Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-01-01
STATE EDUCATION.
Colleges and Universities on Trial
--California's University.
What Are It's Needs and What is 1t Ac-
cornplishing 7-Righ Schools and
Their Eecessity-Etc.
[prsplred especially for the RECORD. UNION

/ 4NOhC VI VIC lAbCIcobs Vi Tue Osdk6 dUDGdL
more strongly to our people than our edu-
cational interests. TIE free public school
| system has come to be looked upon as an
essential TO our very continuance as ma
ton. Oar people would as soon think of
abolishing the Constitution of the United
| States as our free schools. Indeed, the
idea has grown and expanded until in many
| States free university has been added TO
the system. The idea of free higher educa-
ton has not, however, such hold upon
the public mind as to be regarded as es-
sential to the system. State colleges and
| State universities must therefore, perhaps,
be considered as yet on trial. The studies
of the college or the university appear TO
| touch most of the common interests OF life
SO remotely that the average man takes at
best comparatively slight interest in them,
and the little interest that ne does take is
naturally proportional to the bearing that
they have upon his own pursuits. So
slight an appreciation of
THE LEGITIMATE. PURPOSE OF THE UNI.
yERSITY
! Is likely, of course, to result in an made.
quate idea of its needs and of what it is
accomplishing. There are reasons for be-
lieving that our own University is suffering
from this want of intelligent interest in it,
and proper appreciation of what it is do
ing and is capable of doing The late re-
| port of the President brings forward GER
tain facts that deserve to he more widely
known, and there are othsr facts not there
mentioned that should also be made known.
In that report our University is to GER
tain extent brought into direct comparison
with Yale College and her Sheffield Scien-
| tific School, and with the Institute of
Technology, in Boston, and as far as the
comparison is carried she does not suffer
by it. The standard of admission to the
several colleges of the University is on an
average quite equal to that of most fsthe
Eastern colleges, and the percentage of re-
| jections and conditions, and the average
age of the students admitted, indicate that
the standard is reasonably well main
tained-as well maintained as is practica.
BILE and desirable, considering the made
quacy, in fact, the absence from our public
school system of
SYSTEMATIC HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION.
This want of proper preparatory schools
is and must long continue to be serious
drawback to our University. 1t has ten
dency to give to the University something
of an exclusive character, and to confine
its patronage in great measure to the inhab.
itants of our cities and larger towns, or to
those living in the immediate neighbor.
hood, or to the wealthy farmer population
those who can bear the expense of sending
their SONS and daughters to expensive pre-
paratory schools.
This the President has very properly de.
plored in strong terms, and has called at
tention to the fact that the students from
the country, as rule, are altogether the
most earnest members OF the University.
But this is no fault of the University. 1t
is so because the people would have it so.
The new Constitution to great extent cuts
the University off from the farmer with
limited means by disowping high schools
and notwithstanding them. To make the
University school for the people it must
be made accessible to the people and to
make it accessible the people must estab-
lish in their midst schools that will fit their
SONS and daughters for the University. 1t
should be noted too, and it is a most i'm.
portant element in the discussion, that in
preparing young men and young women for
the University they are directed, not in q
line of studies that belong to the specialist
or that depend for their usefulness upon
their further pursuit in college, but in q
line that must appeal to every man. Except
for the classical and literary courses, there
is not study required for admission
that every farmers con and every mechan-
les son should not have such an acquaint.
ance with as is necessary to gain entrance
to the University. Ia other words these
requirements cover the best elementary
education that is now offered anywhere in
the State. One of the drawbacks, then, to
the University is the want of proper pre-
paratory schools throughout the State
schools through which the farmers sons
and daughters, the mechanics sons and
daughters-indeed, the sons and daughters
of ali the people of the State with moderate
means-may not only have the opportu-
nifty to reach the University, but have
every encouragement to do go. From the
Presidents report it also seems to be the
belief that nothing would have stronger
tendency to
ELEVATE THE STANDARD OF SCHOLARSHIP
And manly bearing among the students
than to have the University filled with this
class of young men. The first essential,
then, to its best success is suitable pre-.
paratory schools. The professors can no
more make bricks without straw than
could the Hebrews of old. And while
upon the subject of applicants, it may be
well to say a word about the students at
the University. During the last year OF
so many harsh things have been said about
them, and few creditable things. There
are doubtless among them some very silly,
self. conceited and i'll. hammered young me n,
, but they are in very small minority, and
whatever may be said of their conduct in
previous years, there is certainly sufficient
ground for believing that in no institution
J in the country has there been less
disorderly or ungentlemanly conduct than
at our own University during the present
J year. 1t may not be safe to predict, but
at any rate there is good reason for think.
ing that the disgraceful beer. busts that
have been so often referred to as a common
feature OF college life, the cowardly Gus.
|, tom of hsz ng and other like customs, are
things of the past, and that proper vent
, for animal spirits and animal vigor is found
in athletic sports and the more serious oc
equations of college life. But of the in
struction given in the University, it has
, been, and to some extent is still, comm or
,, for people to assume that the instruc' ior
, there given is inferior to that offered a.
most colleges. The assumption is one Of
ignorance. A very slight inquiry into the
subject will satisfy any competent and fair
minded person that the average of the
qualifications and attachments of the pro
fessors and instructors in our University is
quite equa, to that in Eastern colleges,
while there are individual professors who
are quite equal to the best in the country,
In substantiation Of this view it has only
to be said that among