored. The new attitude toward the new high school was first expressed by President Eliot. In 1897, he said : In view of these changed conditions within the pro- vince of secondary education the ultimate principle on which Harvard College tends to act in the matter of admission requirements is this — the College inclines to count for admission any subject which is taught in good secondary schools long enough and well enough to make the study of it a substantial part of a training appro- priate to the pupil's capacity and degree of maturity. BREAKDOWN OF PRESCRIBED R:6GIME 153 The total number of subjects now well taught in second- ary schools being much greater than the individual pupil can master, the College tends to accept any selection of subjects — made by school, parents, or pupil — which may fairly be said to constitute a sound training, and is disposed to leave to the secondary school its full share of the responsibility for making wise selections. The future attitude of the College is likely to be not con- tinued insistence upon certain school studies as essential to preparation for College, but insistence that the gate to a university education shall not be closed on the can- didate iu consequence of his omission at school of any particular studies, provided that his school course has been so composed as to afford him a sound training of some sort. In a democratic nation, spread over a conti- nent, and in which secondary education presents great local diversities, colleges and universities, if they would retain a national character and influence, must be care- ful not to offer unnecessary obstacles to the admission of young men of adequate though diversified preliminary training. Harvard College has long represented the prin- ciple of election of college studies, and has found no- thing but advantage in the free application of that prin- ciple. It is natural that the College should seek to further the adoption of the same principle in secondary educa- tion and in requirements for admission to College, i Up to this point we have described the most critical periods in the history of the col- lege curriculum in America. Before we turn > Harvard College, Presirfeni's Report, 1896-97, pp. 18-19. 154 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM to a critical discussion of the present adminis- tration of studies, the suggestion may be par- doned that college makers and college critics of to-day might illumine some of the obscure paths in higher education if they would but use the light of history. They might do well to observe how the absolutely essential re- quirements of one generation are held up to scorn by the next, and in how many respects the educational heresy of the past has become the orthodoxy of the present. Every age has had its ideal curriculum. We now see, or think we see, that for centuries these have all been wrong. No country has ever devised a program for school or college which appears to us to have been perfectly adapted to the needs of all its people. Yet are there not men to-day who, unmindful of the infinite diversity among individuals, the fatal disagreements among themselves, the plain lessons of history, and the evolutionary conception of society, are so presumptuous as fondly to imagine that at last to them, to them alone, have been re- vealed the studies which we can safely im- pose — nay, which we must impose — on all our sons and daughters. If we were as BREAKDOWN OF PRESCRIBED Ri^GIME 155 bold as such men, we would prescribe for them a course in history. We would ask them to survey the vestiges of prescribed pro- grams that are now strewn across the conti- nent from Maine to California. Indeed, it might not be without profit if all the modern administrators who have patched up the mot- ley array o£ programs and the bewildering as- sortment of rules, to be set forth in the follow- ing chapters, would read with care those Yale reports of 1828. It might not be without profit if the faculty of to-day that is about to express its wisdom by prescribing the essen- tials of a liberal education would note with what certainty the men of 1828 — and of every other time, for that matter — settled the whole question and fixed the college curricu- lum in final perfection. PAET II CRITICAL CHAPTER IX PRESENT EEQUIEEMENTS FOK THE A. B. DEGEEE The present age is one of transition in higher education : the American college is on trial. Condemnation is heard on every hand. The capital charge is preferred that there is a gen- eral demoralization of college standards, ex- pressing the fact that, as the college serves no particular educational purpose, it is immaterial •whether the student takes the thing seriously or not. The college is said to retain traces of its English origin in the familiar twaddle about the college as a sort of gentleman fac- tory — a gentleman being a youth free from the suspicion of thoroughness or definite pur- pose. The college is charged with failure in pedagogical insight at each of the critical junc- tures of the boy's education, so that a degree may be won with little or no systematic exer- tion, and as a result our college students are said to emerge flighty, superficial, and imma- ture, lacking, as a class, concentration, serious- leo THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM ness, and thoroughness. Such is the sweeping charge brought forward in "The American College." Nor can the case be laughed out of court, for the prosecution is able to bring for- ward, from within and without college walls, a formidable body of expert witnesses. Mr. Charles Francis Adams says that the whole situation stands in crying need of re- form. President Wilson observes that so far as the colleges go, the side shows have swal- lowed up the circus, and we in the main tent do not know what is going on. Professor Cat- tell cannot understand why the public should pay a thousand dollars for the expenses of each boy who goes through college to enjoy the pleasures of drinking-clubs and betting on athletics. Professor Wendell declares that col- lege education is to-day chiefly notable for its ineffectiveness. President Garfield deplores the weakening of intellectual stamina observed among undergraduates. President Pritchett bears witness that our schools, from the ele- mentary school to the university, are ineffi- cient, superficial, lacking in expert supervision. Others have called the American college " the pedagogical football of university presidents," REQUIREMENTS FOR THE A. B. DEGREE 161 " a club for idling classes," " a training school for shamming and shirking," " the most gigan- tic illusion of the age," and "a sort of edu- cational vermiform appendix." The Nation, summing up the testimony of many such witnesses, says that there is only too much concrete evidence to justify the com- plaint that college students are lacking in spon- taneous and disinterested intellectual activity, and there is hardly a college in the country whose bachelor's degree is a genuine certificate of intellectual disciphne. The Dial declares that modern society has thought to relieve it- self of educational responsibility by multiply- ing the mere machinery of education, until many students nowadays get from their college life little but educational disadvantages. The Columbia University Quarterly concludes that the question really is not whether there should be radical changes in the American college, but what the changes should be. Thus there appear to be loud demands for scientific studies of all aspects of college administration. One of the most important of these is the ad- ministration of the curriculum. Regarding the college curriculum of to-day 162 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM President Hadley holds that there is some- thing radically wrong about the principles under which we are working. Mr. Flexner says one can lay one's hands on nothing definite in the curriculum that is actually calculated to make for breadth, hberaUty or citizenship. President W. L. Bryan finds that the exces- sive expansion of the course of study has cheapened the elementary college work. Pro- fessor Stephen Leacock declares that the American student's ignorance of all things except his own part of his own subject has grown colossal. President Schurman deplores the fact that the college is without clear-cut notions of what a liberal education should be, and that this is not a local or special disability, but a paralysis afEecting every college of Arts in America. The Glasgow Herald declares that in university matters, as in social and politi- cal affairs, America does not know where it is going, but it is determined to get there. This confusion of ideas as to what should constitute the course of study for the Arts de- gree is revealed in the contradictory charges brought against the American college of to- day. Dean Briggs deplores, the fact that many REQUIREMENTS FOR THE A. B. DEGREE 163 parents regard college as a place of delight- ful irresponsibility, where a youth may disport himself before he is condemned to hard labor ; ■while Dean Birge regrets the sense of elegant leisure and of cultured pleasure, some part of which our colleges have lost. Mr. Birdseye condemns the college for not separating its functions of research and teaching, while Pro- fessor Royce warns us against those theorists who want to sunder afresh what the whole course of our modern American development has wisely tended to join, namely, teaching and investigation. President Eliot holds that freedom of choice has proved the only defen- sible plan for administering the curriculum, while Professor Ladd declares that we must promptly and radically abandon the delusions involved in the Elective System. Some critics condemn the college for keeping its curricu- lum out of touch with the masses, and thus harboring an indolent aristocracy ; others con- demn the college for yielding weakly to the popular cry for more practical courses. Some deplore the desertion of culture courses in favor of courses of vocational trend; while others call the culture courses nothing but 164 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM Bo£t, wishy-washy excuses for sloth, indiffer- ence, neglect, and ill-concealed ridicule of the study and its teacher. Some critics hold that the one thing necessary is to secure concentra- tion of each student's work in some depart- ment, while others enact complicated rules to enforce the scattering of electives among vari- ous departments. And thus it goes. So great is the confusion of current discussions con- cerning the American college that an old negro preacher seems unwittingly to have summed it up when he said, " Education am de grand palladium ob our liberties and de pan- demonium ob our civilization." One might present an endless confusion of opinions as to what the college course should be; but altogether they would demonstrate finally only one important truth, namely, that nobody knows what the American college course should be. It is needless to tarry long with individual opinions on this subject. The resultants of thousands of such opinions can be seen at a glance in tables showing the pre- sent requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in American colleges. Those who have examined many college catalogs can readily REQUIREMENTS FOR THE A. B. DEGREE 166 overlook any minor inaccuracies o£ these tables. Frequently the promise of the cata- log is not the performance of the college, and sometimes the language of college publica- tions is obscure or contradictory. Certainly there are no errors of any consequence for the purposes of this study. Table I indicates the subjects required for the A. B. degree in twenty-nine state univer- sities. The unit used is the year-hour, — one hour per week for one academic year. The most stiiking fact exhibited by the table is the total want of accepted ideas as to what sub- jects should be required for the A. B. degree or what proportion of the studies should be prescribed. A mere glance at the table shows the wide diversity of practice which has re- sulted from these attempts of many groups of men in many states to decide what is the es- sential core of a liberal education. Indeed, so great is the diversity of these requirements that if any one of these institutions is exactly right, all the rest must be wrong. The amount of required work ranges from three hours in Wyoming to thirty-nine and one-half hours in lee THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM TABLE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE A. B. 1 5 6 1 U 1 1 X 4' { 8 1 1 1 ■3 u 1 1 a n_ 6 1 o 3 1 i Alabama 16 1.6 Arkaiuas 6or7 3 s 4 6 3 Colorado T.5'« 1< 2.6 5 Florida 6 14 3 3 2 6 1.5 3 Georgia 6 12 3 3 3 1.6 Idaho 12 2 8 3.6 3.6 IlllnoU 4 4 4 1 10* 6» 5» 2 2 Iowa 4 or 6 4» 5 1 3 EansaB 3.5 5" Kentucky 6 6 6 Minnesota 2 1.6 MiBsiasippi Minsourl 3 1 1 3 1 3 1.5 6' 6 > • Nevada 7 14 4 6 6 1.6 New Uexlco J2U 1 3 3 Ohio 4 8 12 2.6 2 4.6 2.3 2.3 Oklahoma 2 3 3 Pennsylvania University 6" 3 2 6 1 1 6 Pennsylvania State 16 23 2 2 1.5 3 6.5 2.6 4 South Carolina 12 3 2 6 1.5 3 Tennessee 12' 3 6 6 Utah 3 3 3 Vermont 4 i 8 3 6 3 1 Virginia 9 6 3'" 6 fVashington 8 4 2 2 4 8 4 4 Wisconsin 8" 6 3 Wyoming S 3 Texas 12« 6 R 6 1.6 1 4 or 7. 9 See groap plani. s Gymnasium, military drill, or hygiene. * All in any oae language, or in two lanpugM. Mathematics or pliysica. « Economics or Bociology. 7 Half ancient, halt modem. * Logic and psychology, or mathematlaa. B 8 must be modem. 10 2500 " college hours." 31 Three hours in each of two languages- u 8| If 4 have bean offered for eatruioa. REQUIREMENTS FOR THE A. B. DEGREE 167 DEGREE IN STATE UNIVERSITIES 1 1 1 1 § o 1 1 •< i 1 1 'n a 1 1 1 1 S i , s o 1 s i 1 1 3 ! s I 1.6 913 l.5;i. 5:1.6 4.5 3.5 2 1.5" 1 39.6 66 3 2 14 2 3 16 18 64 60 1.6 8 2.6 2.6 2 1 5 3 2 3 38 71 1.6 12 3 1.6 3 1.6 3 6 1 6 3 39 67 1 4 1.5 2.6 26 68 3 65 1 12 13 65 60 1 43 14 62.6 5 2.6 1.5 1 .6 4 11 6 60 69 62.6 1.5 2.5 2.5 2.6 1 2.5 IS i« 15.6 15 65 60 1.6 3 1 .5 1.5 5 5 R 37 62 2.6 1.3 1.3 1 3 3 1 1.3 1.6 2 2.6 .5 28 10.5 10 62.6 2 2 23 60 4 2 2 3 4 2 51 70 1.6 6 3 1.5 1.5 1.6 1.6 6 1.5 4.5 3 38 29 6 67 60 61 2 3 3 2 3 1 2 .5 1.5 3» 2 3 2 3's 2 R R 2 3" B 21.6 27 32 24 3 58 62+ 64 60 63 .6 3 318 27+ 60 IS M units of mathematicB may be exchanged for 1.5 units of history. 1* Matlieniatics or science may be substituted for languages. 15 liiatory or economics. w Philosophy or education. IT May be offered for admieaion. 18 Required for men. 1" 4 courses are required in 1 or 2 languages. Note. — The University of Alabama requires 16 houre of foreign language tatndv, 10 of which muGt be chosen from Greek, French, and German, 6 of which must be m Xiatin. Other languoee requirements may be read in this way, B» Required. 168 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM Alabama. There is no conspicuous central tendency, and the average deviation, in this particular, of the individual institutions from their average is great. The foot-notes to Table I give further evi- dence of the incomprehensible action of col- lege faculties when they undertake to lay down arbitrary restrictions concerning the cur- riculum for all students. The vast amount of miscellaneous experimenting with the college curriculum that has produced the temporary results set forth in this table gives point to the remark of Professor Cattell that the collective unwisdom of a college faculty is not often ex- ceeded by an individual student. Any one who has observed a college faculty make a decision at one meeting and promptly reverse it at the next, without a particle of new evidence on the issue, is not unreasonably skeptical con- cerning the stability or the worth of the regu- lations summarized in these tables. Table II presents the subjects required for the A. B. degree and the number of year-hours allotted to each in certain universities under private control. The variation here exhibited REQUIREMENTS FOR THE A. B. DEGREE 169 is even greater than that for state universities. Here again the curriculum appears to be ad- ministered in the familiar, historical way, — not according to any clearly defined and abid- ing principle, but according to personal equa- tions of the moment and the place. Table II indicates also the subjects prescribed in certain colleges for women, the most nearly uniform group it is possible to find. Table III presents the practice of forty small colleges in all parts of the country. It would seem that the almost innumerable differences here revealed must shake the confidence of any faculty in the wisdom of its absolute pre- scriptions, and yet the table excludes those colleges exhibiting the greatest idiosyncrasies in their requirements. So widely divergent are the regulations of a hundred other colleges included in this investigation that it would be impossible to include them in any useful table. President Jordan recently said : " For courses of mixed science, Hterature, art and philosophy, so many units of one, so many of another, disjointed fragments brought together in the name of culture, the student can have no re- 170 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM TABLE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE A. B. 6 ^ 12' b 5« ^ .i O 1 J 1 CO to 1 S o t 1 1 1 i 1 Brown, R, I. 3 3 CoUege of New Tork.u N.Y. 3 2 2 7 3 3 9 4 Columbia, N. Y. 91 4< 4< 7< 3 CorneU, N. Y. 3 3 3> Harvard, Maaa. 3i Johns Hopkina, Md, 3 3 6 3 SorBJ 3 Stanford," Cal. New York, N. Y. 1 1 1 Norttaweatern, 111. 3 4 3" Princeton, N. J. 6'! 6" 14 4 4 3 Bochester, N. Y. 6 6 6 15 1.6 2.6 1.6 5 5 1.6 1.6 Syracuse,' N. Y. 7 6 3< 3< 3* IG 3 Washington, Mo. 6 3 Western B«serve, Ohio 3 3 REQUIREMENTS FOR THE A. B. Bryn Mawr, Penn. 5 6 6 Mount Holyoke, Mass. 3 6 3< 3« 6 1.5 Pennsylvania, Penn. 6 3 1.5 1 Rockford, Dl. 4 8 8" 1.5 1 Smith, Mass. 6 3 1 1 Sweet Briar,i» Va. 6 3 3 1.6 Vassar, N. Y. 61 3 1.6 1.5 Vellesley, Mass. Wells, N. Y. 3 6 3 3 6 6 l.B t Half Enclent i half modern. X EngtiHh nnd hist^iry, S i philoaophy and mathematics, S. s French or German, fi ; Latin or Greek, 3. * Alternative prescription. c May be offered for entrance. Political economy may he offered instead of history. 7 LaEioratory course in physics, chemistry, or natural history. 8 If English has been passed for entrance, no requirements are toada Group plan. 10 An ancient language or a science may be substituted. KEQUIREMENTS FOR THE A. B. DEGREE 171 n DEGREE m PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES 1 2 s a 3 o 1 1 1 1 1 a 1 1 1 < 1 ."2 1 1 i » S 1 1 1 .2 w 1 1 1 ■s 1 1 1 1 6 1.5 3 1.5 7 1.3 1.3 2 1 1.3 6 3 3 3T 60 6 3 4 1 3 3 4 41.6 73 4 5 3! 31s 3 2 3 3> 1.5 1.5 3 3" 3 R 28 12 6 62 60 61 or 52.5 5 6 5" 5 3 3 1.6 3« 1.5 31 32 ,5 60 60 1 2 1 1 1 6 67 3" 3 5 2 3 2 3'0 4 3" 311 21 27 60 61 1.6 .6 6 B 3 6.6 3 6 4 1.5 1 2 3 1.5 4.6 1.5 1.5 4 3 3 1.3 1.3 1.3 3 3 1.6 1 1 47.3 26 15 13.5 60 60 60 60 DEGREE IN COLLEGES FOR WOMEN 10 2 7 1 516 30 60 1.6 3 7.5 3 3 1.5 4 1.5 .5 1 3 3 .'i?,.5 60 1.5 4 7 2 2 2 3 1.5 1.5 3 3 30 66 3 2 6 1.5 3 1.5 8 2 2 2 2 3 3 1 41.5 59 1 2 4 2 1 1 3 1.6 1.5 21 66 1.6 6 3 3 6 3 1 1 1 3 3 3 3 25 21 61 61 4 1 4 4 4 1 1.5 1.5 22 68 1.6 2 1.6 5 1.5 ' 1.5 3 1.6 1.6 26.6 67.6 11 3 hours to be chosen. 12 In second year, one term of each. 13 PhyaicB or philology. 14 Work must be done in two departments^ IB 4,5 if grade in English A i.s I). 10 A Kcience, history, economics and pohtici, philosophy, or mathematici may be offered instead of history. 17 May be offered for Bdmission. 18 Hygiene, 1. IB Nat. hist. 3 ; eathetici» 1.2 ; drawinff. L Bs Required.^ 172 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM TABLE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE A. B. m ^ 1 1 s 1 So s 1 1 s 1 1 j i J ! Allegheny, Penn. 7 7 4 18 4 1.6 l.G Amlierat, Mass. 3 3 6 Bates, Me. 3 6 12 .3 1 Beloit, Wis. 6 3 Bowdoln, Me. 6 6 12 Butler, iDd. 10 6 Carleton, Minn. 8 2 Carroll, Wis. 12 5 1.6 l.S Colby, Me. 4 3 3 10 3 3 Colorado, Col. 3 4 1.5 l.B Cornell,' Iowa 13 Detroit, Mich. 11 12 26 10 12 Dickinson, Mich. 4 i 8 l.B 1.5 1.5 l.B Drury, Mo. 6 3 3 Franklin and Mar- shall, Penn. 7 7' 20 3 3 2 8 2 Orinnell, Iowa 10 3 3 Haverford, Penn. 7 14 1 1 Hobart, N. Y. 12 6 1.5 l.S niinois. III. 10 B Kenyon, Ohio 4 4 Enox, III. 4 6 1 1 2 Lafayette, Penn. 8 8 1.33 1.66 19 1 4 6 4 Lake Forest, lU. 1.6 l.G Miami, Ohio 6 4 1 2 Monmouth, 111. Oberlin, Ohio 4 10.5 10 l.S Occidental, Cal. 3 l.B l.B l.S Pomona, Cal. 41 4 1 1 1 Bipon, Wis. Sollins, Fla. 10 50 50 1.6 l.B l.B 9.B 2.B 2.6 2.6 2.B Swartlunore, Penn. 6 3 Trinity, N. C. 6 2 8 9» Tufts, Mass. 9 6 Wake Forest, N. C. 6 8 3 3 3 9 Washburn, Kan. 3 4 Washington, and Lee, Va. Wesleyan, Conn. 3 William and Mary, Va. 6 12 2.5 6 1 1 3 WilUam Jewell, Mo. 3 3 9 6 2.3 1 1.3 Williams, Mass. _3 6 1 14 for those beginning Greek. i 8 for those beeinning modern languagei. s Trig, and anal. geom. for some. * 3 Science or math. 6 8 Science or history. 8 3 Koon. or hiitoxy. REQUIREMENTS FOR THE A. B. DEGREE 173 III DEGREE IN PRIVATE COLLEGES. n s 1 ■1 i s s u 1 1 t 1 1 a i o o S Algebra History Amer. History 5 1 Elocution I^aterial Science E 1 g 1 ■« at a S i 1 6 1.5 3.5 4 2 2 3 " 3 1 K39 60 1 3 3 4 2 2 2 16 60 9 3 1 1 1 4 1.6 1 1.5 2 31.3 1 6.5 2 2.5 2 2.6 2 2 4 1.5 12 22.5 16 18 60 62 63 65 4 3 4 E31 62 4 3 3 4 2 2 1 25 6 3 1.6 1.6 4 1.6 1 1.5 2 2 1 23 60 4 4 12 2 2 2.5 6 2.6 6 5 4 37 72 62 72» 6 1 3 2 5 2 1 2 2 1 3 7 3 4 3 1.5 1.5 3 3 28 62 4 8 6 3 2 3 4 4 3 1.5 4 1.5 3S 2 58 25 68 60 4 4 6 1 1 2 2 3 1 1 1 2 35 73 6 1.5 3 1.5 4 2 2 3 3 1.6 17.5 60 4 3 8 2 3 3 5 3 34 66 1 2 7 4 3 3 ; ! 1 18 66 2 5 2 3 3.6 1.5 2 3 3 1.5 25 60 3 3.5 6.6 1 4 46.1 64 3 2 4 4 3 3 15 62 4 6 3 3 3 1 2 1 27 60 4 4 4 64 3 4 4 3 1.6 1.5 13 60 4 2 6 2 3 1 4 1.5 1 3 3 26.5 64 2 6 2 2 2 2 2 4 2 2 4 4 R31 2 64 60 2 1.5 6 1.5 63 1.5 1.5 3 5 3 2 66 68 1.5 1 6 2 3 3 19.5 63 4 6 3 3 6 1.5 1.5 3 3 3 35 64 2 3 3 6 1.6 1.5 1.5 1.5 28 61 6 6 3 3 4 1.5 3 2 3 1.6 2 5 3 3 3 1.5 1.6 .333 1.6 3 37 13 6 7 60 SI 60 60 7 4 2 1 1 3 3 2.5 R41 60 3 6 3 3 1.6 1.6 6 1.6 33 64 3 2 1 1 5_ 1 1 3 .5 16.6 62 7 3 Greek, math, or modem lane. 8 8" ChriBtian science." Catholic college. 9 1 Collegiate life and work* B Required with no stated credit. O Altcmative preacriptioiu. 174 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM spect. Required courses of this fashion have passed away never to return." That this old type of prescribed curriculum has not yet passed away, Table III bears witness. College catalogs from all parts of the coun- try tell us that " students are required to pur- sue those subjects that are universally regarded as essential to a liberal education." It would be pertinent to ask the writers of such state- ments to examine Tables I, II, and III, and then name those subjects that are universally regarded as essential to a liberal education. Is there one ? Even the general prescription of English is an agreement in name only; what actually goes on under this name is so diverse as to show that we have not yet dis- covered an "essential" course in English. And this is our nearest approach to agree- ment. In most institutions the old compulsory programs of study have broken down of their own weight. Although, as the tables clearly show, nearly all colleges retain some vestige of the prescribed regime, yet in recent years most of the attempts to regulate the courses of study of individual students have dealt REQUIREMENTS FOR THE A. B. DEGREE 175 with systems of major and minor groups, — ■ devices for enforcing concentration and dis- tribution of studies. Various practices of this kind we shall now consider in some detaiL CHAPTER X CONCENTRATION AND DISTKIBUTION Or STUDIES The Harvard Plan The most conspicuous of all the plans for compulsory concentration and distribution of studies is that which went into effect with the class of 1914 at Harvard College. After more than forty years of consistent, acknowledged leadership as the modern champion of the Elective System, followed at the respectable distance of about a decade even by Yale and the lesser powers within her sphere of influence. Harvard College took what some believers in President Ehot's educational phi- losophy regard as a retroactive step. Presi- dent Lowell secured the adoption of rules requiring of all students some degree both of scattering and of specialization in the choice of courses for the A. B. degree. This limitation of freedom came at the close of the longest and most liberal experience with the Elective CONCENTRATION AND DISTRIBUTION 177 System in the history of Education. Further- more, the memhership of the committee that proposed the new rules was such as to hespeak for them careful consideration. That com- mittee was composed of the following members of the faculty : President Lowell, chairman ; Dean L. B. E. Briggs, Dean C. H. Haskins, Dean B. S. Hurlbut, Dean W. C. Sabine, Pro- fessor C. P. Parker, Professor E. K. Rand, Professor T. W. Richards, Assistant Professor R. B. Merriman. The rules are as follows : I. Every student shall take at least six of his courses in some one department, or in one of the recognized fields for distinction. II. For purposes of dis- tribution all the courses open to undergradu- ates shall be divided among the following four general groups. Every student shall distribute at least six of his courses among the three general groups in which his chief work does not lie, and he shall take in each group not less than one course, and not less than three in any two groups. The groups and branches are : 1. Language, literature, fine arts, music. 2. Natural sciences, (a) physics, chemistry, astronomy, engineering, (b) biology, physio- 178 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM logy, geology, mining. 3. History, politics, economics, sociology, education, anthropology. 4. Philosophy and mathematics. The committee was instructed in adminis- tering these general rules for the choice o£ electives hy candidates for a degree in Har- vard College to make exceptions to the rules freely in the case of earnest men who desire to change at a later time the plans made in their Freshman year, and to make liberal allow- ances for students who show that their courses are well distributed, even though they may not conform exactly to the rules laid down for distribution. In making exceptions to the rules, a man's previous training and outside reading are taken into account. The central principle of the whole plan is that each stu- dent must take a considerable amount of work in some one field and that the rest of his courses must be well distributed. The question at once arises, to what extent these restrictions will influence students in the election of studies. The best available evidence on this question is the programs of study ac- tually chosen under the Elective System. Of the men who graduated from the Harvard Law CONCENTRATION AND DISTRIBUTION 179 School cum laude for a decade previous to 1908, only one-seventh did not take six courses in some one field. The students \n the Harvard Medical School whose undergraduate courses were examined had distributed their courses, but had not concentrated nearly so much as the honor men in the Law School. Only about one-sixth of them had taken six courses in any one field. Of one thousand men from the Classes of 1908 and 1909 in Harvard CoUege, only about 20 per cent met all the requirements of the new rules. Had those re- strictions been in force, about half of these students would have been compelled to change one or two courses. Only a few would have needed as many as five changes in their pro- grams. The degree of concentration represented by six Harvard courses is in excess of that chosen by the best students under the early Elective System. Of the first forty men in scholarship of the Class of 1880, seventy-five per cent had fewer than five courses in their major sub- jects, — even if we include the prescribed courses of Freshman year. Only one of these men chose to specialize to the extent required 180 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM by the new Harvard rules. The median degree of specialization of this selected group of high scholars was about three and one-half courses ; and, as all investigations show, the poorer stu- dents scatter their electives more than the bet- ter students. Yet the offerings to the Class of 1880 were not half as extensive as the offer- ings of the present curriculum. Fifty complete programs of study taken at random, alphabetically, from the Class of 1909 at Harvard and an equal number from the Class of 1909 at Yale reveal the following facts. At Harvard 22 per cent, at Yale 68 per cent, did not take one-third of their work in one subject. Only one student at Harvard and only two at Yale failed to take one-fourth of their work in one subject. Seventeen men at Harvard and only one at Yale took no courses in science; ten at Harvard took no courses in philosophy or mathematics ; two at Harvard elected no course in the history group. There were no other instances in either college of the omission by any student of one of the four groups of studies. This is evidence that the Harvard plan for restricting the Elective Sys- tem is likely to influence but few choices at Harvard. CONCENTRATION AND DISTRIBUTION 181 Concentration and Distribution of Studies in Other Colleges That students in other institutions do not specialize to the extent required by the Har- vard faculty is evident from the sample pro- grams collected in 1910 by the Committee on Collegiate Instruction of Section L of the American Association. The committee secured 500 complete records of the courses taken for the bachelor's degree by students representing random samplings of the Class of 1909 in the following institutions : Beloit (27), Bowdoin (36), Columbia (21), Cornell (42), Harvard (50), Knox (13), Lake Forest (10), Marietta (10), Princeton (49), Ripon (10), Stanford (20), Wabash (22), Wellesley (22), Wesleyan (38), WilUams (40), Yale (95). These were worked over by the chairman, Professor Ed- ward L. Thorndike, into complete tables like IV, the first line of which reads, " Individual A did 18 per cent of the total work required for the degree, in courses in ancient languages; 18 per cent of it in courses in modern foreign languages ; 13 per cent of it in English ; 5 per cent of it in philosophy ; 32 per cent of it in 182 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM TABLE IV SAMPLES OF THE WORK DONE FOR THE A. B. DEGREE BY INDIVIDUAL STUDENTS 1 II il i ^ ^ M 1 s s 1 .SO s i 1 II 1 1 1 1 A 18 18 13 5 32 5 2 6 B 30 3 15 7 32 5 6 1 32 3 30 5 15 5 6 o D 18 18 15 5 32 5 6 E 18 18 8 6 34 5 6 Ph 3 F 20 13 8 5 32 7 2 6 •§ G 18 13 25 5 22 5 11 5 00 H 18 13 15 5 36 5 6 i I 23 8 6 5 39 5 6 o J 20 10 15 12 30 5 2 6 2 A 24 12 3 47 3 6 •d B 18 9 6 41 12 >j C 12 6 35 38 6 1; D 68 15 24 t^ E 12 12 6 6 12 12 29 6 g F 18 27 15 47 6 6 •H Gi 12 18 15 21 12 3 29 s H 29 12 12 3 35 6 3 9 6 i P 24 15 62 3 ° J» 18 18 24 12 18 6 1 Also 12 architecture and 3 engineering. s Also 6 education. B Also 9 mining and 9 engineering. CONCENTRATION AND DISTRIBUTION 183 history, economics, etc." These complete tables are too long to be printed, but they cannot be summarized in lower terms. Tables V and TABLE V No. spending at leaat GO per cent of the 3 3 Total Degree Requirement in i "3 i teg ¥ 4:- .fl n 1 h 4 a 1 5 e .a 1 z s t 1 L Stanford 20 (a) Colaiubia 21 5 2 2 1 Cornell 42 6 4 7 (a) W U. Harvard 50 16 8 3 1 III. Beloit, Knox 93 15 3 Marietta Ripon and Wabash IV. Bowdoin 36 22 2 Wesleyan 38 20 Williams 40 15 Wellesley 22 12 1 See note (i) Yale 95 25 3 1 Princeton 49 506 15 151 19 Total 18 7 or 2 1 1(a) 5 1 11 by (a) If the combination of the hist. ec. gov. group with law is counted as ono group, and if the combination of science and medicine is counted as one group, we have added 11 cases (8 at Stanford, 3 at Cornell) of the former sort and 6 cases (at Cornell) of the latter sort of specialization. (&) One case for music and art. Of these cases of apparent scattering 34 are individuals, each giving over three-tenths of the total degree requirement to history, economics, etc., and many of the others represent conceivably closely related work. Tiiia is th« caaai for example, with four of the six cases from Harvard. 184 THE COLLEGE CUKRICULUM VI give samples of the answers which may be got from them, using two arbitrary ques- tions about ~the extent of specialization and superficiality. TABLE VI Number not devoting 20 per cent of i the Total De^ee Requirements to any one of the following: (1) An- 3 cient Languagea. (2) Modem For- eign Languages. (3) English. (4) § f4 Philosophy, etc. (5) History. (6 § Economics. (7) Government ana Public Law. (8) Physics and Chem- g H istry. (9) Biological Science. (10) 1 ^ Other Natural Sciences. (11) Mathe- 3 matics. (12) Art and Music. (13) Education. (14) Law. (15) Medicine. 7i (16) Engineering. (17) Architecture I. Stanford 20 Columbia 21 Cornell 42 n. Harvard 50 12 m. Beloit, Knox 93 16 17 Marietta Bipon and Wabash IV. BoTfdoin 36 Wealeyan 88 3 8 Williams 40 2 5 Wellesley 22 Yale 95 7 7* Princeton 49 23 47 Total 506 67 13 The complete tables show that few students specialized to the extent of six three-hour CONCENTRATION AND DISTRIBUTION 185 courses in one subject. Of the 200 programs from Princeton, Williams, Columbia, Wabash, Beloit, Wesleyan and Wellesley, 171 indicated no such degree of concentration. Concentration and Distribution in the Small College There can be no better way to consider the need of a small college for such rules as Har- vard has adopted than to examine the actual programs developed under free election. A study of the entire courses of all the graduates of Bowdoin College of the Class of 1909 is therefore profitable. This class of fifty-four members took its entire work under an Elect- ive System which, for our present purposes, may be regarded as virtually unrestricted. It is true that a concentration requirement ex- isted. Each student was obliged to complete before graduation either one major and two minor subjects or two major subjects. A major subject was one pursued for three consecutive years. A minor subject was one pursued for two years. A detailed study of all the electives of five classes, however, supplemented by per- sonal inquiry, revealed the fact that apparently 186 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM not more than one or two students in any class were limited in their choice by these rules. Above 90 per cent of all the students concen- trated their -work in excess of the prescribed amount. Finally, since every student took more hours in the language and literature group than the rules specified, and since he was at liberty entirely to ignore the other three groups (2. Natural sciences ; 3. History, political and social sciences ; 4. Philosophy and mathematics), we can here discover to what ex- tent the Harvard regulations, had they been operative, would have modified the fifty-four individual programs, which were, in fact, un- der no such restrictions. In the first place, the concentration re- qtiirement, if interpreted literally, would have changed every program in the class. No stu- dent took one-third of his courses in one subject. Eleven took 14-19 per cent in their major subject j twenty took 20-24 per cent; twenty-one took 25-30 per cent ; two took 33 per cent. On the other hand, if we inquire how many elected one-third of their work from ad- vanced courses in language and literature, we find that at Bowdoin all but four of the class CONCENTRATION AND DISTRIBUTION 187 chose this degree of concentration. (The stu- dent who devoted the smallest proportion of his time to his major group gave 36 per cent to natural sciences and 29 per cent to language and literature.) Three of the four exceptions just noted were students who received honors from the faculty and whose electives would have been approved by any committee in- structed " to make exceptions to the rules freely in the case of earnest men." A significant comparison may be made be- tween the degree of specialization twenty years ago, when the studies were mainly prescribed, and the degree of specialization to-day under free election. Ninety per cent of the class of 1890 spent only 13 or 14 per cent on their major subjects. Ninety-seven per cent of the class of 1909 took above 18 per cent of their work in their major subjects (not counting closely related subjects). The most highly specialized course under the old prescribed re- gime was more scattered than the most widely distributed course under the Elective System. This is graphically shown in Figure I. Evi- dently there was not the slightest ground at Bowdoin for the oft-expressed fear that the 188 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM new freedom of choice would result in greater scattering of studies. With reference to the Harvard rules for dis- tribution among the three groups other than the student's major group, the electives of these fifty-foiir Bowdoin men exhibit the following results : four students fell one-half course short of the requirement in natural science; four students fell one course short, and one student fell one half-course short of the requirement in history, political and social sciences; three students fell one-half course short of the re- quirement in philosophy and mathemetics; no student failed to meet the requirement in language and literature. To satisfy the complicated Harvard rule re- garding the distribution of the six courses among the three groups, five students would have been obHged to substitute for a choice in literature a course in one of the other groups. Such are the few scattering cases that would have been slightly affected by the new Harvard rules, had these rules been operative, and had the committee not included these few cases within the excuse limits of their liberal instructions. Each of these students could have -75 h k it \ n r-' n mLn n je II li 13 I* IS IB a IS 13 10 II II 23i*isai.iuu» ti a m FiavsB 1. Bowdoin College ; classes of 1890 and 1909. Show- ing degrees of specialization in the electiTes of classes twenty years apart. Class of 1890 = — — — — Class of 1909 = ———^^ 190 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM presented adequate reasons for his slight de- parture from the necessarily arbitrary scheme which its devisers agree should be adminis- tered with free allowance for individual needs. Even without such allowance, less than two per cent of the units in the total schedules of this class would have been changed by the Harvard distribution rules. If, therefore, the total experience of this class is any criterion by which to judge the future, — and no better one is possible, — the adoption by Bowdoin of the Harvard scattering requirements would have only a negligible effect. Nearly, if not all, that the new plan for compulsory distri- bution of studies at Harvard aims to achieve is, in fact, already achieved under the much more restricted curriculum and the virtually unrestricted Elective System of a typical small college. Present Major and Minor Requirements Various attempts to regulate the electives of college students are summarized, as far as it is possible to summarize such diverse prac- tices, in Tables VIH, IX, and X. The sources of information are for the most part the cata- CONCENTRATION AND DISTRIBUTION 191 logs for 1909-1910 of the sixty-eight insti- tutions included in the tables.^ Table VIII ' See especially Leland Stanford Junior University, Ee- ports of the President : December, 1904, p. 16; April, 1906, p. 75 ; December, 1906, pp. 60-89 ; December, 1907, p. 68. "Tlie Degree of Bachelor of Arts (A. B.) will be granted to students who have satisfactorily completed the equivalent of four years' vfork of fifteen hours of lecture or recitation weekly. It is further provided that each student shall select as his major subject or specialty the work of some one pro- fessor. This professor shall have the authority to require such student to complete this major subject, and also as minor subjects such work in other departments as the professor may regard as necessary or desirable collateral work. Such ma- jor and minor subjects taken together will not exceed the equivalent of five recitations per week, or one-third of the student's time for the four years of undergraduate work. It is also provided that each candidate for a baccalaureate degree must take, before graduation, Course 1 in English. With these exceptions, all the undergraduate work in all the courses is elective. The student may freely choose for such elective work any subject taught in the university, which his previous studies have prepared him to undertake." — Leland Stanford Junior Register, 1891-92, p. 33. "Whether the student is qualified for enrollment in any particular class is a question to be decided by the instructor in charge. A student desiring to drop a subject once taken up, or to take up a new subject after the study card has been filed, must present to the Committee on Registration a peti- tion for such change, approved by the major department and by the instructors whose subjects are to be taken or dropped. Petitions to change the major subject will be granted when approved by the departments in charge of both the old and 193 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM presents the facts for twenty-three state uni- versities; Table IX, for thirteen private uni- versities and for seven colleges for women ; Table X, for twenty-five small colleges. The investigation covered two hundred of the better known colleges and universities. Those remain in which the curriculum regulations were suf- ficiently clear, and sufficiently free from ex- cessive complications and eccentricities, to ren- der tabulation possible. Even these groups of colleges and univer- sities, selected for the relative simplicity of their requirements, present great diversity and the new subjects, the student being held to all the reqnire- ments of the new major subject. (First-year students may change their major subject at the end of the first or second semester without petition.) In general, the major subject maybe changed at the end of the first year, and in some cases later, without appreciable loss of time to the student. " Each student selects as his major subject or specialty the work of some one department. This department has the au- thority to require the completion of this major subject, and also of such minor subjects in other departments as may be considered necessary or desirable collateral work. " The department in charge of the major subject of any student is expected to act as adviser to the student in edu- cational matters, and the recommendation of the depart- ment is necessary to graduation." — Leland Stanford Junior Register for 1908-09, pp. 58, 59, 68. CONCENTRATION AND DISTRIBUTION 193 complexity as their most striking features. In the number of subjects required, in the num- ber of year-hours unrestricted, in the propor- tion of work called for by the major subject, in the proportion controlled by the major ad- viser, in the amount prescribed for distribu- tion, in the maximum and minimum allowances for groups, there is no uniformity, not even any significant central tendencies. Here, as in the attempts to prescribe " es- sential" subjects, the actual practices of col- leges all over the country reveal no guiding principles. Most of these institutions force all students to do in general what their patch- work curriculum of a generation ago allowed no students to do. So innocent of abiding cause are these miscellaneous and contradic- tory regulations that the tables will be out of date, no doubt, shortly after they are printed. Indeed, such administrators as actually enforce these rules must be hard put to it for reasons, unless their students are uncommonly docile. One even wonders whether college of&cers can in all cases interpret their own rules. To one book of regulations the students added a rule of their own, as follows : " Rxile 119. Any 194 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM student who can understand these rules will be granted a degree without further examin- ation." The most important facts included in these tables are the concentration requirements. The extent to which these colleges announce that they enforce specialization is shown in Table VII. TABLE VII PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL WORK REQUIRED IN HAJOR SUBJECT BY INSTITUTIONS IN TABLES VHI, DC, X PER CENT 1 11 A 11 B 111 TOTAL 6-7.9 1 1 8-9.9 1 1 10, etc. 1 1 1 3 12 1 4 5 14 2 1 1 5 9 16 3 1 3 7 18 5 1 6 20 1 2 2 1 6 22 1 1 24 2 2 2 6 26 1 1 28 2 2 30 1 2 3 32 1 1 1 3 84 1 1 A glance at the column of totals shows that the median case falls in the 18-20 per cent group ; that half the cases fall in the conspic- uous 12-22 per cent mode; and that the CONCENTRATION AND DISTRIBUTION 195 range of concentration requirements is from six to thirty-five per cent of the total degree requirements. The median for small colleges (Column III) lies in the 14:-16 per cent group. It is right that the concentration requirements in small colleges should be lower than in large colleges ; for the greater the number of teachers and elective courses, the less burdensome is en- forced specialization. The statistics of actual student programs from various institutions, presented earlier in this chapter, warrant the assumption that not half of the concentration requirements in American colleges have more than a negligible effect. If compulsory specialization is prefer^ able to complete election, then the proportion of a student's entire work required in his major subject should be more than one-fifth. Less than that is no compulsion at all, — only a pretense at "safeguarding" the Elective Sys- tem. Whether there is evidence in favor of any degree of enforced specialization for under- graduates is a question we shall now consider in connection with a discussion of the relation between college studies and success in life. 196 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM EH O O g CO CD S3 Q o H |Zi o '^ » o I dnoiS ^ov H} pdMOiiv lanininiig; dnoi3 lo^vm nj p8j&on« tnntQixvjf dnoj2 lorvni D| paMonv mnannuf Bdnoj]9 JO '0^ 09m jonim JO aOT^nqiJifeTci lonim ni jomxa m sjnoq JO *o^ B^oeCqnfi ffiliti jofmn JO noi!tnqjj)Bt(i ^oCqna mpsm ieBiA.p« JoFvm 04 i^oaCqne sjnoH lopBrnm smoq-isa^ Bjnoq-iB8^ JO '0^ s^ootqna jo 'O^ emoq-xve^ 1'B!|0x o«a ^^ioeo^eoncoe4mt*iaoeo^t-w s f CONCENTKATION AND DISTRIBUTION 197 -^es w» ne4 3 2h a <0 00 o * Axts-i* la a a caeioto a e4oowi-ico t- As ja "I e i 5 I 1 ^ a •S a * ^ 5 oS-2 J^ ° I JsSs 4i ■§ .1 hi I u n^ ec^ u O S to wg" I. B Kg b'^S a j; l£ COS « I -I -^^s ! »^ '"^ «- o . S- tfoS o I fa' ds t ^ fee o^^E 3 1 ^1 '■SSI? g gg "-glBS t^:;5 s-aof .JS=g 3S03S >-B-s2o «»:?>,o^ C«S2o o'2a'-=B B.B4-0 '0"ES~ " ooS £"00-3 S«S;8o &g^rf ^ > 9*-si.rt mO'Ota-g £sao. O.S S*0 o O'O'O; ftjj; B " ^ " o w 3 Sitit ■'-■SfSs ifSl-l I IB I »>SJ»I "S'a-oj; S'*S5a Sg.2«.S S'oS'fg ^ £>,-*. iis|i.sll|&l •wo O «■= g^es-g u B » qj feia2aSos-!i£EPs 198 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM TABLE IX REQUIREMENTS FOR CONCENTRATION AND DISTRIBUTION IN CERTAIN PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES (A) AND IN COLLEGES FOB WOMEN (B) A a 1 f ■s t ■s i ll s II II 1 s s 1 1 1 ■3 i .sg. II II s| ll City of New York Columbia Cornell Harvard Johns Hopkins Leland Stanford Northwestern Princeton Rochaster Syracuse Western Reserve Tale Wasliington,> Mo. 73 62 60 52.5 60 60 60 61 60 60 60 60 60 10 27 6 2 9 1 6 5 9 6 6 3 41.5 28 12 6 31,32 .5 21 27 47.3 26 13.5 13 183 18 9 12 128 10 20< 18 .29 .16 .35 .16 .33 .29 .20 .20 6 6 183 .10 .10 .30 31 12 4 6 77 6 3 3 10 18 18 17 a 6 5» Bryn Mawr Mt. Holyoke Rockford") Smith Sweet Briar Wellesley Wells 60 60 59 56 61 58 67.6 6 8 10 9 6 7 7 30 32.5 41.5 21 25 22 26.6 20 15 12 6 16 12" 19 18 .33 .25 .20 .10 .24 .20 .15 6" 6« 19 .10 .10 .15 6 3" 3 12 12 I In I, Latin and Greek are preacribed major languages ; one modern langaage ii minor. In II, French and Latin are preacribed major languages, and German ii minor. In III, French) German, and Spanish are studied in the order named; later, one year of Latin is required. * The atudent must complete the equivalent of S years' sequential study in couTGei aggregatinz 9 points beyond the elementoiy requirement for admission in each of two deparcmentB. 8 Maximum allowed in one department, 16.5. 4 The department has authority to require completion of major snbjectt ana also of such minor subjects in other deportments as may seem necessary or aesirable col^ lateral work: not more than one-third of student's work. Minor to be in two subjects. fl Each Junior must choose a department and take all the Junior courses of that de- fiortment. Three of his Ave couraea must be in the division in which the department ies. Each Senior must continue his work in the Junior department, and must take at least three of the Senior courses in it. ^ Grouping made to conform with major subject. B When no course in the contemplated major ia open to election before Sophomore year, prescribed number is 9. Five hours or more for each minor. One must be completed in each group, the three to make 18 hours in all. 1" Two major subjects, crone major eubject and one or two tributary subjects. II One minor must be in a subject distinctly different from thiitoi main study. 12 Nine hours in each of three departments, related or unrelated, or 12 hours m one department and six hours in a second department, related nr unrelated. 13 Grades I, II, III; Grade I including elementary, and Grade III the most ad- vanced courses. At least one full course of Grade III must be taken in Senior year. The !)-hour groupa must consist of at least six hours above Grade I, three hours of which must De of Grade III. The 12-hQur groups must consist of at least nine hours above Grade I, six hours of which must be of Qiade IIL The 6-hour gioupi must iaeludt at leut three hours above Grade I. CONCENTRATION AND DISTRIBUTION 199 TABLE X KEQUIRKMENTS FOB CONCENTRATION AND DISTRIBUTION IN SMALL COLLEGES 'O m 1 •i It a s 8 ! .1 a .9 1 u .5 p. be I s 1 s J? 1=. a s *a .9 ■«3 •S "" a i ! I 1 1 1, A ^ ^ a "a 9 a ■1 P p. 1 1 ■■i 1 •0.2 l| o o 1- m U *C a "0 u H i 1 11 i fig i n 1 i 1 fl'o Bates, Me. 7 31.3 9 .14 12 .09 2 3 9 6 Beloit, Wis. 60 4 12 10 .16 12 .20 2 3 6 Bowdoin, Me. 62 4 22.5 91 .14 1 61 .09 2 65 4 18 10 30 .15 1 6 .09 lor2 10 6 CarroU, Wis. 62 8 31 10 .16 10 203 Colby, Me. 7 25 6 2 6 2 3 6 3 Colorado, Col. 60 9 23 16 15 .25 4 Drury, Mo. 62 7 28 61 .09 1 61 .09 1 3 Griimell, la. 60 6 25 10 .16 8 .13 Hobart, N. T. 60 8 17.6 125 .20 6« .10 lor4 12' niinois. 111. 66 7 34 16« .22 1 or 28 15 EenyOQ, Obio 66 6 18 S .13 6 .09 Lake Forest, HI. 62 6 16 20 .32 2 Miami, Ohio 60 7 27 18' .30 2 or 3' Momnontli, 111. 64 2 8 12 20 .18 8 •12 Occidental, Cal. 61 9 26.5 98 .14 2 8 Pomona, Cal. 64 10 31 8 .12 1 8 .12 2 8 Eipon, Wis. 60 1 2 4 .06 lor2 8 Swarthmore, Fenn. 63 6 19.6 9 18» .14 8 .04 9 Tufts, Mass. 61 6 28 9 14 9 .14 ■Washburn, Kan. 61 4 13 710 .11 4.2< .06, .03 Washington and Lee, Va. 60 2 6 15 .25 1 3 15 16 Wesleyan," Conn. 60 2 7 18-24 .30 3 18 24 William and Mary, Va. 60 9 41 7.5 12 Williams, Mass. 62 5 16.5 7.6 12 1 One major and 2 minora, or 2 majorB. 2 Maximum allowed in any subject beyond Freshman year, 12. 3 Includes two for thesis. 4 Major can be chosen only from a study pursued through the Sophomore year, and must be continued during Junior and Senior years. The minor must be studied throughout the Junior and Senior years. 6 Three minors or 2 majors in languages, I minor in sciences. A minor consists of 2 years' work in one department. A major is completed by taking an additional year'* work in a minor. A double major requires an additional year's work in a major. Fifteen hours if one department la chosen ; 10 hours in each if two are chosen. 7 Nine hours in each of any two, or six hours in each of any three. B Six hours minimum allowed in either of two departments chosen. B The major adviser may determine the work of 18 hours, proTided three shall not be in his own department. 10 Candidate may offer 7 hoars major and 4 minor, or 9 hours major and 2 minor. Beginning with class of 1912, minimum major will be 8 hours, and minimum minor 5. Fourteen hours will be sub;iect to major adviser. 11 Minimum allowed in Group I is 13 hours; 9 hours minimum in II and HL CHAPTER XI RELATION BETWEEN COLLEGE STUDIES AND SUCCESS IN LIFE The dominant purpose of all disinterested plans for administering the courses of study of undergraduates is to promote the success of men and women in the life heyond com- mencement, however variously success may he defined. Comparisons of the courses of study of successful graduates with random selec- tions ought therefore to furnish evidence of considerable value on various obscure prob- lems of college administration. If a man's success in life is in any marked degree corre- lated with the subjects studied in college, or the grades attained in college, or the extent of distribution or specialization of his courses, then scientific studies of the programs of suc- cessful men contrasted with the programs of men taken at random will reveal such correla- tions. The results of such studies would en- able us to say at least this much : that success- COLLEGE STUDIES AND SUCCESS IN LIFE 201 ful men do or do not elect more courses in classics, chemistry, etc. ; that they do or do not attain higher standing in scholarship; that they do or do not scatter or concentrate more than college students as a whole. The initial difficulty in any such study is the definition of "success." The mode of select- ing men for distinction will seriously affect any conclusions that may be deduced. And, obviously, whether or not the conclusions of such a study will influence the administration of college curricula depends in part on the extent to which those in authority agree, in their conception of " success," with the adopted definition. Who 's Who in America has been taken by many investigators as the sole cri- terion of distinction. Professor Dexter used this method in attempting to answer the ques- tion, What is the best college ? ( World 's Work, April, 1903.) But his evidence does not warrant the conclusion that the small New England college is the best, for the rea- son that the errors incident to the use of Who 's Who as a measure of success have the least effect on the older, small New England col- leges. Professor Jastrow, on the other hand, 202 THE COJiLEGE CURRICULUM in his study of the distribution of distinction in American Colleges {Educational Review, 31:205), used Who's Who with greater care. He assumed merely that the average of dis- tinction of those persons mentioned in Who 's Who overwhelmingly exceeds the distinction of the average citizen ; and that, considered in large groups, the people selected for this distinction represent the uppermost level of ability in some callings. With the treatment of large groups by approved statistical methods, and with due allowance for the various prob- able errors of compilation. Who's Who may be made the basis of trustworthy studies. For our purposes, however, the main objections to this definition of success are that certain callings are still unduly weighted, and that prominence overshadows inconspicuous worth. There is a kind of life which does not express itself in offices or publications or advertised philanthropy which, nevertheless, the best men of our best colleges would be glad to promote, if possible, by the administration of the curriculum. COLLEGE STUDIES AND SUCCESS IN LIFE 203 A Study of the Class of 1894, Harvard College For a single study in this field, three men were asked in 1910 to select from the Class of 1894 of Harvard College the students who since graduation had won success. The judges were LeBaron R. Briggs, Dean of Harvard College when these students were undergradu- ates, Edgar H. Wells, Secretary of the Harvard Alumni Association, and Frederic E. Farring- ton, Associate Professor of Educational Ad- ministration at Teachers College, Columbia University, and a member of the college class in question. Each judge was asked to make his own definition of success. That is to say, he was asked to choose those men who had achieved the kind of success which he would be glad to have Harvard College promote, if possible, by the administration of its curric- ulum. The only qualification was that men whose careers appeared to be greatly aided by social position or hereditary wealth should not be included in the successful group. The independent selections of these three judges furnished a list of twenty-three men, each of 204 ■THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM whom was marked successful by at least two of the judges. The exact and complete college records of each of these twenty-three men were then copied from the college books, to- gether with the records of twenty-three men chosen at random, being every fifth name in an alphabetical list of living members of the Class of 1894. The number of individuals in each group who took at least six courses in a single sub- ject is shown in Table XI. The average num- ber of courses taken by the successful men in their major subject is 6.4; the average number for the whole class, as shown by the random group, is 5. This is a notable difference. Only seven of the successful men failed to elect six courses in one subject; thirteen of the other group failed to do so. Or, if we recognize history and economics as a field for distinc- tion and concentration (as any wise committee instructed to interpret the rules freely would do), we find that 56 per cent of the random group, as opposed to only 17 per cent of the successful group, failed, under the Elective System of 1890-94, to concentrate as much as the Harvard rules of 1910 require. This COLLEGE STUDIES AND SUCCESS IN LIFE 205 study of a single class, therefore, tends to sup- port the conclusions of all the previous studies on this one point, namely, that the better scholars in college and the better men after TABLE XI NUMBER or ELECTIONS BY EACH STUDENT IN HIS MAJOR SUBJECT Group A " Successfvl " Men 1 Geology 2 English 3 English 4 English 5 History German 6 French English 7 Latin 8 English 9 Latin 10 Mnsio History 11 English Economics 12 English 13 English 14 Geology English 15 History 16 Greek n Fine Arts 18 English 19 Latin 20 English 21 Semitic 22 History 23 English 6 6 4 12 6 Group B Random Selection History English French French History English English Economies English Latin Mathematics History English History English English English History English French History Chemistry French Economica English English History 8 6 7 10 206 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM DISTRIBUTION OF THE ABOVE TABLE No. of Course! Group A Group] 3 1 4 2 3 6 6 9 6 7 6 7 5 1 8 2 2 9 1 10 1 11 12 1 Average 6.4 5.0 Mode 6 6 graduation, judged by the particular stand- ards we have thus far used, do specialize to a significantly greater degree than other stu- dents. Quite the contrary is true with respect to scattering. As shown in Table XII, the aver- age number of subjects elected by the individ- uals of the successful group was 10.2, as op- posed to 11.9 for the other group. Only one man in the random selection failed to satisfy the complicated requirements for distribution set forth in the new Harvard rules, whereas nine of the successful men failed to scatter as much as the new rules require. Only two men omitted more than one of the four Harvard groups, and only one man specialized wholly in one of the four groups. If the Class of 1894 is fairly re- COLLEGE STUDIES AND SUCCESS IN LIFE 207 TABLE XII NUMBER OF DIFFERENT SUBJECTS TAKEN BY EACH 8TDDENT IN EACH GROUP Group A Group B "Successful" Mm Random Selection 1 11 10 2 11 10 3 13 14 4 10 11 5 10 10 6 12 15 7 9 11 8 10 10 9 7 10 10 9 9 H 8 10 12 10 13 13 12 13 14 13 14 15 7 13 16 13 16 17 11 11 18 9 9 19 13 10 20 8 13 21 7 13 22 11 12 23 11 15 DISTRIBUTION OF STUDENTS WITH REFERENCE TO NUMBER OP DIFFERENT SUBJECTS ELECTED Group B 2 6 S 1 6 2 2 1 11.9 12 So. of Subjects Group A 7 3 8 2 3 10 4 11 5 12 2 13 4 14 15 16 Average 10.2 10.7 208 THE COLLEGE CURKICULUM presentative of all classes, and if the number of cases and the method of treatment here used are adequate, the new Harvard rules for scattering, if enforced, would interfere mainly with those students who are likely to achieve the greatest success in life. Nothing but a priori reasoning has so far been offered in favor of compulsory scattering of college studies. One of the professors at Columbia University is probably right in his judgment that the Columbia College faculty, in requiring every freshman to take six or seven studies, unre- lated to one another and largely unrelated to his past or future studies, prescribes a method which not one member of the faculty would be so foolish as to adopt in his own work. Emerson might well have had the college cur- riculum in mind when he said, " The one pru- dence in life is concentration, the one evil, dissipation." Although the study of an individual pro- gram always suggests unwarranted generaliza- tions, it will not be without profit at this point to consider the most extreme case of special- ization in the Class of 1894. One man elected COLLEGE STUDIES AND SUCCESS IN LIFE 209 all his courses from the language group. His career is the one in this class that would have been most interfered with by rules for scatter- ing of electives. Yet he has achieved such dis- tinction in his published studies and in his work at one of the leading universities of America that he would be selected as success- ful according to any creditable criterion. Of his life in college and of the Elective System, he says : — My life at Harvard was a quiet one, as I kept pretty closely to my books. Despite this, however, my interest in all branches of college activity, although passive, was keen. I took no part in sports, although I enjoyed out- door life and spent nearly every summer from my eighth year up to my graduation from college in camping, swim- ming, canoeing, etc. On competitive trial, I was elected a member of the Harvard Debating Society, but that was the end of my activity in that organization. I was again absorbed in my books, not only those in my own line, but in various branches, some allied to my work, some not. Languages and literature formed my chief interest. My linguistic curiosity eventually carried me off the beaten path of college study. From Greek and Latin, French, Spanish and English, I was attracted to Arabic and Hebrew, Assyrian and kindred tongues. German, I kept up all through my course. A Detur, Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude, Commencement Oration, and Final Honors in Semitic make up the sum of college dis- 210 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM tinction. If I had my course over again, I should go in for debating, try my hand at athletic sports, and send in some contributions for the college journals. I have no criticism to make of the elective system, except I favor concentration on fewer courses, with more hours a week in each course. For the student who is in earnest, it is certainly the best that can be devised. If the student does not know what he wants, or does not care what he gets, no system will ever solve his problem satisfactorily. It is evident that this man followed just such a plan of concentration as a Darwin, or a Huxley, or an Edison would have chosen with delight, but a plan entirely unsuited to the weaklings in any college. The results of this investigation are in ac- cord with previous studies. A Harvard com- mittee found, from the programs of a thousand recent graduates, that " the high scholars, the men who were studying earnestly, almost in- variably concentrated enough to come into the plan we are speaking of, but they were very likely to concentrate too much. They were apt to leave some one of these great groups wholly untouched, or with only one course, where they ought to take two. In other words, we found that their courses, though profound, COLLEGE STUDIES AND SUCCESS IN LIFE 211 were comparatively narrow. When we came to the men whose idea of the development of the brain consisted of developing it more through the muscles, we found that they were less apt to concentrate, and that the system would interfere with them because they did not concentrate enough. They were apt to diffuse, to distribute their courses." In two other respects, this record of the Class of 1894 supports the conclusions that one is forced to draw from President Lowell's careful and extensive studies of the honor men in the Harvard schools of law and medicine for many years and the " plain degree " men of the same classes. In the first place, contrary to the popular notion, success in college as indicated by marks attained in college courses does give promise of success in later life. The men in this class who have attained success were awarded as undergraduates nearly four times as many highest grades as the random selection, — 196 as opposed to 5Q. This is the most significant fact in Table XIII. In the second place, as President Lowell's data show, it appears to make little difference what sub- jects a student elects. With exceptions to be 212 THE COLLEGE CDKKICULUM TABLE XIII BELATIVE RANK IN AIX COURSES OF THE TWO GROUPS Group A Group B "Sueeae/ul" Ifm Random Selection A 196 56 B 180 183 C 156 247 D 33 75 £ 11 16 Absent 8 8 No Betnms 1 584 686 TABLE XIV ITDMBER OF ELECTIONS IN EACH SUBJECT Group A Group B "SuccestfuflTen Random SeleclUm Botany 8 9 ComparatiTO Lit 1 Chemistry 26 35 Philology 2 Engineering 4 8 Snglish 116 99 Fine Arts 19 23 French 40 53 Geology 22 26 German 44 40 GoTemment 15 IT Greek 43 18 History 59 84 Italian 9 5 Latin 49 30 Mathematics 29 31 Music 8 2 Philosophy 19 24 Economics 46 45 Physics 4 11 Sanskrit 1 Semitic 11 10 Spanish 8 10 Zoology 7 4 COLLEGE STUDIES AND SUCCESS IN LIFE 213 noticed presently, the number of elections in each subject by each group in Table XIV shows no marked correlation between subjects elected and success in later life. At this point some readers may care to hear the opinions of the Class of 1894, fifteen years after their graduation, concerning the Elective System of their college years. The secretary of the class secured 202 of these opinions. There were 52 men who expressed their un- qualified approval of the Elective System, and 134 who indicated a belief in the system but a desire for further safeguards. All but eight objected to the administrative nonentity known as the freshman adviser. This is no objection to the Elective System, for it could remain intact with effective methods of advising stu- dents. Only 16 of the answers implied un- qualified disapproval of the system. Study of the Classics and Success in Life The successful group in this Class of 1894 chose nearly fifty per cent more work in the classics than the random group. The ran- dom group, on the other hand, chose twenty- five per cent more work in sciences than the 214 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM successful group. These facts would not de- serve mention, drawn from such small groups, were it not for the fact that President Lowell's statistics from twenty classes, based on a dif- ferent definition of success, reveal similar tendencies in the distribution of electives among departments. (Shown in Figure 8.) Furthermore, if we divide all the men who graduated from Harvard College between 1888 and 1900 into two groups, those who gradu- ated with distinction, and those who did not, we find that in nine classes out of the thirteen the honor men elected Latin and Greek in slightly larger proportions than did the plain- degree men. (Shown in Figure 5.) Again, it appears to be more than a coincidence that an independent line of research at Bowdoin College shows that the fifty successful men of the classes from 1890 to 1900 specialized in classics more than the fifty men chosen at random, in the ratio of nineteen to thirteen, and that this was the most conspicuous differ- ence in the subjects elected by the two groups. It is certainly notable that in such extensive and independent studies, the most successful groups of men in college, in professional schools, COLLEGE STUDIES AND SUCCESS IN LIFE 215 and in later life, invariably spent more time on the classics than the less successful or ran- dom selection of students. Some men -will conclude that the Latin and Greek account for the greater measure of success; others ■will conclude that the boys who were destined by heredity to make the more successful men, came, in larger numbers than other boys, from homes devoted to the traditional education, and so gave more of their college courses to the study of the classics. The relative worth of these conflicting opinions, our available statistics cannot determine. Phi Beta Kappa Men and Success in Life Using election to Phi Beta Kappa as the definition of success in coUege, and inclusion in Who's Who as the definition of success in later life, Professor E. G. Dexter made a study of the records before and after gradu- ation of the high grade men of twenty-two colleges.' According to these definitions, the • Dexter, E. G. High Grade Men : In College and Out," Popular Science Monthly, 62 : 429. Only the averages of the percentages for each college are giyen. These are slightly misleading. 216 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM chances of success of a high grade man in college are nearly three times the chances of a random selection. Of the living graduates of these colleges about 2.1 ^ per cent found their way into the columns of Who 's Who. Of the Phi Beta Kappa graduate&.-a43t5llt 5.9 per cent achieved this kind of mstinction. Look- ing at the statistics in another way, we see that about 15.7 ^ per cent of the graduates were elected to Phi Beta Kappa, whereas about 29.3 per cent of the Who 's Who men achieved this undergraduate distinction. If high rank in college has nothing to do with the kind of success in life that Who 's Who recognizes, we should expect to find that only about 15.7 per cent of the men in Who 's Who were elected to Phi Beta Kappa. But they surpassed this mathematically computed expectancy by nearly 100 per cent. Furthermore, of the 13,705 living alumni of two of the larger New England colleges, 5.4 per cent of those who graduated in the first tenth are included in Who 's Who ; only 2.9 per cent of those who graduated in the second tenth ; only 2.5 per cent of those who gradu- » Ibid. COLLEGE STUDIES AND SUCCESS IN LIFE 217 ated in the third tenth; and only 1.8 per cent of those who graduated in the fourth tenth. Making Uberal allowances for the short- comings of the measure of success here em- ployed, and for the misleading use of averages, the whole study nevertheless corroborates the conclusion drawn from the other studies pre- sented above. The grade of work an under- graduate does in the studies of his choice is one of the safest measures of the success he is likely to achieve in later life. The Electives of Honor Men and Others for Fifteen Tears Table XV and Figures 2-7 embody the to- tal records of the 4311 men who took their degrees at Harvard College from 1886 to 1900, with respect to certain important aspects of the Elective System. Men who did not com- plete three years of work at Harvard College are not included. These fifteen years are chosen for the study because in 1884-85, be- ginning with the Class of 1888, the Elective System was extended to the Freshman year. All the students for each year are divided into two groups, those who graduated with dis- 213 THE COLLEGE CDBRICULDM ^ O s £S e CO (A CIS CO < o -s ^ n H OS a S> S.I ^ Eh w i £3 1 S S ;s § 5 ss s K |g eg s ^ 1- i l|i ^ 3 ??|S: !§ 53 S S « 2 ^ s i § i ^\s ^\S |^|S 3 B OS t- N § % i S?|8 § R 5? IS SS|S 00 IN S 2! S i ^ s S |S S S !§ s 3|3 ^ OS i 5 IS s? s 5 5 i§ S5 S§|S §s s ■W M 1 S S 2i IS S|3i § S « 2 OJ ^ s s SO « i fti lO "O w 00 m 9 ^ I Id «3 w •* !=? t^- f^ <5 " •* ■• "■ i a tS s E! s « ^ g a "' Si § !o §3 s a |« 1 «> 1 a !a •^ 1 s ^ s 3: S5 t- ss ^. « i § s s £;3 :q s § 3 ^ S 3 JS In. eo 13 ■H ^If ■o •<* CO "h at S s t^ »^ 1^ Ml ■w CO »N fe K3 1 O s t^ rH *~i «> CO «5 1 ■* »*t 3 C4 rs t^ CO ^ i^\^ to ^ Q a « A Q Q Ci ^ 1^ g <^ Cl Cl fl C| s ^ € f§ s 1 s § s ? 5 ^ g b ^ ^ ^ ^ f:! £ ^ & ^ ^ &: g g g n 1 S '"? 1 * 1 1 1 j3 1^ •9 *■" 1| h 1 '^1 1 1 tt 1 1 II II It ^ 1 II II II 1 e^ « ■* lO <0 t- ( I £ s 1 £ » 1 s i r— , 50%- ! 40%- j I — , : 1 f— 1... ..-., 00%- • 20%- L... I— . J0%- " % 1886 '88 '90 *9g i94. f96 f93 1000 FiauBE 2. Showing per cent of students at Harrard College, classes 1886 to 1900, who took snap conrses Honor men = ■^-■^■^— ^— Plain men = — — — — — /33a '90 '9e '94 '96 '96 I90Q, FiGUBE 3. Showing per cent of men taking mainly ele- mentary courses, (See Table XV.) 220 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM tinction and those •who graduated without distinction. In Figures 2-7 the heavy lines in- dicate the honor men and the dash lines indi- cate the other men. The figures picture the statistics of Table XV. Figure 2 shows the relative extent to which the two groups sought snap courses. The courses selected for this purpose were those regarded as snaps by virtually all the students in college at the time. In ej&iy class, without exception, the plain degree men elected a larger proportion of thar work from snap courses than did the hgpor men. Figures 3 and 6 are further evidence in sup- port of the contentions made earlier in this chapter regarding specialization and scattering of studies. The better students everywhere show marked tendencies to specialize; the poorer students show equally clear tendencies to scatter. Figure 3 shows that the men who graduate without distinction scatter their work among elementary courses conspicuously more than do the honor men. Figure 6 shows that the honor men begin to specialize in Sopho- more year to a conspicuously greater extent than do the men who graduate without dis- tinction. 70X- 1866 '68 '90 '&4 '96 '98 J900 FiGUEE i. Showing per cent of students at Hanrard College, classes 1886 to 1900, who dropt the classics after Freshman year. (See Table XTV.) Honor men = •—^—^■^ Plain men = — — — — — — 70%- 1- 60%- r— -^ 50%- -LT^ 40%- ...T- r^ 307.- r-— 1 ...rH Lr £07.- 1 : L..J 107.- i /68a '90 '92 '94 '96 '98-^1900, FiGtTBE S. Showing per cent of students who diopt the classics on entering college. (See Table XY.) 222 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM Figure 5 does not reveal marked differences in the two groups with respect to the propor- tion of each group dropping classics in Fresh- man year. Such difference as there is, however, accords with the other statistics we have given. In nine classes out of thirteen, the honor men continued the classics in larger proportions than did the other men. Figure 7 also accords with the other studies summarized in this chapter. It shows that the honor men elected a larger proportion of their courses from mathematics than did the poorer students. Relation between Success in College and Success in Professional Schools A valuable study by President Lowell in- cludes all students for twenty years in the Harvard Law School and for sixteen years in the Harvard Medical School who took their undergraduate work in Harvard College. The extensive statistics secured through this inves- tigation are summarized in Table XVI and shown graphically in Figure 8. The heavy lines in Figure 8 indicate the average number of courses (a course being three hours a week for .- 1 ~" S6%' 1 , , - 1 r— ' sot- I0%- «> L..*- — *^\ r 1 .... J886 '68 '90 '92 '94 '96 t98 ,1900 FiGUBE 6. Showing: per cent of students at Harrard College, classes 1886 to 1900, 'who showed marked specialization as early as Sophomore year. Honor men = ^■^^^-^-^— Plain men = — —— — — — /886 '88 '90 '92^ '94 'J96 '98, 1900 FiGUitE 7. Showing per cent of students who specialized in mathematics. (See Table XV.) 224 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM one academic year) taken in each subject in Harvard College by the men who graduated cum laude from the Harvard Law School and from the Harvard Medical School. The dash lines indicate the same facts for the other men, — those who received degrees without distinc- tion. Table XVI gives, for the lawyers and the doctors separately, the ratio in each sub- ject of the amount of work taken by the honor men and the amount of work taken by the other men. The most noteworthy feature of the chart is the closeness with which the dotted lines fol- low the heavy lines. This means that the honor men in the professional schools distributed their college courses among various depart- ments in almost precisely the same way as the plain degree men. In other words, there is almost no correlation between the subjects taken in college and success in the study of law or medicine. The greatest differences are in Greek, mathematics and physics, in the order named ; but as the elections in these subjects were comparatively small — an average in each subject of less than half a course — it would be rash to conclude that success in professional COLLEGE STUDIES AND SUCCESS IN LIFE 225 > ■e*i si I«10I ^ 00 8 u, 00 tH OIBIIH S 8 00 s s s KUV8IIM S ^ s 00 S3 S I 1 qsniQdg S S ^ ^ S3 g ITBIIBU 8 g d o B 9 qonejj ^ 5 ^ ^ 2 wamiQQ 8 SS ^ ^ S 3 qsit^na CO CO o 1 i. m^B^ g g °. !S S S 3188^0 g Sf S OBjureg s 8 s liAw School Honor Men Other Men . .2 n li s fe .2 226 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM a TJ o o « s Q s CU a 1^ o 1 1 1 A fe 5 ^ w 3 1 9 TOOI 1-i 1-i ? iS «3»»ni9mBK s s f4 ^. Xqdoaoinu ^ ft «-l CO *-• o 3 CO = s ^ ^. noBonpa o 1 s » •annonooa i i i t-l )Q9nnu9A00 ^ s 3 $ S8 ^ tH •^ a fiowH S3 s S. S rt imox S; S s 8 s s i •^ Suiui^ ^ S .a X80I090 R ^ " ^ s s xaoifloz s ? iS r4 ^n«)oa n q » ^ S g £ 8lI1J99Tn8l^J o q ° ° rH S g CO Xnspneqo s « ". S « 3i s BOifcCqj ^ ^ ^ 3. ^ ^ • • • g • ■ • @ s g QQ g i| 1 .9 1 i4 jS 1 w II MEDICAL GRADUATES 7 6 5 4 3 HONORnEU— LAW" SUBJEQS 12J4LS 6 7_«J SEMITIC GREEK. LATIN- ENGLISH GERmN FRLNCH ITALIAN SPANISH FINE ARTS AUSIC TOTAL' PHYSICS CHEMISTRY ASTRONOMY ENGINEERING BOTANY ZOOLOGY GEOLOGY MINING TOTAL HISTORY GOVER'MENTl ECONOMICS EDUCATION ANTHRCroi TOTAL FHILOSQFHY nATH'MATICS TOTAL FiGiiRB 8. Showing average nmnter of conrsea taken in each snhject in Harvard College by the honor men for twenty years in the Harvard law and medical schools, compared with the same facts for other men. (See Figures 9 and 10.) 228 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM schools depended upon the pursuit of these sub- jects. Figures 9 and 10 represent the number of students electing six courses in each of the four groups : philosophy and mathematics, history and social and political sciences, nat- ural sciences, language and literature. A glance at the two columns in Figure 9 shows that the honor men in the Law School concen- trated in these four departments almost pre- cisely as did the other men. Figure 10 shows the same fact for the Medical School. It ap- pears to make little difference what subjects a student elects. It makes a vast difference, on the other band, what grade of work a student does in the sub- jects of his choice. Figures 9 and 10 show with what remarkable precision the high scholai^ ship of men in college predicts their success in professional schools. The two columns in Figure 9 show the high chances a summa cum laude graduate has of achieving distinction in the Law School; the high chances (though somewhat lower) that a magna cum laude grad- uate has of distinction ; the lower chances of a cum, laude graduate, and the very rare chances of a man who graduates from college without ^A.cCwC..a/vvdL ^- '13 -**' 5 • ~ d^uXK_ck7XLrt~a_e- 413 as 44.6 BIS §^ ikrvijox/ FiGUKB 9. Showing (A) the relation between subjects studied in college and success in law school, and (B) the relation be- tween scholarship standing in college and success in law school. (See Table XVI.) 230 THE COLLEGE CUKRICULUM distinction. Only one man in twelve years whose college record fell below C has contrived to change his habits sufficiently to graduate with honor from the Law School. The editors of the Harvard Law Review, who are chosen from the very top of each class, give further evidence of the close correlation between suc- cess in college studies and success in law stud- ies. Omitting those who entered college in the Senior year, we find that only 2.5 per cent of those who graduated from college without dis- tinction became editors of the Law Review. Six per cent of those who graduated cum laude ; 22 per cent of those who graduated magna cum laude ; and 28 per cent of those who graduated summa cum laude won places on the Law Review. Figure 10 shows that the same general truth holds for students in the Medical School. A comparison of Figures 9 and 10 would be misleading, however, as the Medical School awards its honors to about half of each class and the Law School to less than one-fifth. These facts are quite at variance with pop- ular opinion. Returns from several hundred Harvard undergraduates express the prevailing SjXixxiij>f^iKA^ gPiS©lK7oTHCRS 6 U gjt.a\jJa'toMl/Y a . (tfl ivi,ii«i > :mr»MrV FiGUBE 10. Shotring (A) the relation between snbjects studied in college and success in medical school, and (B) the relation be- tween scholarship standing in college and success in medical schooL (See Table XVI.) 232 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM idea that success in college scholarship fur- nishes little or no indication of those intellect- ual qualities that men desire to possess. " Col- lege life " is said to be the thing. The notion has spread that "sports" in college settle down in the professional schools and surpass the men ■who in college were " grinds." Pity is often expressed for the unfortunate salutatorians and valedictorians who are supposed to be doomed to failure in life. Such notions must now go the way of many others, though some men will still comfort their mediocre college work by exalting opinions above facts. There are still people who believe that the earth is flat. CHAPTER XII COUNTING QUALITY AS WELL AS QUANTITY FOK COLLEGE DEGREES " The saying that ' C is a gentleman's grade ' is evidently an imperfect defense for the idler in Harvard College." So says a report of President Eliot. Imperfect, indeed, any de- fense of the idler must be, no matter how much delight we find in Stevenson's Apology and in other essays on profitable idleness. The way of the idler takes him along a byroad, to be sure, " very even and pleasant, which is called Commonplace Lane " ; but even the dull discernment of the idler will hardly permit him long to believe that the lane is " not much frequented." Indeed, the Dean of Harvard College, in commenting on the students sum- moned to his ofSce for unsatisfactory records, declared that the replies to the question, " Do you work on an average seven hours a day ? " might all be summed up in the answer of a single freshman, " No ; nobody I know of 234 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM ■works seven hours a day." And a senior added, " I am sorry that he said it, but I think he told the truth about us." Many a college boy insists that he is " working hard " if he devotes four or five hours a day to his studies. Such a one is likely to be well satisfied with the grade of C. If by any chance he meets a B in Commonplace Lane, he is straightway prompted to recline on a mossy bank in a lapse of unusual idleness until another summons from the office bids him move on. If he is greeted by an A — but such things never hap- pen in any well-regulated college. The grade C stands for Commonplace Lane, no doubt ; and, by a kind of majority vote, it stands also for " the gentleman's grade." All students like to be considered gentlemen, and a majority would attain no such distinction if the demands of scholarship were higher. To this the Rank List bears annual witness. Al- though inferences concerning standards of scholarship, drawn from such data, are wholly unreliable, because of our unscientific distri- bution of undefined grades,* yet on one point ' This matter is discussed at leogtb in Chapter XIII below. QUALITY AS WELL AS QUANTITY 235 there is no doubt, — college men need stronger incentives to study. How to stimulate the great body of students to harder study and higher scholarship — that problem demands all that a college faculty has of patience and judgment. What incentives are now offered? There are money scholar- ships granted on the basis of rank, distributed on the patently false assumption that an A is equal to an A in whatever course attained, and awarded to a small proportion of students, many of whom need no such incentive. There are honorary scholarships, without stipend, awarded for the most part to students who love their work and ask no other compensation than the satisfaction of doing it well. Then there is the hope of graduating in three years. This can be accomplished by doing passable work — merely mediocre work — in five or six courses a year, but it cannot be accomplished by doing the very highest grade of work in four and a half courses a year. The possibility of gradu- ating in three years, therefore, is not primarily an incentive to high scholarship. Indeed, it tends rather to superficiality than to intensive work J it invites ambitious students to spread 236 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM themselves out thinly over a large field rather than to concentrate on the number of courses they can do thoroughly. Those students who desire and confidently expect to graduate in three years naturally stand higher in rank than those who are content to spend four years; the difference lies in the students themselves, not in any incentive to higher scholarship offered by the three-year plan. A student may receive the A. B. degree for completing seventeen and a half courses with grade of A ; for complet- ing the same number of courses with "the gentleman's grade " he may receive precisely the same degree. Surely it is a gentleman's degree ; shall we call him to account, for deem- ing C a gentleman's grade ? Or shall we admit the need of some further, definite incentive to high scholarship? The Credit-for-Quality Plan A fair and potent plan is, in essence, to count quality as well as quantity toward the A. B. degree ; in other words, to recognize in the requirements for graduation the unques- tionable fact, the unpleasantly obvious fact, that a course of study completed by one stu- QUALITY AS WELL AS QUANTITY 237 dent with a low grade means considerably less work accomplished than the same course com- pleted by another student with high grade. Most college instructors are forced to observe the material difference in achievement usually represented even by the grades B and C, and of the greater difference between the grades A and D. Yet, with trifling exceptions, the man who attains grade A for highly commend- able and extensive work gets no more credit toward graduation than the man who scrapes through on the gentleman's grade. In the laboratory, work done is always com- puted as the product of two factors, a quan- tity factor and an intensity factor. Just as mechanical work is the product of force and distance, so mental work in college may be estimated as the product of amount and qual- ity ; that is, of the number of courses and of the grades attained. This analogy, though not perfect, suggests a pertinent question. In de- termining the fitness of a candidate, why not count quality as a definite and considerable factor? This principle has long been applied in con- ferring the degrees of A. M. and Ph. D. Among 238 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM the institutions which in the catalog go for universities, there are still many in which the higher degrees stand merely for a fixed term of residence or a fixed number of courses pursued without dishonor. But the better in- stitutions demand quality in graduate work. Columbia University and the University of North Dakota, and a few others inadvertently, recognize the principle in the undergraduate departments, thus shifting the emphasis from years of residence to work done. Harvard, also, shows clear appreciation of the principle involved by excusing all students who attain grade C or higher in freshman English from the half-course in English composition prescribed for all other students. Accordingly, a man who attains C in freshman English needs only seventeen courses for his degree ; a man who attains only D must take seventeen and a half courses. In other words, a mere " pass mark " gives the course a valu- ation of one ; a higher mark raises the value of the course to one and a half. If the principle is sound as applied to courses in English, why is it not sound applied to other departments? Indeed, the Harvard faculty once af&rmed, QUALITY AS WELL AS QUANTITY 239 provisionally, the principle that " a man whose work is of high grade should not be required to take so many courses as a man whose work is of low grade." The concrete plans that may be devised in accord with this principle are innumerable. The first one was proposed by President Hyde of Bowdoin College. The exact values assigned to the various grades are not of vital import- ance, for instructors will naturally employ the grades with some regard to their fixed relative values. Here is a possible plan. Suppose we require 140 points for the degree, and give the following values to each grade : A=10, B= 8^, C = 7, D=6, E=0. Then a student could graduate with 14 A's, or 20 C's, or 5^ A's and 10 B's J but no student should receive credit for more than one D in any one year. The submerged tenth in the college group, the con- firmed idlers without apology, should not be allowed to worry a degree out of an institu- tion by protracted residence. With credit for quality, a student doing excellent work in five courses a year could take his degree in three years, whereas a student doing no better work than the " gentleman's average " would need 240 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM five courses a year for four years. There would be almost as many combinations as there were students. One man might make up the 140 points with 2 A's, 6 B's, 9 C's, and 1 D, while another offered 10 A's, 4 B's, and 1 D. To be sure, some students might find themselves credited with more than the required number of points, but the extra credit would do them no harm. Objections to the Credit-for-Qudlity Plan The plan itself is based on common sense and justice ; some objections are not. To urge that any such plan would complicate the re- cords of the registrar is to imply that an insti- tution should be adapted to its bookkeeping rather than the bookkeeping to the institution. Moreover, it is not true that the estimating of credits under this plan would be extensive work. A test has shown that it could be com- pleted for Harvard College by one man in one day. As another objection, it is urged that this plan would lead men to work for grades rather than for more worthy ends. But how, with re- gard for common sense, can we set up a mark QUALITY AS WELL AS QUANTITY 241 of honorable achievement and then find fault with a student who strives for it ? If a high grade means what it is supposed to mean, — though students believe it does not,' — stu- dents fired with the ambition to attain it would necessarily do better work, which is one of the main objects of the plan. Furthermore, if this objection is valid, it condemns as well the al- most universal practice of awarding scholar- ships, prizes, commencement parts. Phi Beta Kappa, and other academic appointments on the basis of rank. Small colleges, while emphasizing the educa- tional advantages of their size, will object to the plan for fear that it will make them still smaller. If the better students are thus enabled to graduate in three years, the senior class will dwindle, as it has dwindled at Harvard. Thus there will be a loss of students and of fees. But the small colleges should welcome any plan which will enable them to send their best men one year earlier to professional schools and to business without cheapeningthe degree. ' This was the testimony received from several hundred students by the Harvard committee appointed to consider how tests for rank in college may be made a more generally lecognized measure of iutellectual power. 1909. 242" THE COLLEGE CUKRICULUM For the small colleges now suffer in competi- tion with universities which provide opportu- nities for combining the last year of college with the first year of professional school, thus "saving a year," according to the common, deceptive phrase. Although such a device never contrived to lengthen a man's life, it does offer a valued option on one year of that life : he may devote it to further study in col- lege or, later on, to the practice of his prof eEh sion. Such an option is a real advantage. There is a widespread belief that to-day the student's active participation in the work of the world is too long delayed. The trend of education indicates that four years is to be the maximum instead of the minimum college course. The plan of combination with the professional schools will lower the age of graduation by one year for students who enter the graduate schools of their own college and for colleges which have such schools; but for other stu- dents and for other colleges, it is no plan at all. What shall the small colleges do, then, to offset this university advantage without cheapening their degrees ? What shall they do QUALITY AS WELL AS QUANTITY 243 to send their best men sooner to professional study, to shorten the period of dependence on parents, and to make marriage possible at an earlier age ? In answer to these questions, three plans are proposed. One is to reduce slightly the number of required courses and raise the en- trance examinations proportionately. This, apparently, has been one phase of the policy at Harvard. But any one who proposes such an answer to the age difficulty we are now consid- ering is merely toying with the real problem. Whatever may be the good effects of the plan, it is probable that even the student who refuses to elect mathematics will discover, before he emerges finally into that dim future beyond commencement, that if two and two make four, three and one make four as well. Another plan, widely advocated and little used, is to reduce the college course for all students to three years. But this would make the degrees of the small college suffer still more in comparison with the degrees of the university. Here is the dilemma: if the course is to be reduced, the small colleges cannot safely take the lead; if, on the other hand, 244 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM the universities take the lead, the small col- leges, in following-, would be relatively no better off as regards the age difficulty. In these two suggestions, therefore, the small colleges find no means of offsetting the uni- versity advantages for combining the last year of college with the first year of professional school. Advantages of the Credit-for-Quality Plan The quality plan is superior to both of these. It does not merely shift the burden on the secondary schools ; it involves no .added bur- den on parents ; it does not prompt a student to attempt more courses than he can do well; it does not allow the same courses to count for two degrees for the same student ; it does not cheapen the degree. It does break the lockstep; it does put a substantial premium on high scholarship. The student who is wan- dering leisurely in Commonplace Lane can no longer tell you that a C is as good as any other grade. If he does better work in each course, he will be enabled to enter his profes- sional study, become independent, and marry at an earlier age. All this — and here is the QUALITY AS WELL AS QUANTITY 245 crucial point — without cheapening the de- gree; for the students who keep down the level of scholarship under the present valua- tion of courses, the " quantity plan," would, under the " quality plan," need a new apology for idlers. They would find it a little more difficult to " get through college " with a de- gree, and a little easier to "get through" without a degree. Indeed, the shirks and the unfit would find the demands increasingly great, owing to the extra stimulus to good work throughout the college of this definite and just reward. There would soon be needed a new definition of " the gentleman's grade." There are objections to this practice, as we shall see presently, but the objections are not bound up in the credit-for-quality plan. The real difficulty is that the same grade, as as- signed by various instructors even in the same institution, has various values. In nearly every college this is notoriously true. Not even the assurances of the faculty that there are no snap courses prevent students from finding courses which they regard as such. 246 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM The Defect in the North Dakota Plan The chief difficulty at the University of North Dakota, which gave up some features of the plan after a six years' trial,' appears to have been the failure to safeguard the credit-for-quality principle by a scientific ad- ministration of the marking system. The man ■who condemned the North Dakota plan as demoralizing to both students and teachers, because teachers offering elective courses are constantly under great temptation to give too many high marks, and the students are shrewd enough to know it, missed the whole point in his petty arraignment of his colleague/ It » University of North Dakota, Catalog, 1908-09, p. 28. ' Ladd, A. J., " An Experiment in Credit for Quality," Western Journal of Education, 20:13. By the new plan at North Dakota, which is similar to the Chicago plan, every student in order to graduate must gain a number of "honor points," the number in each case being the same as the num- ber of semester hours required for the degree ; i. e., in the college of arts 125, in the college of engineering 136, etc. These honor points are secured as follows : Every A carries three honor points per semester hour ; every B two ; every C oue, and D none. Thus in a four-hour course, A would bring 12 honor points ; B, 8 ; and C, 4. It is evident, too, that in order to secure the proper number of these " points," a student's marks must henceforth average at least C through- QUALITY AS WELL AS QUANTITY 247 reminds one of the omnipresent argument against the Elective System — that students, free to choose for themselves, are sure to take snap courses, as though the fault were with the elective principle rather than with the ad- ministration which offers year by year courses out his course. There will be no possibility of reducing the time of residence by securing extra credits ; but those aver- aging B are to be allowed to take eighteen hours a semester if they wish. Concerning Ihis matter, Professor E. F. Chandler, the statistician of the University, said in a letter, December 18, 1910 : "The chief objection to our former system was the fact that the average college professor is really an ' easy mark,' or at least some are so. I insist that, to illustrate by per cents, a student who receives 98 per cent justly deserves twice or thrice the credit received by the 71 per cent student, and not merely the 1.3 times as much that we formerly gave him. But it was not practicable; some teachers, in the unconscious effort to be well thought of, or to have their work elected by the students who are pleasant to work with (that is, the upper half of the class), or else in response to the implied or silent entreaties of those members of the classes who were fairly good (though not excellent) and who needed the extra credits received from B standings in order to make the course in the desired shortened time, gave to an absurdly large number of their students the ' surplus credit ' marks of A or B, So that not only the really excellent or superior students, but all ex- cept the inferior students, were succeeding in getting credits by this short-cut route toward a diploma." 248 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM ■which it regards as too easy. This opponent of the North Dakota plan overlooks the cen- tral issue. He dismisses the judgment of Pro- fessor Kelley — that the absence of thoroughly satisfactory results at their university may be due less to faults inherent in the plan itself, than to faults in its administration — with the assertion that even so "the real situation ■would not be changed, since the system and its administration cannot be separated." This is his opinion. Yet he presents in the same article a table of distribution of 15,520 "extra- credit grades" given by thirty-two members of the faculty of the University of North Dakota, showing variations from 20 per cent to 77 per cent. So far from uniform is the practice of these men that the broad mode 31 per cent to 50 per cent leaves out over half of the cases. If this kind of an administra- tion of the marking system is, in his opinion, inseparable from the credit-for-quality plan, he ought to oppose thp plan, But other opin- ions are permissible, — as our evidence will show. The diversity in the value of grades is aji evil under the present " quantity plan." The QUALITY AS WELL AS QUANTITY 249 fixing of a definite rating for each grade would tend to establish in each institution a uniform standard, thus making the apparent objection to the "quality plan" a real advan- tage. Statistics for the past six years even at the University of North Dakota clearly show this tendency. It must be admitted, however, that no satisfactory administration of the cur- riculum on a credit-for-quality basis will be possible until provision is made for the distri- bution of college grades, by the several in- structors, on a scientific rather than a personal basis. The possibility of a scientific distribu- tion of grades is therefore the subject of our next inquiry. CHAPTER Xni THE NEED OP A SCIENTIFIC DISTRIBUTION OF COLLEGE CBEDIT8 College honors are everywhere awarded on the naive assumption that grades in college courses are distributed on a scientific basis. For many important administrative purposes we assume that an A in one course is equiva- lent to an A in another course; that the 80 per cent of one instructor indicates an achieve- ment equal to the 80 per cent of another in- structor. Accordingly we estimate the fitness of candidates for admission, determine eligi- bility for athletics, assign annually hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships and fellowships, award Commencement honors, elect men to Phi Beta Kappa, and confer de- grees wholly, or in large part, on the evidence secured by merely counting the number of A's, the number of B's, and so forth, that each student has to his credit. The question is per- tinent to what extent our assumption of the DISTRIBUTION OF COLLEGE CREDITS 251 equivalency of grades is warranted by the facts. Our universities and colleges vary so little in this phase of the administration of the cur- riculum that the detailed distribution of the grades of a few institutions for a few years will fairly represent the practice, except in two or three universities, throughout the country. The grades A, B, C, D usually represent de- grees of excellence between 100 per cent and 60 per cent of some undefined thing, and are all pass marks. The grade E commonly indi- cates failure. In Figures 11 to 20 the grades have these meanings. The per cent of the stu- dents in each subject who receive each grade is graphically shown, so that a glance reveals the central tendency for each grade in each institution and the extreme deviations in both directions. In all cases the names of instruct- ors and the exact designations of the courses are omitted, at the request of the several insti- tutions concerned ; though one may be par- doned the query what objections could there be to publicity if grades were distributed on a defensible basis. Figures 11 and 12 and Table XVII show 25i2 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM TABLE XVII HARVARD COLLEGE, 1903-05 Distribution of 8969 Grades Elementary Courses GROUP I A% B% c % D% E% Ate. % TOTAL Astronomy 16 10 13 17 45 48 19 17 6 7 1 2 69 ISO Botany 11 4 28 32 38 44 14 13 2 7 6 183 219 Chemistry 6 ■ 8 26 19 45 45 12 17 9 U 2 334 319. Economics 10 ■ 7 18 19 37 43 25 21 7 7 3 3 531 436 Engineering 11 15 31 28 12 3 114 121 Engineering 10 13 27 21 21 9 139 t2a English j 1 1 13 n 52 51 28 32 3 3 3 3 603 564 Fine Arts 2 6 33 27 45 67 10 2 9 58 49 French n 25 35 21 4 4 156 12 19 36 19 10 4 145 Geology 5 5 26 25 45 33 20 28 3 2 2 7 489 85 Geology 2 4 28 20 48 43 10 24 7 7 5 2 122 108 7 6 21 14 31 32 26 27 11 17 4 2 259 293 Government 6 9 16 23 39 37 28 21 8 7 3 2 356 419 Greek 35 15 28 36 21 34 13 7 1 5 3 3 72 61 History 7 ■ 7 20 24 44 42 21 20 5 6 2 2 347 380 Hygiene 18 8 29 23 33 48 18 14 1 4 3 87 139 Latin 17 25 41 10 7 143 15 27 41 5 10 2 128 Mathematics 18 14 24 22 18 31 31 23 11 11 85 95 Philosophy 7 ■ 7 31 23 41 61 15 8 2 6 i 229 215 Spanish 10 7 24 13 43 38 16 33 4 8 3 2 106 119 Zoology 2 13 48 30 6 1 (149 1l84 Average 7 20 42 21 7 S 213 254 THj; COLLEGE CURRICULUM the proportion each grade is of the -whole num- ber given at Harvard College in each of the elementary courses in twenty-one subjects dur- ing one academic year. Thus, the range of the highest credit (A) is from one per cent in English to thirty-five per cent in Greek. The range of grade B is from eleven per cent in English, zoology, engineering and astronomy to thirty-three per cent in fine arts. Grade C shows a minimum of eighteen per cent in math- ematics and a maximum of fifty-two per cent in English. Grade D ranges from ten to thirty- one ; grade E, from one to twenty-one. Still wider ranges for each grade are shown in Table XXI, which presents the distribution, and enrolment in each course for two years. Courses with fewer than one hundred students are omitted, as the smaller courses are not fairly comparable in a single year with the larger ones on a percentage basis. Still further to safeguard our comparisons, the intermediate and advanced courses are grouped by themselves. Some men believe that the credits in an advanced course, which to some extent represents the survival of the fit- test students in the department, should be Oi 9 < ^ ^O .. «S to 5 W "5 •< ^ 9f - •5 ^ - i^ii ri » ' ■, it 1^ •S 1 3 Law graduates 40 55 33 32 29 84 46 41 Medical graduates 45 19 48 33 53 55 109 32 Total 85 64 81 65 82 139 155 73 272 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM Summari/ Number above 66 156 69 131 128 117 24 66 Subject S 8 ll li f 1 ^1 S3 1 155 o Number below 85 64 81 65 82 139 73 ITie Possibility of a Scientific Distribution of College Credits The question now arises whether it is pos- sible to supplant the personal equation as the chief factor in the awarding of college grades by scientific guidance? The immediate an- swer to this question depends on whether the distribution of mental traits in groups of indi- viduals follows any regular law — and for the present on nothing else.' Are the difEerences * The ultimate answer to this question will be the discovery of units of measurement in every school subject, and the construction, by scientific methods, of scales that can be ap- plied as the foot-rule is now applied, regardless of time, or place, or persons. The best possible ratings of individuals by relative position are only temporary expedients that must some day give way to ratings by means of standard scales. The nearest approach to such a scale, and a perfect illustra- tion of the method, is E. L. Thorndike's " Handwriting," Teachers College Record, March, 1910. The Courtis Standard Tests in Arithmetic also furnish a means of comparing the DISTRIBUTION OF COLLEGE CREDITS 273 among individuals in mental capacities explain- able by any simple causes and amenable to any single type of description ? They are not, i£ we are to accept the tables and figures just presented as correct records of the abilities of college students. But fortunately we are not dependent on such unscientific data. Psycho- logists have recently given us many rigorously scientific studies of the distribution of mental traits. As several studies have clearly shown,' in achievement of one school with that of another, and the work of one year with that of another. We are not likely to con- tinue to spend billions of dollars on education and be satis- fied with guessing at results. Measurements of results with quantitative precision will be made as soon as people know enough to demand such measurements. ^ Thorndike, E. L., Educational Psychology (1910), chapter iii, and Mental and Social Measurements (1904). New York : The Science Press. Also Galton, Francis, Hereditary Genius. W. S. Hall pointed out a few years ago that ordinary classes of students doing honest work and honestly marked will re- ceive grades which conform in their distribution to the bino- mial curve. (" A Guide to the Equitable Grading of Stu- dents," School Science and Mathematics, Smith and Turton, Chicago.) Needless to say, if students are ranked by the mechanical process of counting the percentages of right answers to given tests, or by the " personal equation," or by dishonest methods, the results will not approximate any pre- dicted form of distribution, even if that form correctly re- presents the abilities of the group in question. 274 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM any group of individuals representing a single species, the distribution of any trait not then influenced by natural selection appears to be that of a chance event. The surface of fre- quency for that trait approaches that of the probability integral. It is like the cross-section of a pile of sand dumped from a cart. The ex- act meaning and basis for this cannot be con- sidered here. Suffice it to say that the most convenient way to represent tables of frequen- cies is by means of diagrams in which distances along a base line represent the different quan- tities, or units of measurement, and the heights of columns erected upon it represent their fre- quencies. Figure 19 presents several illustra- tions, D representing the results of a memory test. Such a figure is called a surface of fre- quency ; and the line which encloses this sur- face is called a distribution curve. By using such graphic representations rather than alge- braic formulae, the answer to our question and the evidence for it can be made clear even to one who knows nothing of the mathematical properties of the surface of frequency of a chance event. Figure 19, A, gives the distribution, or sur- FiGTJBB '19. A. Form of distribution of the surface of fre- quency of the normal probability integral. B. Theoretical distribution of grades. (Cattell.) C. Distribution of 15,275 grades by the College Entrance Ex- amination Board, in 1904. D. Memory span for digits of 123 American women students. (Thorndike.) , 276 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM face of frequency, of the type to which we assume that all distributions of mental traits conform. Figure B is the same type of distri- bution with a coarser separation into grades. This type is called the normal surface of fre- quency. It approximates the types found for most variable organs or functions in nature in the case of any single species when the organ or function in question is not subject to selec- tion. It describes, for example, the distribution of accidental errors in scientific observation. Thorndike's numerous measurements show a remarkable uniformity in the distribution of mental traits among individuals. Figure 19, D, showing the memory span for digits in 123 American women students, is a good example. In all cases the distribution closely approxi- mates the normal type. Does the distribution of the complex abili- ties that determine excellence in college courses approximate this normal type? Theoretically it should, and our theory is supported in a striking way by the distribution of 8969 grades in twenty-one elementary courses for two years at Harvard College. The curve in Figure 21, representing this distribution, is nearly normal. 1 1 1 1 1 J / A d courses in 'ades in ele- 1 1 V % Co -J 1 1 ■ «*H r / 1i i y / B rmediate, diatributi t A r $, o 1 1 y M-B : ^ r ^■s l-a ^ \ 1 1 1 i •1 o <\ 1 C des in close t >- 1 ^ 1 ^ 1 1| N ^ N i ■l-s l°3 1 X. 3 O 11^ o N 1 the di heavy Table ; d j3 o X 1 |hb \| >! o V 1 uj ^"i i > 1 l-S £• s, g s 1 . J^ w a 278 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM The percentages for the grades A-E are, re- spectively, 7, 20, 42, 21, 7. Yet Table XVII and Figures 11 and 12 show the wide varia- tions among the instructors in these very courses. In fact, not a single instructor came as near to a normal distribution as the sum of all their grades. Now, no one of these markers is as likely to tell the truth as all together. Their several errors correct each other and thus give us, in Figure 21^ (Group 1), a close approximation to the type of curve we should expect to have with an infinite number of cases.^ ' In Bulletin 368 of the University of Wisconsin, Professor Dearborn attempts to justify the normal distribution of grades " from the fact that it is used in actual practice." Two objections may be made to this contention : first, very few instructors do closely approximate the normal distribu- tion ; second, as their practices have no scientific basis, any one of them could only by accident indicate the theoretically correct distribution. If, however, all of Professor Dearborn's curves were represented by one, made from thousands of grades by scores of instructors, it would conform more closely to the general biological law of variation than any of the curves he presents. ' In 1909-1910, the grades in certain elementary courses in Harvard College (Chemistry 1, Comparative Literature 1, English A, Government 1, History 1, Mathematics F, Philo- sophy C, Zoology 1') were distributed in the following per- centages: A =5.5, B = 21, C=44, D = 19.5, E = 9. The 40% 30% £0Z ISX ifOZ <« t PROPOSED CURV£ ./ E C A /lean and Extreme Distributions of Grades A-E %^CGrv(fssT27^7 /leanOistribuTlon = £xrmie[JisMt)Utionssj^'-' FiGUKB 20. Heavy black curve showing a theoretically defensible distribntion of college grades in accord with the normal surface of frequency, as shown in Figure 19, A. The curves for the mean and extreme distribution of grades at Bowdoin CoUege are given for comparison. 280 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM Accordingly we have scientific grounds for assuming that a theoretically correct distri- bution of the grades of college students will approach the normal surface of frequency (Figure 19, A and B) unless the group is subject to selection. In that case the curve would be skewed negatively or positively as in Figure 20. If the distribution of abilities of college students is normal, "the average ability is near the common ability, and both are near the point above which 50 per cent of the cases lie. The greater number of cases lie near the average, mode or median point, and degrees of ability a certain amount above or below that point are nearly equally common. The more remote a degree of ability is from the average or median or mode, the fewer cuTve for these facts, which closely approximates that shown in Figure 21, was printed and sent to each instructor with an explanation of its meaning, and a superimposed red curve showing in each case precisely how the instructor's distrihu- tion differed from the norm. A table was prepared showing the distribution of grades for all courses having 80 or more students. The range for each grade in percentages was as follows : A= 0.7-20 B= 6-39 C= 27-62 D= 0-31 E= 0-20 DISTRIBUTION OF COLLEGE CREDITS 281 are the individuals who possess it. The differ- ence between the degrees of ability above and below the average, mode or median between which 50 per cent of the individuals are in- cluded, is about two-ninths of the difference between the lowest and the highest degrees of ability found." This is a description of the normal distribution of abilities; it is a de- scription of the distribution of college grades shown in Figure 19, B. It is the correct dis- tribution, unless the group of individuals that make up the student body of a coUege is sub- ject to selection. As a matter of fact college students are a selected group, i If the surface A represents the distribution of all elementary school pupils at a given time, then most of those pupils who are to go to college fall in the upper end of that surface. If our colleges took the best students and only the best, if they made a clean cut off the top, then the distribution of their abilities would be represented by a sur- face closely approximating EFG of surface A. But for various reasons — including our ex- 1 Thorndike, E. L., " The Selective Influence of the Col- lege," Educational Review, 30: 1. 282 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM tremely inaccurate means of attempting to determioe fitness for entrance and some other factors to be discussed in the next chapter — our colleges do not admit merely those who are best fitted to pursue higher study, that is, the upper end of the surface. Some pupils find ways into college who occupy stations in the surface not far above the median, or the line of mediocre ability. This is clearly shown in Professor Dearborn's study of the relative standing in scholarship of students in high school and in college. » Consequently the lower end of the surface would not be clean-cut as in EFG, but rather like the heavy line of Fig- ure 20. It would, of course, be skewed posi- tively, for there could not possibly be many cases near G. Most of them would have to fall in the larger space near EF. The curve would be similar to that for incomes. The heavy line in Figure 20, therefore, though not representing with precision ^ the scientifically • Dearborn, W. F. Published by the University of Wis- consin, 1909. ' "The curve of probability gives us the only precise meaning of the term ' scientific knowledge.' We have seen that human observations and measurements are never pre- cisely accurate. Generalizations, in like manner, are never DISTRIBUTION OF COLLEGE CREDITS 283 correct distribution of college grades, does certainly come nearer the correct frequency curve than the normal curve or than that representing the present practice of any col- lege or university in the country. In institu- tions where many sons of rich parents are dragged just above the failure line by tutors, the curve would be skewed even more than in Figure 20. As we proceed upward through the years of school and college we should thus expect to find the curve skewed more and more in a positive direction, provided the stand- ards are appropriately higher each year and a new base line is taken for each successive group. The cases cited by Professor Dearborn in Bulletin No. 368 of the University of Wis- consin, are to be commended rather than con- demned : precisely true. The formulation of a law of nature can never be made absolutely exact. Scientific knowledge, therefore, is not that absolutely exact and certain know- ledge which the popular mind assumes it to be. It is cer- tainty or exactness within a range of error, and to diminish that range is the object of scientific endeavor." Giddings, P. H., Sociology, Columbia University Press, N. Y., 1908, p. 24. 284 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM When marks are assigned according to the principles •which have been discussed above, we should not only ex- pect to find relatively little variation from year to year in the same class or grade, but the distribution of marks in the various grades in school from the lowest to the highest grade should not vary materially. If there should be any difference, we might expect to find, as we ad- vanced through the grades, a somewhat higher percent- age or frequency of high grades because the poorer stu- dents fall behind or drop out of school more frequently than do the better students. In order to see in how far this is true in practice, I have plotted the standings of a group of students from the third to the eighth grades, in- clusive. This has been done in two different citiies. The groups are composed largely of the same students through- out, although occasional students who entered after the third grade are included. The charts represent, there- fore, in the main, only those students who entered the third grade in the year under study and remained in school, and whose complete records could be found. Un- der such circumstances then, we should not be prepared for such results as appear on comparison of the third and fourth and following grades of school A. In this case, promotion for these pupils means that the majority of the class receive somewhat poorer marks than they se- cured in the lower grade, and for a number a very con- siderable lower standing. This is to be expected. In his objections to the use of the proposed distribution for ad- vanced courses, Professor Dearborn fails to DISTRIBUTION OF COLLEGE CREDITS 285 take account of the higher standards which should be set in higher courses. Those who ac- cept the principle of normal distribution only for freshman courses in college, or for any single period in the school life of the child, would be at a loss to prove its peculiar fitness for that period. Scientific Grading at the University of Missouri At least two institutions now enforce a dis- tribution of grades on a scientific basis. At the University of Missouri, an A is approxi- mately equal to an A, a B equal to a B, in a defined sense ; so that grades may be intelli- gently and fairly used for administrative pur- poses. According to the definitions adopted in June, 1908, grades A-f-B must equal 25 per cent, grade C, 50 per cent, and grades D-l-E, 25 per cent of the total number given by each instructor.' Under the old system, forty teachers in five years graded their stu- dents so that 25 per cent received A, 35 per cent received B, and 32 per cent received C. • The symbols used at the University of Missouri are E, S, M, I, F. 286 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM Moreover, the lack of uniformity among in- structors was as great as at Harvard and Cali- fornia. Under the new system the irregularity of the grading was reduced the first year from one-fourth to one-tenth, or in the ratio of 5 to 2. The distribution of 24,979 grades in per- centages was as follows : Aag., 1908 Feb., 1909 June, 1909 Feb., 1910 A 7.7 4.6 4.6 4.7 Ue.o B 23.3 20.7 21.0 21.3 > C 41.2 47.5 48.8 49.6 D 8.7 13.7 13.8 14.4! go g E 15.6 8.5 8.0 6.5) Delayed 3.5 5.0 3.8 3.5 Not counting the delayed reports, the dis- tribution of the 11,342 grades for the first year of the new system was, in percentages : A 4.9Ufl« D 14.5123.5 B 21.7 C 50 [26.6 » 1^5). 5 E 9.0 5 In spite of the adopted definitions, the ten- dency remains to mark students too high. Every attempt to devise a system of marking whereby extraordinary achievement can be awarded the distinction it deserves has failed because of the democratic tendency in all in- DISTRIBUTION OF COLLEGE CREDITS 287 stitutions to place so large a proportion o£ students in the " distinguished " group. At Dartmouth College, a professor once announced to a large class, "Gentlemen, I must warn you that the committee on instruction has re- quested me to make my examinations harder, but, gentlemen, I am pleased to say that I shall continue to mark the papers." A century ago a Virginia academy attempted to have its students graded in six divisions, — bonus, me- lior, optimus, and malus, pejor, pessimus. But history records that " the continual ten- dency was to mark inferior students too high. Thus it came to pass that not haK the bad scholars got malus, the worst almost never f eU below it, and bonus, though a mark of appro- bation, came to be considered as a disgrace, while optimus, which ought to have been re- served for scholars of the highest merit, was commonly bestowed on all who rose above mediocrity." As the president of this old insti- tution remarked, " a temporizing professor who loves popularity, and desires, like the old man in the fable, to please everybody, is sure to be guilty of this fault, and like many a politician, to sacrifice permanent good for temporary 288 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM favor." This is still the tendency everywhere, in spite of the manifest absurdity of declaring a large proportion of students distinguished. On the other hand, nearly every institution has instructors -who occasionally refuse pass marks to large proportions of their students. It was when a professor in Missouri "flunked " his entire class, and the boards overruled him by passing the entire class, that some of the faculty urged the adoption of a scientific sys- tem of grading. The students at another col- lege put more sense than lyrical charm into the following lines: There was a professor named Bray Who forgot the reflection on Bray, When in two of his classes He gave bat few passes, And frightened good students away. If an instructor refuses to pass some of the median half of the surface of distribution, it must mean, as a rule, that his methods of in- struction or discipline are faulty, or that an un- warranted proportion of students have been ad- mitted to a course they are unprepared to take. In either case, the fault is not with the students, but with the administration of the college. DISTRIBUTION OF COLLEGE CREDITS 289 The distribution of grades by the various departments at the University of Missouri in 1909, under the new rales, showed a range in percentage of A's from twenty in the history of art to zero in political science. The narrow limits of 2 to 7 per cent included seventy-two per cent of the departments. Thirteen depart- ments gave the median percentage of A's, which was 4. The entire distribution of grades by departments was published and sent to the instructors, together with a table locating the responsibility for the failure to hold to the adopted definition of grades. The table gave the name of each instructor whose percentage of A-B grades differed from 25 by more than 2, and the name of each instructor whose percentage of D-E grades differed from 25 by more than 4. The table would have been an invaluable guide to students who were seeking the easiest way to get high grades. It was, in fact, a table of chances. As a result of this wholesome publicity, the instructors in 1910 showed an even closer ap- proximation to the adopted scheme of distri- bution. Table XXIII shows the proportion of each grade given in each department. Only 290 THE COLLEGE CUKKICULUM one department fell outside the range 2-9 per cent of A's. The limits A=2-8, B= 16-27, C=40-59, D=7-26, E=2-ll, would in no case exclude more than four of the forty-six departments reported. Omitting departments that reported less than 200 grades (no one of which fell at either extreme of the distribution) we have in Table XXIII the most scientific distribution of actual college credits ever made. This means that we come nearer to knowing what a grade stands for at the University of Missouri than at any other institution in the country. Beplies from 58 members of the faculty of the University of Missouri in 1910 show that 51 approve of the general principle of stand- ardizing grades and 4 do not approve; only 1 reports that he does not aim to have his grades conform to the system in the long average ; 21 tend in grading large, elementary classes to give low marks and offset them by higher marks given to advanced classes, 20 do not ; 15 think that the effect, before the semester is over, is to discourage the efforts of some stu- dents appreciably, 23 do not ; 26 believe that the effect of the system has been good, 7 re- gard it as bad, and 23 as inappreciable. DISTRIBUTION OF COLLEGE CREDITS 291 TABLE XXIII XJNIVERSITT OF MISSOtTRI. Distribution of Grades, 1910. SUBJECTS OF STTTDT % A f ?° ^" 1 iS. Total Class. Arch, and History of Art 15 25 39 9 4 8 297 Botany 9 19 44 16 10 2 557 Physical Education 8 17 50 10 15 — 649 Latin 7 25 45 18 5 — 323 Geimanic Languages 7 23 45 13 9 3 1006 AniTTial Husbandry 7 22 51 14 4 2 594 Economics 7 15 43 23 11 1 369 Agronomy 6 26 57 4 6 1 321 Horticulture 6 23 47 13 8 3 495 Music 6 20 58 4 11 1 280 Law 5 24 52 10 2 7 3984 Experimental Psychology 6 20 53 14 7 1 497 Mathematics 5 20 49 12 11 3 962 Philosophy 5 14 45 20 12 4 336 Veterinary Science 4 27 59 7 2 1 292 History 4 26 49 13 5 3 1023 Sociology 4 23 51 16 5 1 594 Education 4 22 50 16 7 1 751 Journalism 4 21 59 12 3 2 342 Political Science 4 21 44 22 3 6 280 Philosophy of Education 4 20 53 19 3 1 365 Home Economics 4 20 53 15 2 6 220 Physics 4 20 43 19 8 6 1030 Electrical Engineering 3 22 49 18 4 4 491 Mech. Draw, and Hydr. Engin. 3 22 49 12 8 6 726 Mechanical Engineering 3 21 53 16 6 1 642 Bomance Languages 3 21 49 14 10 3 468 Shopwork 3 20 59 12 3 3 376 Theory and Practice of Art 3 19 48 15 9 6 289 English 3 18 50 18 8 3 1583 Chemistry 3 16 46 20 12 3 1379 Elocution 2 25 50 21 2 — 232 Civil Engineering 2 21 52 18 5 2 836 Zoology 2 19 49 20 8 2 391 Geology and Mineralogy 2 17 57 16 6 2 344 Military Education 2 16 52 6 ~ 24 293 292 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM Standardized Grading at the University of Iowa The need of a scientific distribution of col- lege credits was perceived at the University of Iowa and resulted, in 1910, in the adop- tion of the following definitions and rules : I. The marks used in the College of Liberal Arts shall be "A," «B," "C," "D," "E"; "Cond."for conditioned ; and " F " for failure. II. " A " is a mark of high distinction to be given to the very small proportion of students, in the long run not exceeding 5 per cent, whose work ap- proaches perfection or may be considered as ap- proximately the best that can be expected of any student. "B" is given for superior work plainly above the average. " C " is given for average work. In the long run approximately 50 per cent of the students should receive this mark. " D " is given for work below average but still unquestionably above the passing grade. " E " is a low passing mark and implies poor work not quite deserving the mark failed. A student must balance hours marked " E " by as many hours marked " B " or " A " in order to retain class standing and for graduation. "Conditioned" shall mean a conditional pass. DISTRIBUTION OF COLLEGE CREDITS 293 credit being given and a mark of " D " or " E " substituted upon fulfillment of the condition imposed by the department. III. Note 1. The term " average " is used, not as the average of any one class, but as the amount of work within the power of a normal student ac- cording to the standard of the instructor. Note 2. In a single given class the grades may fall far below or rise far above the average, but in the course of years and for large numbers of students, the above ratios should be closely approximated. Note 3. These marks are to be understood strictly as defined above and are not to be interpreted upon a per cent basis. 'IV. The registrar shall compile and publish each year for the use of the faculty, exclusively, a summary of the marks given by each department, the marks to be reduced to a basis of one thousand in each case. Proposed Administration of College Credits Discarding the arbitrary divisions employed wherever undefined symbols and numbers are used, we may divide the area of the normal surface of frequency as it is always divided for other scientific purposes. We may mark ofE a middle area equal to the sum of the two areas left at the sides. Half the students of any group will be represented by this middle area. 294 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM We may designate this group by the symbol C, or K, or 75, or 13, or 289, or we may name it after the chairman of the school board. Much will be gained when we rid ourselves of the notion that the letters and numbers we now use so widely necessarily have any partic- ular meaning. What we call this group does not matter: the significant thing is that it stands for an ability above and below which half the cases lie. It means that a student taken at random from a class of one hundred has one chance in four of falling above the middle group. It means that if we represent the ability of this group by C, we know pre- cisely what an instructor means when he gives a student that grade. He means that the abil- ity of the student in his course is greater than that of one-fourth of the course and less than that of another fourth of the course. This median group ought to be the largest, for it is where most human beings fall, as shown by the height of the probability curve. We cannot indicate real distinction, how- ever, unless we subdivide the upper quartile. We can do this arbitrarily or we can turn to a table of values of the normal probability in- DISTRIBUTION OF COLLEGE CREDITS 295 tegral.' Here the extreme ability is called 3. The point of the vertical line which separates the median group from the inferior group is .68. Halfway between 3. and .68 is 1.84. Accepting this as the division point for the upper and the lower quartile, we find at the upper end of the surface of distribution three per cent of the whole, and at the lower end three per cent. If we indicate the five sections, from the upper end to the lower, by the sym- bols A, B, C, D, E, we have the following distribution of grades : A = 3% B = 22% C = 50% D = 22% E = 3% If, on the other hand, we assume that the distribution of abilities of college students is not normal, but skewed as indicated in Figure 20, the following percentages for each grade would more nearly represent the facts : ' A table of values of the normal probability integral is found on page 148 of Thorndike's "Mental and Social Meas- urements." In Science, 712 : 243, Max Meyer uses this basis for dividing the probability surface. 296 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM C 50% E 6%r°^^ As variation in the abilities of those who elect a given course is sure to occur from year to year, some would prefer an elastic defini- tion of the grades ; for example : A= 0- 6% B = 15-21% C = 45-55% D = 20-28% E= 0-10% Any one of these definitions of the mean- ing of the five groups would come nearer to telling the truth, be more serviceable for ad- ministrative purposes, and convert the vast amount of labor now used in making out grades into more valuable data for the scien- tific study of education than the present per- sonal distribution of college credits. A defen- sible definition of grades should be adopted by each faculty and its members should be re- quired to adhere closely to it, in the long run, at least in all courses primarily for undergrad- DISTRIBUTION OF COLLEGE CREDITS 297 uates,' until we can supplant the method o£ grading by relative position by scales made up of equal units. After the definition of grades is adopted, a table should be sent to each instructor, as often as grades are required at the college office, showing the distribution of grades in each course in the college and emphasizing those that depart far in either direction from the adopted mean. Every instructor should be re- quested to justify his eccentricities, at least in a series of years. If such publicity does not accomplish sufficient uniformity for adminis- trative purposes, insurgent and careless instruc- tors should be reminded by the appropriate authorities that it is for the interest of all for each to abide by the decision of the faculty. ^ A director of civil service examinations in South Africa noticed that the curve of good examiners resembled the curve of a bad pistol shot trying to hit a vertical line. Accordingly, he tried to educate examiners. On the sheets on which ex- aminers were expected to enter their records, he had printed a curve resembling a gendarme's hat, — a normal curve. Each examiner was requested to grade 100 papers taken at random, to plot his curve upon the diagram, and then revise his method of marking so that his results would come nearer to the model. By means of such diagrams, the examiners were themselves rated in efSciency. (Sargent, E. B., Nature, 70:63.) 293 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM To rate instructors solely with respect to the proportion of high grades awarded by them, or solely with respect to the quality of stu- dents attracted to their courses, is evidently in- adequate. An instructor may give more high grades than his associates, because he has more students who deserve distinction. But if this is the case, the administrators of the college curriculum can readily devise a means of measurement which will show at a glance the justification for any conspicuous deviation from the normal distribution of grades. All the instructors of any institution may be lo- cated on a scale which shall take account not only of the grades awarded but as well of the quality of the students electing each course. For example, as part of an investigation conducted at Williams College by a commit- tee in accordance with a resolution of the Fac- ulty, Dean Ferry, at the request of the Presi- dent, devised a plan for measuring the relative quality oE the classes in the elective courses of Junior and Senior years and of the grades given in each. Taking the work of the first two years, where the courses are nearly all prescribed, as a basis for the determination of DISTRIBUTION OF COLLEGE CREDITS 299 the scholarship of the students, statistics were carefully worked out for the elective courses of three successive classes. The results of his ex- tensive study are summarized for 30 instructors in Table XXIV. ColumnI gives each instructor his position with respect to the quaUty of stu- dents in his courses. The larger the proportion of men attracted to his courses from the upper haL£ of the student body in general scholarship, the larger the plus rating of the instructor. For purposes of comparison, Column II gives each instructor his position with respect to the proportion of high grades and low grades as- signed by him. Thus, for example, instructor number 4: has the high rating of 41 in the quality of his students and the low rating of — 23 in the assignment of grades. Instructor number 26, on the contrary, has the low rating of — 21 in quahty of students and the high rating of 52 in grades assigned. In other words, he has a conspicuously large proportion of the students whose general scholarship is low, and to these poor students he awards a conspicuously large proportion of high grades. Many a teacher would be surprised to discover his standing on such a scale, and the college 300 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM administrator who undertakes to deal with such discrepancies, through discussion with individ- ual members of the faculty, will do well to provide himself with a quantitative presenta- tion of the facts.' TABLE XXIV A RATING OF ELECTIVE CLASSES IN WILLIAMS COLLEGE iHBTEnC- I II Ihsteuo- I II TOB TOB 1 113 16 2 41 2 113 17 1 42 3 77 27 18 —1 56 i 41 —23 19 —2 6 5 39 23 20 —4 —11 6 39 —21 21 —5 89 7 24 3 22 —7 63 8 20 49 23 -8 59 9 17 50 24 —14 40 10 15 34 25 —17 95 11 13 20 26 —21 52 12 9 41 27 —22 89 13 7 82 28 —30 114 14 6 58 29 —33 66 15 5 63 30 —40 73 Such regulation will be resented by many college teachers as an infringement on their rights. But academic freedom that allows each member of a faculty to do as he pleases in matters that reach far beyond the interests of his own department is intolerable license. As ' The method by which Dean Ferry secured these index figures may be found in his report for 1910-1911. DISTRIBUTION OF COLLEGE CREDITS 301 President Eliot has said : ' " A faculty can properly criticise the results of any professor's, or other instructor's, work as they appear in certain easily visible ways. Among such vis- ible evidences are . . . the resort of obviously incompetent or uninterested students to his courses ; examination papers of a trivial or pe- dantic sort; uniform high grades or uniform low grades returned by the professor; an ex- traordinary number of distinctions earned in his courses; or an extraordinary number of rejec- tions and failures. These are legitimate subjects of inquiry by a faculty committee or by faculty officials, and can be dealt with by a faculty without impairing just academic freedom. The knowledge that this power of revision resides in a faculty is a valuable control over individ- ual eccentricities." It is sometimes said that "there are usually some courses in a university which, from year to year, secure only an inferior grade of pupils, and other lines of work which, for various reasons, secure a disproportionate number of superior students. Classical students in the ' Eliot, C. W., University Administration, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1908, p. 110. 302 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM high school and university, and students in the advanced courses in mathematics, are often examples of such selected groups of students. The above principle would not be equitable in these cases." In answer to this argument, it should be noted, first, that it is, in large part, the very grading to which objection is raised that has caused the xesort of poor students to certain courses; and, second, if the better men do resort in larger proportions to cer- tain courses, that fact can be readily shown by statistics. It is one of the many educational questions on which speculation and opinion are quite out of place. Without a scientific administration of col- lege credits,' the other safeguards of the Elec- tive System are insufficient. There wiU always be students who are more interested in getting through their courses than in getting profit from them. The poorer students, as Figures 2 and 8 clearly show, seek the courses which give the larger proportions of high grades. Earnest but needy students, too, are under * At the close of this discussion, the footnote on page 272 should be emphasized. Even the best grading by relative position is only a temporary expedient. DISTRIBUTION OF COLLEGE CREDITS 303 great temptation to elect courses with a view to winning money scholarships, as long as scholarships are awarded on the false assump- tion that an A is equal to an A. To all students who are prompted by unworthy motives in the election of studies, Figures 11-21 are charts pointing the easiest courses to a degree. And students in aU colleges are guided by such charts, more or less accurately plotted. It is futile for the authorities to try to suppress such information and protect their instructors from the notoriety they deserve. Nor is the Elective System to blame for the presence of snap courses and the relative ease with which high grades are secured from certain instruct- ors. Nor is the credit-for-quality plan to be condemned because it accentuates the evils of our marking devices. The only way to safe- guard the Elective System and the credit-for- quality plan against the evils here set forth is to enforce a scientific distribution of college credits. CHAPTER XIV OUR DEMOCEATIC AMERICAN COLLEGE : SOME CON- DITIONS AFFECTING THE ADMINISTRATION OF ITS CURRICULUM The longer one studies a single problem in college administration, the more complex it appears. The college critic, to be sure, usually finds a simple solution, especially if he has had no close encounters with the difficulties. The ease with which he isolates a problem and settles it is surprising, for there is not a single question, in that comprehensive list of sev- eral hundred prepared by the Oberlin faculty, that must not merge its interests with those of every other question. Accordingly, it may be permissible at the close of a dissertation on the college course of study to present a few considerations which, though not primarily concerned with the curriculum, nevertheless do affect its administration. When Mr. Slosson started on his tour of American universities, to collect material for OUR DEMOCRATIC AMERICAN COLLEGE 305 the articles in the Independent, he placed at the head of the list of questions that he pur- posed to ask, " Does the spirit of democracy prevail in this university ? " He soon dropped the question as useless, because it was answered everywhere before he asked it, and always in the same way. The faculty, students, and alumni of each university agreed on the purity of its democracy. James Bryce recently praised this spirit of democracy, and referred to the United States as the nation having the largest proportion of its young men in colleges. That a nation devoted, at least theoretically, to democratic ideals and popular education should rejoice in all this is natural. It is equally natural that those whose main business in life reveals the shortcomings of the American col- lege should raise the question whether this democratic spirit in higher education is alto- gether praiseworthy, — should inquire what kind of institution we have built in devotion to democratic ideals. If we will not plead guilty to the charge that " college education is to-day chiefly notable for its ineffectiveness " ; if we resent the sweeping arraignments by Mr. Birds- eye and by Mr. Flexner; yet there are innum- 306 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM erable other critics whose charges we must meet. Condemnation of the college is the order of the day. The American college is on trial. There seems to be no defect in the whole broad realm of human possibilities but the college, sooner or later, must take the blame for it. This shows the great faith of the American people in the innate power of the college. And, after all, the American people are the jury, and the jury has spoken. What more practical verdict could one ask than the university and college registration statistics ? Every year sees a larger enrolment. The total increase in seventeen years was over 150 per cent, an increase out of all proportion to the corresponding gains in population. From 1902 to 1905, the regis- tration of the small colleges in New England increased over twenty per cent ; and the rate continues until the question is, how much longer shall we have small colleges? Here, then, are the American public staking their sons, their daughters and their millions on their faith in the possibilities of the college, and yet agreeing, on the whole, with the ver- dict of the Nation that " the college is the OUR DEMOCRATIC AMERICAN COLLEGE 307 least satisfactory part of our educational sys- tem and has urgent need to justify itself." This seems an anomalous condition, — our col- leges growing rapidly both in numbers and in popular disapproval. And yet it may not be difficult to trace causal connections. Proposed College Reforms But we may first consider some of the pro- posed college reforms. Among them, the one urged with most insistence and with the great- est weight of authority is the return to the classics as the backbone of the college course. Mr. John Corbin contends that in responding to the modern scientific impulse, we have re- nounced the function of mental training and character building. This is an easy and a com- mon explanation of our failings ; but it ignores the fact that no one has yet been able to prove that the so-called culture subjects — classics or others — are inherently better fitted than the sciences for mental training and character building. And certainly no such remedy would satisfy our most voluminous critics. " The cry is for more culture," they say, " without any real appreciation that on present lines this 308 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM means more mental and moral shiftlessness." Culture courses seem to them a " premium on laziness, mental sloth, carelessness and inac- curacy." And Dean Briggs's committee ap- pears to support these contentions, in reporting that the easiest way to induce students to take a subject for culture is to make it not too dif- ficult ; because recognized as a culture course, it tends to grow softer and more general. Even assuming that Professor Wendell is right in declaring that the one great need is the power of voluntary attention that was formerly secured through the humanities, yet it seems impossible to prove that the classics are best adapted for cultivating this power. If, as Mr. Wendell seems to contend,' the subject-matter of a course must be lifeless, and useless, and therefore essentially uninteresting, in order to give the needed discipline, then ingenious and hard-hearted pedagogs, especially if newly robed in doctor's gowns, can ride their hob- bies — metaphysics, counterpoint, Egyptian archaeology, or whatever you will — into regions as dull and unprofitable as those in which the knights of the classics rode their steeds — and ' The Privileged Classes in America. OUR DEMOCRATIC AMERICAN COLLEGE 309 the boys their ponies — in the lamented days of yore. For the most part the arguments urged in favor of required study of the classics have either adduced educational values more economically yielded by other studies, or rested unreasonably on the doctrine of formal dis- cipline. Mr. Flexner's remedies are not as convinc- ing as his charges. He declares that "the educational field is now free for constructive effort ; for a positive, not a negative doctrine." First, he would reassert the priority of the col- lege by removing the pernicious influence of the graduate schools. He here asserts a con- spicuous need, though it should be noted that the presence of graduate schools does not ren- der necessary — even when it renders conven- ient — the employment of young, temporary, inexperienced, underpaid instructors, whose chief interests are outside their classes. More- over, this remedy at best applies only to the minority of university colleges, not to the ma- jority of detached colleges which seem to many critics in quite as great need of reform. As a second remedy he would remove all restraints from the secondary schools. In place of ex- 310 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM aminations he would have us consider mainly "range, seriousness and cohesiveness of previ- ous study" ; but he overlooks the fact that our present certificate and examination systems attempt, with what meagre success we are well aware, to test precisely "these really vital facts " — and he proposes no definite substi- tute. His further concrete suggestions are that college faculties should be recruited in part from secondary school teadhers, that American History should be a required study, and that we should discard — what Mr. Birdseye de- mands — commercial standards of success. The method of revealing joy in scholarship to undergraduates that has been hailed with greatest interest is the Princeton Preceptorial Plan. The prevailing idea seems to be that there is some marvelous force in this device that at once turns shiftless idlers into earnest students. The fact is that the success of the plan is due to the power of the men chosen as preceptors and to the backbone of the ad- ministration. The plan itself could be applied to many an institution, under present man- agement, without providing sufficient incentive to hard work. It is a mistake to suppose that OUR DEMOCRATIC AMERICAN COLLEGE 311 even at Princeton the plan has succeeded in lifting the submerged tenth to a plane of pass- able scholarship. On the contrary, 680 men were dropped jn six years. A like insistence on excellence in scholarship and a like indif- ference to numbers of students would result, with or without the preceptor system, in im- proving any decadent college. For whether the college lived or died, the result would aid the solution of our college problems. One of our national democratic delusions is the belief that every institution which in some misguided moment has taken upon itself the name of university must somehow contrive to prolong its life. Commercial Standards of Success A present weakness of American colleges is lack of educational insight and moral courage, to which must be ascribed the failure of col- lege faculties to maintain standards of scholar- ship and conduct at the expense of enrolment numbers and tuition fees. Not that this is true of all institutions : any one may make such ex- ceptions as his experience or his loyalty seems to warrant. But certain it is that many a demo- 312 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM cratic college has shown slackness and narrow- ness of vision, if not laziness and cowardice and dishonesty, in letting down the standards of admission in order to get students in, and then emasculating the college work in order to keep them in. The colleges are in a mad race for numbers — a race in which the goal is inefficiency, in which, therefore, the only colleges that can win honor are those that drop out. Let us see if this is not a dominant diffi- culty in the solution of our vexed college problems. Shall admission to college be by certificate or by examination ? As long as our numerical standards prevail, neither plan can give satis- faction. Consider the certificate system. Boys in some schools are certified on almost any basis other than their genuine accomplishment of the catalog requirements, or their fitness to do genuine college work. Many authorities first consider what college the candidate wishes to attend and then fill out the certificate with due consideration to the laxity of the college. The weakling then enters to make the college still laxer. Thus a vicious circle is run, tend- ing always to the demoralization of the college. OUR DEMOCRATIC AMERICAN COLLEGE 313 For if the college is sufficiently eager for num- bers and weak in backbone, the school can- not suffer at the hands of certificate boards, no matter how absurd its certificates. Again, there are principals who certify a boy in a subject in which he is utterly unprepared, say Latin or mathematics, provided the boy will go to a college where these subjects are not required, and promise not to elect them. For in that case also, the board has no evidence against the school. Then, too, there are princi- pals who refuse to grant certificates, in order to induce boys to go to colleges that require neither certificates nor examinations. Again the school is " protected." If sufficiently clever it can stay on the approved list. From the col- lege standpoint the condition is still worse. For instance, a high school principal writes that he refused to certify one boy in physics and chemistry, because " he had practically no knowledge of the elements of these subjects." Yet the boy " was accepted without condition " by a university that is a member of a certifi- cate board. Thus the school was protected, because the university violated the vital prin- ciple of the whole certificate system. Further- 314 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM more, principals say that anything at all seems to be acceptable at some institutions as a cer- tificate of moral character. " I have nothing to say for this boy," or, "you have taken worse boys," or "the boy might reform in col- lege," — any evasion at all protects the prin- cipal, passes the scrutiny of some college offi- cers, and is in no way checked by certificate boards. Common honesty is a present educa- tional need. Some worthless certificates do stare schools in the face when they apply for continuance on the approved list. But it is then too late to save either the boy or the college from the injury of the dishonest paper. A boy entered Bowdoin College from an approved Massa- chusetts high school, credited with so many " points " that it seemed an injustice to give him the humble name of freshman. He did his level best, but failed to attain passing rank in a single subject. After the college had dropped the boy, an effort was made to secure some explanation from the principal; but he was busy signing certificates in another city. To the boy who is denied a certificate is left the loophole of college examinations. How OUR DEMOCRATIC AMERICAN COLLEGE 315 large and well lubricated this opening may become, when the college thinks it needs the boy, is well known. A letter from a New Eng- land college president urges a boy, who had proved himself unfit mentally for a second- rate high school, to visit the college, take a drive around the campus and not worry about entrance examinations or expenses. President Pritchett probably had many such cases in mind when he said that college rivalry has led not only to a most undignified solicitation of students, but to a shading of tuition fees to the loss of the college income. The fact is that any college may secretly make its exam- inations as much of a fiasco as its interest in the race for numbers may seem to demand ; and therefore uniformity in entrance require- ments amounts to little unless we have, as well, uniform standards in the setting and grading of examination papers. The poorest college can afford to print in its catalog the same re- quirements as the best. How wide the gulf between printing and performance may be is suggested by this case : A principal declined to certify a boy in a single subject, but added that he was " a good boy" and had spent four 316 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM years in the school. The boy was accepted by the college -without examination, and the college was accepted by the Carnegie Found- ation. Few are deceived by the ambitious adver- tisement of C College. Brushing Harvard aside with superior scorn, it advertises itself as " OLDEST, LABGEST, CHEAPEST, BEST " ; and, as sufficient proof, adds the lines, " 8 depart- ments, 8 PEOFBSSOKs." Nor are many deceived by those ambitious fitting schools that label their crude products with degrees. But be- tween the best institutions and the worst there are all kinds. For the states to adopt a fairly uniform and severe restriction on the use of the terms "university" and "college" would cer- tainly help ; for it would define the field of competition, it would relieve college education of condemnation not earned by the better col- leges, and it would eliminate some weaklings; though it is true that " the college that is least worthy of the name, that is in every way infe- rior to such academies as Exeter and Andover, is the very one which would cling most desper- ately to the title, would be most reluctant to re- linquish its right to confer worthless degrees." OUR DEMOCRATIC AMERICAN COLLEGE 317 Intercollegiate Athletics How the rush for numbers has broken the backbone of college administration, and justi- fied some of the adverse testimony we have heard, is conspicuously illustrated by intercol- legiate athletics. " We must do as others do," — " to attract students we must win games at any cost." These are the hidden motives that prompt many an athletic policy. No college is too small to feel that it must have as many teams, as many games, as much paraphernalia, and as big an automatic cheering section at every game as the largest university. Indeed, the smallness of the college, far from restrict- ing such activities, is used as evidence of the need of more and more, in order that the col- lege may become larger. Of the 480 institu- tions ranked as colleges by the Commissioner of Education, 340 are reported as having less than 200 students. How many of the faculties of these colleges, shutting their ears to popu- lar clamor, and the certain disfavor of students and alumni, disregarding the supposed needs of advertising and the pernicious argument that " what others do, we must do," how many 318 THE COLLEGE CUKRICULUM would be so bold as to assert — indeed, is there one that would assert — that intercollegiate athletics, as conducted by these small colleges, best promote those objects whereby alone the American college can hope to justify its exist- ence in the face of the serious charges now brought against it? Yet with what pusillani- mous indecision have we dallied with the whole matter for twenty years. What bold sur- geons we have thought ourselves when we have treated the malady by cutting down a schedule from twenty-two games to twenty. And what a sorry chance all this time the still, small voice of scholarship has had against the yelling of thirty thousand at a football game. It is needless here to rehearse the crimes that have been committed against a wisely ad- ministered college curriculum in the name of intercollegiate athletics, and in the supposed interest of enrolment and fees. One boy made no pretense of being prepared for college ; his school principal protested, in a letter to the college president, that the boy was at least two years short of preparation. That boy's entrance formalities consisted in walking into the lecture rooms. "They would not dare to OUR DEMOCRATIC AMERICAN COLLEGE 319 drop me," he said; and they did not. His brother was captain of the football team. An- other boy who did but two years' high school work was reported in a college catalog as a freshman on trial, and in the newspapers as "the best hole-opener in the college Hne-up." Another unprepared boy registered at one college, pitched a ball game, left his trunk at a second college awaiting a promised offer, ap- pKed to a third college for a salary as pitcher, registered at a fourth, became captain of its baseball team, and after four years of service took his degree and signed a contract with a national league team. Nothing can meet the situation but the hon- est and uncompromising devotion to high ideals of faculties that are able to lift their eyes from the level of registration and tuition fig- ures. We shall look in vain to the alumni for reform in this particular. One has a right to be skeptical about the support of alumni in efforts to raise the standard of scholarship, when one hears a large body of graduates wildly cheer the after-dinner sentiment that "a student should refuse to allow his studies to interfere with athletics." On such an occasion 320 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM one meets the kind of evidence that has led our critics to declare that in the great major- ity of our colleges, the president, the faculty, and the trustees do not dare run counter to the feelings of the undergraduates and those noisy and half-baked young graduates who yell for the athletic teams and who are sup- posed to voice alumni opinion. Genuine re- form and keen competition for numbers seem incompatible. So-called Gains in Numbers " Gains in numbers ! " Every fall we hear that this college and that has made great gains in numbers. And yet we have no idea whether there have been gains in any vital sense until we know first, what proportion of those admit- ted are qualified to pursue the courses ofEered, and, second, whether there has been a corre- sponding increase in the number and efficiency of the faculty. Of late the only institutions that exhibit much loss in registration are Princeton and Harvard, yet some believe that few institutions have made greater gains in efficiency. This is not a mere coincidence. The dropping of 680 incompetents in six years OUR DEMOCRATIC AMERICAN COLLEGE 321 at Princeton, and the loss of 50 "specials" at Harvard in 1910, has a meaning in progress precisely opposite to the so-called great gains of some colleges. We must rid ourselves of the notion that there is any credit -per se in enrolment gains. Any college — without ex- ception — can increase its numbers if it is will- ing to pay the price; just as, on the same terms, jail birds can be elected to political of- fice in some American cities. Conversely, any college, without exception, can increase its ef- ficiency if it is willing to pay the price, which under present conditions is likely to be a fall- ing off in numbers. Innumerable devices to coax boys to work have failed in cases where the one thing needful was to convince them, by the evidence of enforced discipline, that they must work or leave college. There is no college to take issue with Presi- dent Garfield in his inaugural declaration that " the men against whom we should close the doors promptly and effectually are those who loaf because they choose to, and who do not propose to change their occupation." Yet, un- less the experts called by the prosecution are bearing false witness, our colleges harbor many 322 THE COLLEGE CLTIRICULUM men against whom the doors should be closed on the charge of "miscellaneous worthless- ness." " There was a boy," said the president of a leading university, " so quick that he could always pass the examinations, though he neg- lected his work three months out of every half year. In the other month he would take tutors, and in spite of everything his teachers could do, they would have to give him pretty high grades at the examination. . . . Now that boy fell into many vicious ways. ... It was im- possible to prevent him from graduating. The result was that he shot himself in his father's cellar within a few years after graduation, and really it was the best way out." When a uni- versity president asserts that it is impossible to prevent a boy from graduating from college, though he neglects his work three months out of every half year, and falls into vicious ways, we must admit that the prosecuting attorney has found an effective witness for his case. But some men disagree on this point. Their experience has convinced them that it is not only possible to prevent such a boy from con- tinuing in college, but it is imperative. The quick march out of college, they believe, would OUK DEMOCRATIC AMERICAN COLLEGE 323 have been, if not the best way out of his diffi- culties, at least a better way than the one he discovered. Just such lads as this — who should never have been labeled as college products — have incited the testimony of our expert wit- nesses for the prosecution. Conditioned and Special Students To what is due the " weakening of intel- lectual stamina observed among our under- graduates " ? Is it not in part this democratic indulgence toward incompetency which clears the track of annoying obstructions in the race for numbers and tuition fees? To what incon- sistencies it leads our college faculties. "Such and such subjects must be presented for ad- mission," or "fourteen of these points are required of all candidates," our current cata- logs declare, withholding as a rule the in- formation most eagerly sought by the prevail- ing type of preparatory school boy, namely, how many subjects or points one may fail to present and yet be admitted. Boys are in- genious ; they are sure to find out how many of the required points are required ; for their interest is not so much in the profession of 324 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM the catalog as in the performance of the col- lege. To a majority of candidates our colleges virtually say: "According to our professed standards, you are not prepared to undertake college work. Although the secondary school opportunities are greater than ever before, although the wider range of admission sub- jects makes failure every year less excusable, yet you have failed to present our minimum requirements. Nevertheless, we admit you, allow you to try to do college work in the same classes with those who are prepared, and, in addition, we require you to make up your deficiencies in secondary school work." This is substantially what Harvard College said in 1909 to 58 per cent of the 607 freshmen. At Yale, 57 per cent of the incoming class, and at Columbia about the same proportion, were admitted with less than the " required " points. Nineteen of the freshmen admitted to the col- lege department of Columbia University were deficient in a full year of preparatory school work. At Princeton, 210 out of 360 were thus admitted with conditions. And there is no rea- son to suppose that our strongest institutions OUR DEMOCRATIC AMERICAN COLLEGE 325 are in this respect the greatest sinners among us. There is only too much concrete evidence to the contrary. Furthermore, if this overlooking of inequal- ities is not sufficient to satisfy the most demo- cratic of candidates, he has left the opening for "special students." If he will step in through this back door, he will find himself in the same classes with those who enter by the front door. He will be called a " special student" or a "freshman on trial," or a "pro- visional candidate for a degree," or a "stu- dent on probation"; but he does not care. He is confident that an institution so devoted to democratic ideals as to make his entrance easy will not make his continued residence difficult. Maturity and earnestness of purpose, it is true, should admit some candidates who, for good reasons, have not trod the beaten path to the college gates. But there is reason to believe that a majority of the 4073 " special students," enrolled in the institutions included in the re- port of the Carnegie Foundation, slipped in through the back door merely because they were not qualified to enter the front door, and should have been barred out altogether. 326 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM As Americans we are proud of the principle that the higher education should be open to every boy who is prepared for it, and who is ready to make the sacrifices it involves. But was it in devotion to this ideal that one New England college admitted, without examin- ation, a boy whose school declined to certify him in a single subject? Was it in devotion to this ideal that another New England col- lege admitted a star half-back with but half a school course to his credit ? that another New England college employed on a famous foot- ball team three men who had failed in their academy course? that another New England college accepted two candidates in violation of its agreement with the certificate board? that another New England college welcomed, as captain of its baseball team, a boy under discipline by a rival college? that another New England college credited with advanced Latin a full-back who had failed in the second year Latin of his academy ? It may be a democratic impulse that prompts various colleges to ad- vertise the admission of women on equal terms with men, but can it be the same impulse that leads these colleges to discriminate against OUR DEMOCRATIC AMERICAN COLLEGE 327 women both before and after admission ? Can democratic spirit explain the policy of those institutions that make their profession of re- quirements as pretentious as the best and their examinations a fiasco? Oh, spirit of demo- cracy, what scrambles for numbers and fees are performed in thy name ! Now the immediate effect on the schools of this democratic leniency toward the unfit, is to hamper the work of all those teachers who are honestly striving to promote genuine, sus- tained, intellectual effort ; and, at the same time, such leniency makes it easier for lazy and weak-backed teachers to tolerate slipshod work. The prospective college student inter- prets all this as a guarantee of admission de- spite superficiality or utter deficiency of pre- paration in any particular subject. He is thus prepared for further evasion of work after he gains easy admission to college. The college is further hampered by the extra burdens placed on the unfit. Unless our devices for determining preparation for college are useless, those students most heavily " condi- tioned " must be, as a class, least fit for col- lege work. Yet on precisely this class we lay 328 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM the heaviest load. At the same time we make scarcely any provisions for assisting these least fit students to carry these extra burdens which, with all the secondary school aids, they have hitherto failed to carry. The inevitable result is the lowering of the standards of work for the whole college. The freshman winds are tempered to the lamb that is shorn of his en- trance credits. When some students are allowed to take six courses, while many are taking only four, it stands to reason that the amount of work required in each course must be dimin- ished, to the detriment of college standards, unless those students taking six courses are conspicuously fit to carry 50 per cent more work than other students. Quite the contrary is often the case, since many who take extra courses do so to make up deficiencies. Accord- ing to all logic, students should be allowed to take more than the required number of courses in one year, only on the evidence of extraor- dinary ability. All this suggests the question whether, under an ideal system, we should not declare all candidates either prepared or unprepared, do away with entrance conditions, and thus OUR DEMOCRATIC AMERICAN COLLEGE 329 free all the college work from the unreason- able burdens placed upon those who, judged by our own tests, are least fit to bear them. The devices whereby "conditioned" and " spe- cial" students are now used, in the name of democratic principles, to swell numbers and income, seriously hamper both preparatory schools and colleges in all efforts to remedy the lax conditions which our critics deplore. Lowering of Standards StUl further to dim the hope of securing serious study and sustained application from our students, most colleges send off groups, by no means those who can best afford the time, on advertising trips — musical, dramatic, fraternity, debating, athletic. Gloss it over as we may with specious reasoning about " make- up " work, it is still evident that if a week at college classes means any real intellectual ac- complishment, the progress of the good stu- dents who remain faithfully at their work must eventually be retarded by the poorer students who are constantly dropping into the same classes after excused absences for outside ac- tivities. Though we need not abolish these 330 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM activities — for there is some good in all of them — we might grant no special excuses whatever for neglect of college work, and allow the outside activities to adjust them- selves, as best they could, to those chief inside activities for the neglect of which the Ameri- can college is now on trial. The authorities of some of our state univer- sities, politicians as they are, or partly depend- ent on politicians, incline to the idea that has long clogged our public high schools — that a period of residence of any sober and faithful child of a taxpayer entitles him to graduation. Nor are the ideals of all our privately endowed colleges illumined by a much brighter light. Jealous of the rapid growth of state institu- tions (they have grown twice as rapidly as all others in the past twenty years), our private colleges incline toward the patently absurd theory that nearly every boy should go to college and stay there. Our public grammar schools, which are obliged to take and to keep all sorts of raw material, have some excuse for the pernicious lock-step, through which bright boys form vicious habits of idling, while dull boys in the same classes are being dragged OUR DEMOCRATIC AMERICAN COLLEGE 331 along. But private endowed colleges, free from the most harassing drawbacks of public schools, have no excuse for allowing the me- diocre to set the pace for the rest. Scholarships One might define democracy in college ad- ministration with a borrowed phrase, — our ill-advised belief in the universal ef&cacy of college education to make a good piece of fur- niture out of a poor stick of wood. Accepting this definition, we are safe in declaring that the present wide distribution of scholarships in American colleges is truly democratic. Cer- tainly we are not using these trust funds, as best we may, to further Ruskin's aim of educa- tion, " to raise the fittest into positions of in- fluence, and to give to every scale of intellect its natural sphere." In some colleges, demo- cratic ideals fall scarcely short of putting a pre- mium on mediocrity. Scholarships are granted the sorriest candidates, every one of whom adds a burden, though no hope of adequate pay, to the already overworked and inadequate facul- ties. The treasurer of a New England college pointed out on the campus, as one of the curi- 332 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM osities of the institution, a boy "who actually paid his tuition fees. The bursar of another New England college, while visiting still a third college, expressed his surprise on finding that boys were actually required to pay their term- biUs or leave college. Intimate acquaintance with self-supporting students the country over will show that men of real promise would gain in educational opportunity, if the funds avail- able for scholarships were distributed among fewer students. American colleges would then be smaller but better institutions; nay, they would be smaller, and therefore better. At pre- sent, they suggest the report of a " hired man" to the proprietor of a sugar camp in Vermont. After inspecting the sap buckets, he declared, " Some is f uU, some half full, some runnin' over. Average, too full." Secondary school teachers have been repeatedly surprised to learn that boys whom they regarded as hardly fit for col- lege have had no difficulty in securing scholar- ships. This must have been at the expense of those better fitted. The best youth the country affords are given half a chance in order that some of the weakest may have an equal chance. One is still reminded of the remark of Agassiz OUR DEMOCRATIC AMERICAN COLLEGE 333 in 1864, — "The bright students are now de- prived of the best advantages to be had, be- cause the dull or the indifferent must be treated like children." As long as scholarships are used as a means of attracting numbers, there will be insufficient aid for the few students of con- spicuous worth. To atone for this thin spreading of its funds, our democracy errs still further in favoring self-supporting students at the expense of in- tellectual standards. Many faculties, through sympathy for indigent men who are ambitious to secure a liberal education, aUow them to re- main in college under conditions which ren- der a liberal education impossible. The rest of the students suffer, because the college work must be tempered to those well-intending, but not necessarily able, boys who are obliged to spend a, large part of their time and effort in extraneous occupations. The Small College A good deal of nonsense is heard about the superiority of the small college over the large and the superiority of the city college over the country college, ^ize and location are rel- 334 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM atively insignificant matters compared with the calibre of the faculty and the standard of work. Large colleges as a class are superior to small colleges as a class, partly because their administrators and faculties as a body are men of greater insight and courage. Yet it is easy to name a score of small colleges that surpass a score of large universities, and there is an ever-increasing number of parents who stake their sons and daughters on the belief that there are to-day small colleges superior to the best of university colleges. Such a belief seems to many as yet unwarranted. But the convic- tion is growing that a small college with the requisite insight and courage to become a Johns Hopkins for undergraduates, the Balliol of America, would soon take first rank among us, and find its degree the most highly prized in America. Though it were located in the forests of Aroostook County, or on the shores of Puget Sound, there would be, every autumn, a beaten path to and from its gateway. Nor need such a college suffer any loss in real democracy. Harvard and Princeton are regarded by some people as too aristocratic; but surely nobody ascribes this alleged defect OUR DEMOCRATIC AMERICAN COLLEGE 335 to the fact that they have rejected hundreds of deficient candidates that have been accepted promptly by other colleges. Their " loss " in numbers may well be connected causally rather with their recognized gains in efficiency than with their supposed loss in democratic spirit. President Tucker of Dartmouth said, a few years ago, " I do not understand how a college under the natural laws of growth can be re- duced, except in violation of some one of the principles of democracy." If this be the only way to reduce a college, let us then violate that principle of democracy — if such it may be called — that refuses to discriminate be- tween the fit and the unfit. Let us then violate that principle of democracy which in practice often seems to declare that every man is born free to enter college and equal to its opportu- nities. Backbone in administration and educational insight we certainly need ; courage based on conscious resources. But more enlightened leadership we are not likely to secure without further scientific organization and interpret- ation of contemporary experience. In Professor Wendell's entertaining book there are few con- 336 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM Crete suggestions except, first, his scorn of the scientific training of teachers, and, second, his assertion that we must try new experiments, honestly and generously: two suggestions which those who have faith in the professional study of education regard as inconsistent. For we believe, rightly or wrongly, that one reason why we have seen so little light ahead and stumbled so much, is because we have had too much mere opinion in the dreary wastes of educational writings, often from persons who scoff at pedagogy, and too little scien- tific study. We believe, with Professor Hanus, that the chief reason why we seem always bound nowhere under full sail, is that we have failed to organize our educational experience. Hypotheses concerning college education must be submitted to the same rigorous and far- reaching statistical tests as hypotheses in phys- ics or geology. Only thus can we hope to free our college administration from the fate that befalls every human undertaking concerning which everybody knows a little and nobody knows much OUR DEMOCRATIC AMERICAN COLLEGE 337 The Ideal College The trial is still in progress. The question is still before the court. Is there any type of college that can stand before the bar of popu- lar judgment in America, face these serious charges, retain the essentials of its democracy, and yet receive from the most exacting jury a verdict of "not guilty"? We have faith to believe that there is such a type of college. It is a college free to pursue its mission as the maker of men and enlightener of man- kind, with unobscured vision of the truth, and power to proclaim the truth without fear or favor of politicians, or religious sects, or benefactors, or pubUc cries, or its own admin- istrative machinery. It is, above all, the coUege that mistakes not bigness for greatness ; that haAidng fixed a minimum qualification for entrance, makes no catalog professions that are exaggerations of its actual demands, and no "special" open- ings for the unfit^ It is a college open only to minds capable of good scholarship and ready, if not eager, to make the sacrifices it involves. It is a college that shuts its doors promptly on 838 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM idlers by means of a discipline from which there is no escape ; a college, in short, that refuses to grow in numbers and tuition fees at the ex- pense of intellectual and moral vigor. It is the college, therefore, that never per- mits growth beyond the possibiUty of daily, vital contact between each student and in- spiring teachers — scholars who are first men, who know how to teach, and who are devoted to their work in the professional spirit. Ac- cordingly, it is the college that resists the temptation to shift any considerable part of its teaching to temporary, inexperienced and underpaid instructors, whose chief interests do not centre in their students. It is the college that sees the folly of putting large sums into fine buildings and small sums into strong men; that pays its professors enough to leave them free to put their life-blood into the daily work; that thus protects its most vigorous teachers from the regular raids of univer- sities. It is, at the same time, a college that will not suffer its sympatjiy for inefficient teachers to prevent their speedy retirement, whether they are young or old. It is the col- lege that resists both the temptation to dissi- OUR DEMOCRATIC AMERICAN COLLEGE 339 pate its energies by rambling ventures into university domains, and the university temp- tation to substitute mechanism for personality in administration. Thus it becomes a college that gives com- paratively few courses, but gives them thor- oughly; that tolerates not a single course whose demands can be satisfied by superficial work, or by two or three short periods of over- strain ; that will never sacrifice its chief ends by allowing groups of students to neglect their studies to advertise the college. Rather than this, it is a college that insists, at any cost, on daily application, genuine intellectual effort, exactness, thoroughness, and the other requi- sites of moral manhood that alone can satisfy the growing demands of American citizenship. It is a college that rigidly holds to the chief safeguard of the Elective System, — that what a student chooses to do, he must do in a credit- able way J a college that knows history too well to attempt to prescribe in detail the es- sentials of a libesal education, but does insist that every student shall do a considerable amount of good work in the department of his choice. It is a college that distributes its 340 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM credits on a scientific rather than a personal basis, and then puts a further premium on sound scholarship by making quality as well as quantity of work count toward graduation in a definite way. In short, it is a college that combats laziness, superficiality, dissipation, ex- cessive indulgence in what we are pleased to call college life, by making the moral and in- tellectual requirements, before and after en- trance, an honest, sustained, and adequate challenge to the best powers of the best Ameri- can youth. 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APPENDIXES APPENDIXES APPENDIX I AMHERST CUERICULUM CLASSICAL COURSE SCIENTIFIC COURSE C1827 CATALOGUE) FRESHMAN STUDIES FIRST TEKM Day's Algebra Porter's Analysis of Rhe- torical Delivery Livy, commenced Graeca Majora, Historians Adams' Roman Antiquities Same Same Levizac's French Gram- mar and Exercises Le Traducteur Francois Philosophy of Arithmetic SECOND TEKM Algebra, continued Porter's Analysis, con- tinued Livy, concluded Graeca Majora, Historians Voltaire's Charles XII Josse's Spanish Grammar and Exercises Bookkeeping by Double Entry 364 APPENDIX I THIBD TERM Playfair's Euclid The Philosophy of Eng-' lish Grammar Horace, Odes and Satires Henriade Graeca Majora, Poets Colmena Espanola SOPHOMORE STUDIES FIBST TEBM Playfair's Euclid Same Newman's Rhetoric Same Horace French Graeca Majora, Orators Spanish SECOND TEEM Day's Math. (Log. & Trig.) Same Woodbridge's Geography (Commercial) Same Hedge's Logic Same Cicero French Graeca Majora, Poets Spanish Naval and Military Tactics THTRT) TERM Day's Mathematics, Navi- gation and Surveying Same Dutton's Mathematics, Conic Sections and Spherical Geometry Same Woodbridge's Geography Same Graeca Majora, Poets French APPENDIX I 355 Cicero Spanish Practical Mathematics Drawing JUNIOR STUDIES FIRST TEEM Dutton's Mathematics, Spherical Trigonometry Same Tytler's History Same The Philosophy of Natural History vrith its applica- tion to Natural Theology Same Chemistry Same Cicero The Philosophy of History Graeca Majora, Critics Heeren's Politics of An- cient Greece SECOND TERM Enfield's Philosophy, Me- chanics, Hydrostatics, Pneumatics, Magnetism and Electricity Chemistry, Cleaveland's Mineralogy Paley's Evidences of Chris- tianity Graeca Majora Same Same Same Architecture Civil Engineering Schlegel's History of Lit- erature 356 APPENDIX I THIRD TERM Enfield's Philosophy. Op- tics and Astronomy Same Geology Same Nuttall's Introduction to Biology and Torrey's Compendium Same Graeca Majora, Poets Application of the Sciences to the Fine Arts Tacitus Ferguson on Civil Society SENIOR STUDIES FIRST TEBM Intellectual Philosophy Anatomy, with its applicar tions to Natural Theo- logy SECOND TERM Philosophy of Rhetoric Same Say's Political Economy Same Hebrew or Greek Modern Language or Mathematics THIRD TERM Butler's Analogy Moral Philosophy "Weekly rhetorical exercises throughout the four years. Lectures specified as deliyered to the students of one course will be attended by those of the other. The Latin Language may be substituted for the Spanish. APPENDIX I 367 AMHERST COLLEGE, 1830 PREPAKATOKY STUDIES Cicero's Select Orations, Clark's Introduction to the Making of Latin, Virgil, Sallust or Caesar's Commen- taries, Jacob's Greek Reader and the Four Gospels in Greek, or Graeca Minora and the Greek Testament, Geography, English Grammar, and Arithmetic. FRESHMAN STUDIES FIRST TERM Livy, two books Day's Algebra, commenced Adams' Boman Antiquities Porter's Analysis, con- Graeca Majora, Historians menced SECOND TERM Livy. Five books, finished Algebra, continued Graeca Majora, Historians Porter's Analysis, con- tinued THIRD TERM Horace. Odes and Satires Playfair's Euclid, com- Graeca Majora, Poets menced (Heroic) The Philosophy of English Grammar During the year. A weekly Rhetorical Exercise, Declamation or English Composition. Also, "Written Translations from the Ancient Languages. SOPHOMORE STUDIES FIRST TERM Horace. Epistles and Art of Poetry Euclid, concluded Graeca Majora, Orators Newman's Rhetoric 358 APPENDIX I SECOITD TEBM Cicero de Officiis, de Senec- tute and de Amicitia. Graeca Majora, Poets (Bucolic) Day's Mathematics. Loga- rithms, Plane Trigono- metry, Mensuration of Superficies and solids, Isoperimetry, Mensura- tion of Heights and Dis- tances Cicero de Oratore Graeca Majora, (Tragic) French THIKD TEEM Dutton's Mathematics. Poets Conic Sections, and Spherical Geometry Geography, and Logic, by Day's Mathematics. Navi- Lectures and Examin- gation and Surveying ations During the year. Two weekly Bhetorical Exercises, Declamation, Debates, or English Composition. JUNIOR STUDIES PIBST TEEM Cicero de Oratore, finished Graeca Majora, Critics Dutton's Mathematics. Spherical Trigonometry Chemistry History, by Subjects and Lectures The Philosophy of Natural History, with its appli- cation to Nat. Theology. Smellie's Phil. Nat. History. Paley's Natural Theology French APPENDIX I 359 SECOND TEKM Graeca Majora, Poets (Lyr.) and Phil. Chemistry, concluded Enfield's Philosophy. Me- Mineralogy chanics, Hydrostatics, French Pneumatics, Magnetism, and Electricity THIRD XEBM Tacitus ; History, De Mor. Enfield's Philosophy. Op- Ger. and Vita Agricolae tics and Astronomy Evidences of Christianity Geology Botany SENIOR STUDIES FIE8T TERM Intellectual Philosophy, by Say's Political Economy subjects. Text Book, Anatomy Hedge's edition of Brown's Philosophy of the Mind, with references to Locke, Reid, Stewart, and Payne SECOm) TERM Philosophy of Rhetoric Hebrew or Fluxions, at the Butler's Analogy option of the student THIRD TERM Moral Philosophy, by subjects. Text Book, Paley's Moral Philosophy, with references to Smith, Brown, and Payne. On every Wednesday afternoon is an exercise in Declamation, in which all the Classes take part. Seniors deliver original essays. APPENDIX n HARVARD CURRICULUM, 1841 FBESHMAK YEAB Prescribed. — Mathematics, Greek, Latin, and histoiy. Elective, — None. SOPHOMORE VEAB Prescribed. — English grammar and composition, rheto- ric and declamation, one modern language, and history. Elective. — Mathematics, Greek, Latin, natural history, civil history, chemistry, geology, geography, the use of the globes, and any modern language ; so far as the means of such instruction are within the re- sources of the University. JUNIOR TEAR Prescribed. — English composition, one modern lan- guage, logic, declamation, physics, psychology, ethics, forensics, and history. Elective. — The same as those of the Sophomore year, and a more extended course in psychology and ethics. SENIOR TEAR Prescribed. — Rhetoric, English composition, political economy, constitutional law, forensics, theology, history, and declamation. APPENDIX II 361 Elective. — Political ethics, a more extended course in physics, and any of the elective studies above enu' merated.' 1 ATmnal Heports of the President and Treasnier of Harraid CoUege, 1883-84, p. 13. APPENDIX in CURRICULUM OP HARVARD COLLEGE, WHEN CHARLES W. ELIOT BECAME PRESIDENT FBESHMAX TEAB First Term. — Mathematics, Latin and Greek, each four hours a week. French and ethics, each two hours a week. Elocution once a week. Second Term. — Mathematics, Latin and Grreek, each four hours a week. Greek history in French, two hours a week. Elocution once a week. SOPHOMOBB YEAB Required Studies. — Chemistry and German, two hours a week the whole year. Roman history, psychology, and rhetoric, each two hours a week, half the year. Elective Studies. — Latin, Greek, English, mathematics, and applied mathematics. JTJNTOB TEAR Bequired Studies. — Physics, three hours a week the whole year. Logic and metaphysics, each two hours a week, half the year. Elective Studies, — Latin, Greek, ancient history, mathe- matics, chemistry, natural history, German, Eng- lish ; each three hours a week, and each student must take two and may take three. Italian and Spanish, as extras, and as a condition of APPENDIX ni 363 being allowed to continue the study of them in the Senior year with a mark of 8. SENIOK TEAB Required Studies. — First Term. Political economy two hours a week, and history three hours a week. Second Term. Philosophy two honrs, history two hours, and ethics one hour a week. Elective Studies. — Latin, Greek, mathematics, physics, English, philosophy, history, and modern lan- guages (only for advanced students), each three hours a week, and each student must take two, and may take three or give the time of three to two. APPENDIX IV EVOLUTION OP THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM AT HARVARD COLLEGE, 1872-1900 A few of the most significant steps are here noted, mainly in the words of the reports of the President. 1872-73. " Already, in the Senior year, only certain written exercises belong to the required course ; and the Faculty, last year, decided to transfer to the Sophomore year the elementary study of political economy, and of the Constitution of the United States, which have here- tofore been Junior studies, together with that portion of the required course in physics which was a Junior study. This change will leave as required studies of the Junior year only logic, psychology, and a portion of the course in rhetoric, as well as that in themes and forensics." 1873-74. " The only change decided upon during the past year in the prescribed course of study was an addi- tion of one exercise a week to the two exercises already assigned to German in the Freshman year. . . . One less hour a week for a h^Jfjear, will be given to ethics." 1874-75. "The only change decided upon during the past year in the prescribedgourse of study was the transfer to the Freshman year of the physics proper, previously taught in the Sophomore year. In order to make room in the Freshman Course for two exercises a week in physics, one exercise a week each for a half- year was given up in ethics, classics, mathematics, and APPENDIX IV 365 chemistry. Ethics thereby ceases to be a prescribed Col- lege study. The prescribed chemistry will consist of a coarse of about twenty lectures, with an examination upon them." 1875-76. " Heretofore, rhetoric has been taught for two hours a week in the first half of the Sophomore year, and two hours a week for half of the Junior year. (The Junior rhetoric is transferred to Sophomore year.) This change will free the Junior year of all prescribed studies except philosophy, which is required for two hours a week through the year." (The required Sophomore study of political economy has been dropped from the coarse, and the time given to the comparative study of the American and English Constitutions. Only four hoars of required study are left in Sophomore year.) 1876-77. A table here shows the number of students electing each subject. The most striking feature of this table is the decline in the proportion of time given to the classics. Mathematics and physics also show a steady decline. English, Italian and Spanish, natural history, French, and philosophy show gains. 1877-78. Thirty-eight courses of instruction were set apart for graduate stujjents. " The courses which have thus disappeared from the list of ordinary elective studies are the second courses in Sanskrit, the courses in ecclesiastical Greek, Homeric philology, and Latin inscriptions, orthography and pronunciation, those in Boman law, and international law, one of the courses in mathematical physics, three in entomology, palae- ontology, and economic geology, and one course in 366 APPENDIX IV 1878-79. "An important change in the course of study was efEected in the past year, by the removal of logic and metaphysics from the prescribed work of the Junior year, and of history from that of Sophomore year." This leaves the Junior year free from all prescribed work except themes, and the Sophomore year free from all prescribed work except rhetoric and themes. 1881-82. The distinction is lost between graduate and undergraduate courses. It had already disappeared among elective courses by which they were formerly listed as Senior, Junior and Sophomore studies. 1883-84. The most important change made in the college this year was the extension of the Elective Sys- tem to Freshman year by dropping Latin, GIreek, and mathematics from the prescribed courses. Of the seven hours a week of prescribed work appointed for the pre- sent Freshman class, three were given to rhetoric and English composition ; three to German or French (the one not presented for admission); and one to lectures on chemistry and physics, each one hour a week for a half year. In addition to these prescribed studies, every Freshman is required to take three full courses, — not more than two in any one department. The result of this radical extension of freedom to the lowest class was as follows : — Number of Freshmen, 255 ; number who elected one or more courses in: Latin, 196; Greek, 163; mathe- matics, 141; history, 131; French, 98; natural history, 50 ; German, 26 ; physics, 25 ; chemistry, 11 ; 83 took Greek, Latin and mathematics. 1889-90. The list of prescribed studies was modified APPENDIX IV 367 by the omission of English D (a Senior course in foren- sics) and physics A (a course of about twelve weekly lectures for Freshmen). A similar fragment of required chemistry was also dropped. 1894-95. For persons who pass examinations at ad- mission in both elementary French and elementary German, English (a three-hour course in Freshman year) is the only prescribed course in Harvard College. 1910. Adoption under President Lowell of a restric- tion of the Elective System, controlling the concentra- tion and distribution of studies. APPENDIX V BOWDOIN COLLEGE CURRICULUM, 1871 » FiBST Tebu 60 reoitations in Latin, Oral exer- cises and select translations (Young's Delec- tus). 48 lectnres on Phy- sics, Geograpliy, and Meteorology. 12 recitations in English. Etymol- ogy (Latham or Kerl). 60 recitations in Mathematics. Greenleaf 's Alg. Elements of Draw- ing._ Exercises in Elocu- tion. Eng. Composition. Freshman Year Second Term ThibdTebii 60 reoitations in 60 recitations in Latin. Di&tation Latin, Cicero De exercises andLat. Oratore ; Latin Composition. Composition. 48 lectnres on Me- chanics, Hydro- statics, and Pneu- matics. 12 recitations in English. Syntax. 60 recitations in Mathematics- Geometry. Dayies' Legendre. Drawing. Exercises in Elocu- tion. Eng. Composition. 12 recitations in Ancient History. 36 lectnres on Acoustics, Heat, and Optics. 12 recitations i n English punctua- tion, etc. 40 recitations in Mathematics, Trigonometry, and Mensuration. 20 recitations in Bhetoric (New- man). DrawingjEIocntion, and Composition. 1 Catalogue qfBowdoin College, 1871, pp. 26-27. APPENDIX V 369 FiBST Tebm 48 recitations in Math. Surveying, Navigation, and Spherical Trig., field work, plots, plans, etc. 12 lectures on Gen. Chem. 60 reo. in French. Otto's Grammar. 60 rec. in Mechan- ics, Natnre, and Transmission of Force. Fxercises in Elocn- tion. Themes. Sophomore Year Second Tebm 60 recitations and lectures. Anal. Geom. of 2 and 3 dimensions. 40 rec. in French. Otto's Grammar. Bocher's Eeader. 20 reo. in Rhetoric, Whately's. 30 recitations, See- ley's Eng. Les- sons. Six weeks in Laho- ratory. Flocntion and Themes. Thibd Tebm. 60 recitations in Math. Diff. and Int. Calculus, or 30 rec. in Law and 30 in Logic. 12 lectures on Phys- iology and Hyg. 48 rec. in Botany (Elementary), 60 rec. in French (Racine, Athalie). Elocution and Themes. Optional : Nautical Astronomy, Hist. of Middle Ages, Latin, Drawing. Optional : Chem., Physics, Conic Sections, Latin, Hist, of France, Drawing (Shades and Shadows), Isometrical Pro- jections. Optional : Field work in Level- ling, Triangula- tion, and Topo- graphy ; U. S. Coast Survey Methods ; Topo- graphical Draw- ing; Linear Per- spective ; Hist, of England, Latin, Drawing, Music. The remaiDder of the Course will be arranged from the studies given below. Some options are offered which will be grouped in accordance with certain leading ob- jects : Natural Science, Engineering, or more general study. 370 APPENDIX V Junior Year Physics, — Prime Motors, Steam Engine, Water Wheel, Windmill, etc. Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Pneu- matics, Acoustics, Optics, Machinery. Laboratory work. Botany, Mineralogy, Zoology, Comparative Anatomy, and Physiology. Chemistry, — Qualitative and Quanti- tative Analysis, Agricultural Chemistry. Laboratory work. Topographical Engineering, Descriptive Geome- try, Eoads and Bridges, Orthographic and Stereographic Projection, Mechanical Drawing. History, — Elizabethan Age, America. English Literature, Bhetoric, Parlia- mentary Rules and Practice, Elocution, Elements of Music. German, — Otto's Grammar, Schiller, Goethe. Latin, — Composition, Cicero, Horace. French, — Borel's Grammaire Fran9aise, Scheler's Diet. d'Etymol. Fran- gaise, Bacine, Moli^re, Comeille. Swedish, — 12 Lec- tures on Scandinavian Languages and Literature, May's Swedish Grammar, Buneberg, Fenrik Stal's Sanger, Frithiof 's Saga. Italian. Senior Year Astronomy, Geology, Psychology, Metaphysics, Ethics, Evidences of Christianity, Political Science, Constitution of the United States, Common Law, Argumentative Composition, with study of masterpieces. Hydrographi- cal Engineering, Specialties in Mechanical Engineering, Strength of Materials, Theory of Arches, Architectural and Structural Drawing. English, — Study of Masters. German, — Whitney's Grammar, Exercises in Writing, Deutsche Literaturgeschichte, Becker's Grammar, Nie- belungen Lied. Spanish, — Novelas Espa&olas. APPENDIX V 371 SCIENTIFIC DEPARTMENT — NATURAL SCIENCE ^ Last Two Years Junior Year Second Teem FiBST Tbbm German, Otto's Grammar. Sing. Ldterature. Chemical Physics. Blow-pipe Analysis. Mineralogy. Mocntion and Com- position. French or Latin. Astronomy. Mental Phil. Quant. Analysis Agricultural Chem. Metallurgy. Polit. PhU. Excursions for study, on land and water. German, Tauge- nichts or Undine. Polit. Eoon. Physics. 12 lectures on Greek and its uses in ^English. Qual. Analysis. Oratory and Com- position. French or Latin. Senior Year Katural Theology. Chem. Phil. Organic Chemistry. Vegetable Physiol- ogy- Diseases of Plants. Constitution of U. S. Language8,Swedish or Anglo-Saxon. Spanish. Third Teem German, Goethe's Faust. Anatomy and Phys- iology. Zoology. Physiological Bot- any. Agricultural Zool- ogy. Insects useful and injurious. Oratory and Com- position. French or Latin, Ethics and Esthet- ics- Geology. Comp. Anatomy and Physiology. Xntemational Law. Excursions for study ; field, riyer, and sea. German. Bawdoin College Catalogue, 1871-72, p. 33. 372 APPENDIX V SCIENTIFIC DEPARTMENT — ENGINEERING ' Junior Year First Term German. "Bag. LiteTatuie. Mineralogy. Calculus, cont. Desc. Geometry. Field Work, Tran- sit, Level. Baiometrical Level- ling. Drawing, Architec- tnral,Meclianical, Topographical. Oratory and Compo- sition. Second Term German Political Economy. Anal. Mechanics. Nature andStrength of Materials. Carpentry and Building. Wooden and Iron .Bridges. Earthwork and Foundations. Shades, Shadows, and Perspective. Oratory and Compo- sition. Third Term German. Natural History. Applied Mechanics. Roads, Railroads, Canals. Curves and Profiles. Topography,Charts, and Projections. Survey and Loca- tion, Laying out work. Estimates. Oratory and Compo- sition. Astronomy. Polit. Philosophy. Steam Engine and other Prime Mo- tors. Architecture. Reclaiming and Im- provement of Rivers. Military Engineer- ing. Drawing. Oratory and Compo- sition. Senior Year Chemistry, Physics. Practical Hydrau- lics. Water Supply of Cities. Drainage and Sew- age. Specifications and Contracts. Constitution of U. S. Drawing, Mechani- cal, Topographi- cal, and Architec- tural. Oratory and Compo- sition. Metaphysics.Ethics, and Esthetics. Hydrography, Dams, Docks, Harbors, Sea Walls, Light- houses. U. S. Coast Survey Methods. Contemporary His- tory. Modem Geography. International Law. Oratory and Compo- sition. ^ Catalogue of Bowdoin College, 1871-72, p. 34. APPENDIX V 373 SCIENTIFIC DEPARTMENT — SELECT STUDIES ' First Term German. Knglish Literature. Mineralogy. Chemistry, Physics. History of Middle Ages. Kural lEconomy. Drawing, Elocution, and Composition. Military Science and Tactics. Junior Year Second Term German. Political Economy, Physics. History of France. Military Science and Tactics. Oratory and Compo- sition. Drawing. Third Term German. Kataral History. Botany, Zoology. Anatomy and Phy- siology. History of England. Military Science and Tactics. Oratory and Compo- sition. Excursions for stndy hy field, river, and Ijangnages, Ancient or Modem. Mental Philosophy. Astronomy. Polit. Philosophy. Architecture. History of the Eliz- abelian Age. Study of Master- pieces in English Composition. Languages, Ancient or Modem. Borel's Grammaire Franjaise. Scheler's Diet. d'E- tymologie. Senior Year Natural Theology. Chemical Philoso- pliy- Organic Chemistry. History of America. Constitution of U. S. Masterpieces of Argumentative Composition Swedish: May's Grammar. Runeberg, Fenrik. Stahl's SSnger. Racine, Moliire, Comeille. Ethics and Esthet- ics. International Law, Study of Masters in Eng. Literature. History and Geog. of present time. Geology. Comp., Anatomy, and Physiology. Swedish: Frithiof's Saga. Italian. > Catalogue of Bowdoin College, 1871-72, p. 35. APPENDIX VI BOWDOIN COLLEGE, 1876. COURSE OF STUDY IN WHICH ELECTIVES FIRST APPEAR.' FRESHMAX TBAB First Term. — Livy and Latin Composition. Selections from Greek authors and Greek Composition. An- cient History (Bawlinson). Algebra. Second Term. — Livy and Latin Composition. Herod- otus, Lysias, and Greek Composition. Ancient History. Geometry. Third Term. — Odes of Horace. Odyssey and Greek Composition. Ancient History. Plane Trigono- metry, Mensuration, Surveying, and Navigation. SOPHOMORE TEAR First Term. — Satires and Epistles of Horace. Demos- thenes. French. Bhetoric. Spherical Trigonometry. Conic Sections. Second Term. — Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, Book L Sophocles. French. Analytical Geometry. Third Term. — Terence. Plato. French. Logic. Eng- lish Literature. Quaternions (optional). JinSlOR TEAR First Term. — Tacitus and Juvenal (elective). Calculus (elective). German. Physics, Lectures and Recita- tions. Optional Greek. 1 Catalogue ofBowdoin College, 1876-77, p. 23. APPENDIX VI 375 Second Term. — German. Lectures on Philology. Ana- lytical Chemistry. Astronomy. Greek (optional). Quintilian (optional). Third Term. — German, Faust or Hermann and Doro- thea. Lectures on Philology. Mineralogy and Crystallography. Structural Botany. Optional Greek. Optional Latin. SENIOE TBAB First Term. — Political Economy. Walker's Science of Wealth. Geology, Dana's. Evidences of Christian- ity, Paley. Constitutional Law, Andrews. Second Term. — Mental Philosophy, Hopkins' Study of Man. Evidences of Christianity, Butler's Analogy. Chemistry, Lectures and Laboratory work. Inter- national Law, Woolsey's. Third Term. — Moral Philosophy, Gregory's Ethics. Chemistry, Lectures and Recitations. Political Ethics, Mulford's Nation. Exercises in Composition and Oratory throughout the course. APPENDIX VII BOWDOIN COLLEGE, 1880. THE CLASSICAL COURSE INVADED BY THE SCIENCE COURSE FmsT Teem Latin. Greek. Algebra. Plane Geometry. Freshman Year Sbcom) Tebu Latin. Greek. Algebra (3). Solid Geometry (3). Con. Sections (2). Thibd Tkbu Latin. Greek. Ancient History. PI. Trigonometry. WEDNESDAY P. M. Lectures on Hygiene, Bhetoricals. First Teem Rhetoric (1). French (3). Spher. Trigonom. Latin. Greek. Sophomore Year Second Teem Rhetoric (3). History (1). French. Latin. Greek. Third Teem English Literature. History (1). French (3). Latin. Greek. (Analytical Geometry may be taken in place of Greek or Latin.) WEDNESDAY P. M. Bhetoricals. FiEST Term German. Astronomy. Physics. Junior Year Bequired (3 Studies) Second Term. Gern^an. Physiology. Physics. Third Teem German (2). History (2). Psychology. Anal. Chemistry. APPENDIX VII 377 Elective (1 Study) Jj*t™- Science of Langnage. Greek. Physios. Dif . and Int. Calcnlns. Botany. Zoology. WEDNESDAY P. M. Khetoricals. FiRsr Term Political Economy. liOgic. Geology. Gen. Chemistry. Senior Year Bequired (3 Studies) Second Tebm Public Law. Ethics. History of Philoso- phy. Third Tebm Political Science. Evid. of Christianity. PubUe Law (2). Geology (2). Elective (1 Study) Mineralogy. Analytical Chemistry. German. English Literature. ■WEDNESDAY P. M. Rhetoricals. Instruction in Spanish, Italian, and Anglo-Saxon will be given to those who desire it, as extras. APPENDIX Vm FRANCIS WAYLAND ON COLLEGE KEFOKMS, 1842.1 Our Colleges, as I have already remarked, are at pre- sent scarcely anything more than schools for the ednca- tion of young men for the professions. So long as we continue the present organization they can he no other. While we construct our system for this purpose and adhere to a regular graduation of classes and prescribed studies for each, we may make what changes we please, but the regular course will control every other. But while we hare made our College course a mere preparation for professional education, we have so crowded it with studies as to render it superficial and probably less valu- able for its particular purpose than it was originally. I am not sure that we are not already suffering from the effect of the course which we have pursued. I rather fear that the impression is gaining ground that this preparation is not essential to success in professional study. A large proportion of our medical students are not graduates. The proportion of law students of the same class is, I rather think, increasing. The propor- tion of students for the ministry who resort to College is much larger than formerly. This is owing, in no small degree, to the aid of education societies. What would be the case if this aid were out of the question, I am unable to determine. If these things be so, it would 1 Wayland, Francis, On the Present College System, pp. 163-156. APPENDIX VIII 379 seem that while we have been restricting our Collegiate education to one class, its value by that class is less and less appreciated. But while this is the case, in consequence of this unin- tentional restriction, a very large class of our people have been deprived of all participation in the benefits of higher education. It has been almost impossible in this country, for the merchant, the mechanic, the manufacturer, to educate his son beyond the course of a common academy unless he gave him the education preparatory for a pro- fession. This was not the education which he wanted, and, of course, his son has been deprived of the cultiva- tion which the parent was able and willing to bestow. Now the class of society that is thus left unprovided for, constitutes the bone and sinew, the very choicest portion of this or of any community. They are the great agents of production, they are the safest depositories of politi- cal power. It is their will, that, in the end, sways the des- tinies of the nation. It is of the very highest importance, on every account, that this portion of a people should possess every facility for the acquisition of knowledge and intellectual discipline. Nothing would tend so much to the progress of wealth among us as the difEusion throughout the whole people of a knowledge of the principles of science, and the application of science to the arts. And besides, a knowledge of moral and intel- lectual philosophy, of the fundamental principles of law, of our own constitution, of history, of vegetable and animal physiology, and of many other sciences, is just as necessary and just as appropriate to the merchant, the manufacturer, the mechanic, and the farmer, as to the lawyer, the clergyman, or the physician. Why should it 380 APPENDIX VIII be supposed that all higher knowledge should be en- grossed exclusively by the professions ? If a man wishes to give his son a good education, why should he be obliged to make him a lawyer, a physician, or a clergy- man ? Why should not the highest intellectual endow- ment, cultivated by the best preparatory discipline, be found in every mode of occupation ? And if this be so, why has this whole subject been so long neglected among us ? Is it not time that our system should in this matter undergo a complete and radical revision ? What I would propose on this subject, then, is briefly as follows : In the first place, let the course preparatory to a profession be distinctly marked out, and let it be generous and thorough. Let it embrace such branches of study as are particularly necessary for fitting men for the professions, and let it be carried on to such an ex- tent as shall communicate enlarged and generous know- ledge, and vigorous mental discipline. But while this is done, let our system be so enlarged in its provisions that the means of education in other branches may be open to all who choose to avail themselves of them. Let there be established courses of lectures on all the subjects which I have specified, and as many more as may be necessary, to which men of all classes may resort. Let there be no compulsory residence ; let every man come by ticket ; and let him be admitted to every privilege which the nature of the case demands. In a word, let the College be the grand centre of intelligence to all classes and conditions of men, diffusing among all the light of every kind of knowledge, and approving itself to the best feelings of every class of the community. Let it, besides being a preparatory school to the profes- APPENDIX Vni 381 sions, be a Lowell Institute to the region in which it is placed. I know of nothing that would tend so strongly to promote the growth of wealth and civilization and re- finement among us. Nothing would so surely annihilate that division of the community into classes, which, al- ready, in spite of our democratic institutions, threatens the direst evils to our republic. APPENDIX IX YALE CURRICULUM, 1823. 2- FbEBBMAN CIiABS Livy. Adams' Roman Antiquities. Webber's Arithmettc. Murray's ^English Grammar* Livy. Elegantiae Latinae. Graeca Majora. Day's Algebra. Graeca Majora. Morse's Geography. Murray's Gram, (reviewed). Jtjniob Class Spberic Trigonometry. Graeca Majora. Enfield's Philosophy. Oioero. Homer's Iliad. Enfield's Philosophy. Cicero. Tacitus. f Enfield's Astronomy. 3 } Tytler's History. ( fluxions, Greek or Hebrew. SopHOuoBE Class Graeca Majora. Playfair's Euclid. Horace. Euclid. Horace. Cay's Mathematics. Graeca Majora. Cicero. Day's Mathematics. Conic Sections and Spheric Geometry. Jamieson's Bhetoric. Cicero. Seniob Class Blair's Rhetoric. Hedge's Logic. Locke's Essays. Paley's Natural Theology. Stewart's Philosophy of the Mind. Paley's Moral Philosophy. Paley's Evidences of Chris- tianity. Entrance Requirements Cicero's Select Orations. Clark's Introduction to the Making of Latin. Virgil. Sallust. APPENDIX IX 383 Greek Testament. Dalzel's Ghraeoa Minora. Adams' Latin Grammar. Goodrich's Greek Grammar. Latin Prosody. Arithmetic. 384 APPENDIX X M § ^ § Q g M M s Ph A Pj ^! <^ M fei Eil S o H 8 a o owwaiaaasgsiSigm^ .3 .■3^ I«?oi JTOjtpiiqi I 1V9^ pnoo9s JB9i 5SIIJ apMB •«! M o n 3 APPENDIX X 385 s o S a Q P-H O O CM m g .3 44 S bo « I fl Cm O H e P^ S a S a I g ■S ■« ■5 g <4 <( a a s s s s .g .s .s' •! g, o o -S ^ ^ ^ 43 43 43 P^ .SP QJ Q »»3 "-^ •-^ -"-» C4 id C3 vM fH S <) >, 2" g" .1 5 •S Ilia s ■< < o a § § ^ c B < « O M H t>D bo S a p »i H H h p, O a tS li k a & ^ !zs ta m Ol U h fl s a ■■3 INDEX Academy, inflnence of the, 6, 7, 89, 90. Adams, C. F., qnoted, 160. Adams, H. B., quoted, 40. Agassiz, A., qnoted, 333. American college, origin of, 3; on trial, 159. American Journal of Education, first published, 86 ; qnoted, 87. Amherst College, 20 j reforms at, in 1826, 85, 98-109; 353, 359. Ajidover Review, qnoted, 51. Athletics, 317-320. Beaurepaire, Qnesnay de, 39. Bibliography, 341. Bowdoin College, reforms at, 91- 98 ; elective system at, 133- 142 ; grades at, 266 ; curricu- lum at, 368. Briggs, L.B.K., qnoted, 162, 203, 308. Brown University, charter of, 9; reforms at, 378. Cahell, Joseph, 43. California, University of, grades at, 266, 267. Cambridge University, curricu- lum of, 38. Catholic view of the college course, 150, Cattell, J. McK., quoted, 160, 168, 208, 268. Certificate systems, 312. Chemistry, first courses in, 18. Clap, President, quoted, 33. Classics, defense of, by Yale, 144-146; by Dartmouth, 146, 147, 214; and success in life, 213 ; at Harvard, 222 ; study of the, 266. Class of 1894, Harvard, electives of, 203. College requirements, 152; of state universities, 166 ; of pri- vate universities, 170 ; of col- leges for women, 170; of small colleges, 172. Columbia University Quarterly, quoted, 161. Commercial standards in college, 311. Concentration and distribution of studies, 176-199 ; the Har- vard plan, 176 ; at Yale, 180 ; at other colleges, 181; at Bow- doin, 185 ; at Stanford, 191. Condemnation of the college, 159. Conditioned students, 313-316, 323. Cooper, Thomas, quoted, 46. Corbin, John, quoted, 307. Credit-f or-quality plan, 233 ; ob- jections to, 240. Credits, college. See grades. Curriculum, first, in America, 10-13; before 1753, 14; "ex- tra" studies in, 26-27; college, at Bowdoin, 133,376; at Un- ion, 148 ; at Maryville, 148; at St. Louis University, 150 ; ob- jections to, 162 ; opposed ideas concerning the, 162; at Yale, 382. 388 INDEX Dartmouth College, George Ticknor at, 66, 287. Dearborn, W. F., 268, 278-282. Dexter, E. G., quoted, 201, 215. Distribution of college credits. See Grades. Distribution of studies, 176-199 ; of Class of 1894, Harvard, 205. Dunster, laws of President, 10. Dwight, President, of Tale, quoted, 46. Economics, first courses in, 19. Edinburgh, University of, 41, 46-50. Education, scientific study of, 21 ; at Amherst College, 102. Elective study, meaning of, 27, 28. Electives of honor men and others, 217. Elective System, 7, 18, 22; at Harvard, classes, 1886-1900, 218 ; 1856, 21; 34, 110-128 ; in the small college, 129-142, 303, 364. Eliot, President, qnoted, 21, 126, 150, 152, 163, 233, 364. English, prescribed courses in, 174. English universities, 6, 9, 38. Everett, Edward, at Gottingen, 69 ; inaugural address of, 70. Examination for entrance, 312. Flexner, A., qnoted, 162, 309. Gains in numbers, 320. Geneva, university at, 41; influ- ence on Edinburgh, 46, Gentleman's g^ade, 233. Georgia, University of, elective studies at, in 1800, 108. German universities, influence of, 8, 20-21, 50-52, 67-72. Giddings, F. H., qnoted, 282. Gottingen, University of, 47; Ticknor and Everett at, 67- 70. Gk'ades, distribution of, 250-303; at Harvard College, 252-264; at University of Wisconsin, 283 ; at University of Mis- souri, 285-291 ; at University of Iowa, 292 ; at University of CaJifomia, 267; at Bowdoin College, 263. Greek, courses in, 266. Gtynmasia, Lehrplan, in 1837, 68> Hadley, A. T., qnoted, 162. Halle, University of, 47. Harvard Law Review, editors of, and their college records, 230. Harvard University, colonial curriculum of, 17; evolution of the elective system at, 110- 128. Haven, TS. A., letter to, qnoted, 71. Higher education, objects of, defined by Jefferson, 56-57. High Schools, influence of, 7, 152. History, first professorship, IGi- 20. Hyde, W. DeW., 239. Ideal college, 337. Iowa, University of, grades at, 292. Jardine, Professor, quoted, 86. Jastrow, J., qnoted, 201. Jefferson, Thomas, 16, 18, 34; influence of Dr. Smil^ on, 35, 36, 39-64; French influence on, 41-45; influence of, on George Ticknor, 72-84. Jordan, D. S., quoted, 151, 169.' INDEX 38& King's College, 14. s, modem, 17, 26, 95, 121, 146. Law school, recoids of students in, 224, 271. Lawrence Scientific School, 22. Lehr und Lernfreiheit, 20 ; at Edinburgh, 47 ; defined, by Paulsen, 47. Longfellow, H. W., at Bowdoin College, 97 ; at Harvard, 121. Lord, President, of Dartmouth, quoted, 146, 147. Lowell, A. L., 211. Madison, James, 34; quoted, 80. Major and minor requirements, 190-199. Medical school, records of stu- dents in, 271 ; success in col- lege and success in, 224. Meyer, Max, quoted, 268, 295. Mirania, General Idea of the College of, 24. Missouri, UniTersity of, grades at, 285. Nation, quoted, 161. Nemours, Dupont de, 44. New England's First Fruits, quoted, 12. New York Gazette, quoted, 23. Normal frequency curve, 276- 281. Norwich University, beginnings of, 89. Partridge, Captain, quoted, 87 ; at Middletown, Conn., 90. Paulsen, F., quoted, 47, 68. Phi Beta Kappa men and suc- cess in life, 215. Philadelphia Academy, 15, 23- 33. Porter, N., quoted, 149. Prescribed Regime, breakdown of, 143-155. Princeton Preceptor Plan, 311. Pritohett, H. S., quoted, 160, 315. Professional schools, success in college and success in, 222, Quincy, President, quoted, 115 ; on the elective system, 120. Eatio Studiontm, 150. Records, forms for college, 384- 385. Reformation, influence of, 4-5. Remarks of George Ticknor, quoted, 82. Renaissance, influence of, 4, Rensselaer Polytechnic Insti- tute, 18. Rockfish Gap Commission, 56. Eoyce, J., quoted, 163. Scholarships, 235, 331. Science courses, 13, 17, 22, 134. Scientific distribution of college credits, 250-303. Senior students at Harvard, 1856, at Philadelphia, 1756, 32. Small college, 333 ; elective sys- tem in the, 129-142. Smith, WiUiam, 15; ideas in education, 23-36. Snap courses at Harvard, 220. Sparks, President, quoted, 125. Special students, 321, 323-325. Specialization, 176-199. Standards, lowering of, 329. Success in life, college studies and, 200-232. Thomdike, E. L., quoted, 181, 268, 272, 273, 276, 281, 295. 390 INDEX Three-year course, 235. Thwing, C. F., quoted, 65, 69, 114. Ticknor, George, letter to, quoted, 61-64 ; and elective system at Harvard, 65-84, 110-118. Trivium, 4. Tucker, W. J., quoted, 335. Union College, curriculum, 148, Virginia, University of, 36, 56 ; elective system at, 6&^4. Wayland.'F., 146, 378. Wendell, B., quoted, 160, 308, Western Keserve University, 19, Who 's Who in America, use of, 201. William and Mary College, 16, 19, 34-37. Wilson, W., quoted, 160. Wissler, Clark, 268. Tale University, 17; conservo- tive influence of, 19, 129-131, 146, 149 ; reports of 1828, 143- 146. CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS U . S . A