The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-03-10
HUSKY


follows:
81 would have a large, well-sheltered gar
den and orchard for students addicted to
planting; an ergasterium for mechanic fan
cies, and a laboratory chemical for those
philosophers that by their senses would Gull
tivate their understanding, for the students
10 spend their times of recreation at them,
for reading and notions are but husky prov
snder."
This was 200 years ago, but not until the
establishment of the Lawrence Scientific
School a century and a half later 1S481
were President Hoar's wishes realized. He
was like most educators of rank, in advance
of his times, and was probably regarded with
Rousseau, Frobel and Pestalozzi as a vision
airy or even an old fogy,
The old college custom Of feeding the
minds of students on the "husky proven
der" of reading and notions" instead of
combining with these manual training, and
so preparing young men for the actual af-
fairs of life, is still dominant in many col
leges and so-called universities" There
are colleges i'll Indiana in which the entire
scientific apparatus and natural history col
~lectious might be carted off in a armer's
wagon. One man. at a thousand a year,
is expected to do the entire work
in chemistry, physics, botany, zoology and
geology. Laboratory work is unknown, and
three months courses in Steele's Fourteen
Weeks in Anything" completes the science
studies. Students graduating from such in
Btitutions are often left with the opinion
that they are adopts in the knowledge of
nature, and all the harm that follows a
Smattering of knowledge naturally ensues.
But such schools have their place, no doubt,
in the evolution of better educational meth
they do in language and mathema tics, such
courses are vastly better than no college
education. They afford to the young men
and women of the farming districts and the
villages leisure for study, usually good So
eiety, and bring them in contact with an
educated community. As these smaller col
ieges are usually sectarian, and supported
largely by the contributions of the churches,
there is a direct interest and sympathy be-
tween patrons, faculty and students, I'M
known in the great universities. The result
Is a good moral tone in the college. They
have the nature of a home, and there
students are not subjected to the vices
which beset young men in the great univer-
stiles. Supported independent of State, and
affording college diplomas near the homes of
the students, the twenty or thirty widely
scattered colleges of the lesser rank to be
found in every Northern State are no doubt
q powerful auxiliary to the work of national
education. Their poverty is the partial ex-
cuse for the leanness of their science courses.
The right kind of science teaching is expen-
sive. The outfit in chemistry and physics
for fifty students should not cost less than
zoology rightly taught are not less expensive.
If mechanics and shop work are introduced,
20 that mind. eye and hand are educated in
harmony and with reference to the after-life
work of the students, the endowment fund
must run into the hundred thousands.
But the greatest drawback is the stubborn
ness with which college faculties cling to the
old curriculum OF their own college educa-
ton. Both the old and the new educations-
the classical and the scientifc-are needed in
our civilization. The humanities cannot be
rudely pushed aside for the mere utilities.
Few have time and faculty to attain
both classical and scientific training.
There is little danger, however,
sf the scientific and manual courses taking
entire precedence of the old classical system
in the colleges already established. The
force OF tradition and custom is not easily
broken. The departure must be, and has
been, mainly in new schools, or by the
benefcence of individuals e~ndowing schools
of science under the control of established
colleges. OF the eighty-four special schools
Of science reported by the Commissioners of
Educations in the last annual report (18S0),
Since the national l~and-grant act of 1862,
torty-three schools of science have been or
ganized, mainly of mining, engineering, agri-
culture and the mechanic arts. The national
grant allowed 8 1000 acres of public land for
each senator and representative under the
hpportionment of 1850. Under the act In
llama received $780, 600 acres, which when
sold netted S2l2, 900 to Purdue University.
Of the eighty-four special schools, thirty-ive
are not sharers in the land grant, and of these
most are, also, of recent organization.
The appetite for the "husky provender of
words and notions in higher education, it
would seem, is considerably appeased. The
,easons for this change OF base in re-