The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1869-05-19


The University-A new course Of Ntudies..
1t is the good fortune Of the present Trus-
tees of the State University that they are
able to prolIt not only by the errors but also
by the wisdom, Of their predecessors A
University course had already been an
nounced blythe former Board, and it was
perhaps no fault OF theirs that such system
was not carried into successful operation.
Let them have the honor of inaugurating
plan, the honor of whose execution falls
under happier auspices, into hands assurediy
no whit less worthy.
The main features of the plan are such,
that while ample instruction is given in
those branches which it is shame for an
educated man to he ignorant Of, some refer
ence may be had to the age. the attachments,
the tastes and the wishes of the student.
For, incredible as it may seem, the ordi-
nary old College course had little reference
to any of these things. The boy of sixteen
and the man of twenty-five, one with only
so much Latin and Greek as suficed for ad-
mission, and that little perhaps obtained by
hasty examining, and one with a mind
ripened by long and loving familiarity with
the English classics in romance, history,
poetry and philosophy young men with no
special taste for any particular branch of
study, nor indeed for any study, and young
man with genius like Millions, boys with no
aim whatever, and boys whose lips were hot
with thirst for distinction in some field al
ready chosen, all were thrust into the same
class and subject to the same regimen
To plain man it is evident that any
course of culture, worthy of the name, ought
to consider the present requirements of the
student, and his wishes for the future, and
in the speediest manner possible, fit him for
the realization of those wishes, if they are
rational. If the students wishes are IRA
tional, then the course should be such as to
open his eyes to his-own capacity and the
demands of the times. And this is what the
new plan contemplates.
d
dawned upon Natural Science, upon COM
merce, upon agriculture It believes that a
graduate from the University, who shall be
faithful disciple of Humboldt and Agassiz,
may be Indifferent as to whether he canread
Sanscrit or Choctaw; that the future mer-
chants of the State may find the laws of
trade to be more important than the laws of
Scion and that the future farmers of the
State may be too much interested in the
Herd Book and Liebig-in the selection of
stock and the analysis of soils, to be very
anxious to smother their young lives among
the mumInies of pagan literature.
A live, practical education, which, based
upon such general scholarship as every man
needs, shall yet look to the past labors, the
present ability, and the future prospects of |
each student and shall fit him for such
life of usefulness as becomes an American
citizen, in this afternoon of our nineteenth |
century 1t is this which the new Board of |
Trustees hope to secure to the sons of North |
Carolina. and in the securing of which they |
ask, and have right to expect, the sympa |
thy and the aid of that party of progress,
whose life depends upon their success. They |
ask and ought to have the hearty support |
of the entire national Republican party of |
the State of North Carolina.