Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1883-08-14
THE STATE UNIVERSITY.
The Raised Standard OF Scholarship
Discussed "A Second Article by Hem
". L Wilson
n a. E,l,tnr AZ IA. RAr:ster

II
advanced elective system by the Uni
standard Of scholarship. By standard,
auired for passing from q lower to
higher class, or for graduation. Under
the curriculum this had not been high.
An average ofsix, on q scale Of ten. was
REQUIRED, and this average was reached
by counting class room marks as three
(S and examination as one ny; exami-
nations were restricted to fifteen ques-
tons. It Is difficult to explain how
mild q standard this was. A student
who made seven on daily recitations
ian unsatisfactory mark would need
but three on examination to pass him.
This standard was doubtless adopted on
the idea that an easy course leading to
University degrees, would attract stu
dents, and populariZe the institution;
the success Of the school having been
mistakingly based at least by the pub
lie on the number of names that could
be gathered for its catalogue, rather
than on the thoroughness and extent OF
its educational work. Another custom
permitted the assignment to professor
Of subjects entirely outside OF his field OF
teaching or study. A professor OF mod
ern languages would he required to
teach mathematics; q professor OF
| Bellies Letters to teach the natural sci
enees. This was utterly inconsistent
with the character of instruction col
lege ought to give. Whatever the general
attachments Of q teacher, the work ofhis
own special department cannot be vel
done without exclusive devotion TO
il. Other teaching will generally be
mere hearing of lessons out OF text
book. Prof. Huxley, advocating the
study of science, has said that he would
not raise q finger to introduce mere
took work in science, into every art
curriculum in England. Mere book
work in many other fields is equally
fruitless. In saying all this, wish to
guard against any implication that good
teaching was not done, and good study
ing also, or that graduates did not go
forth with excellent attainments. All
mean is, that it was possible, under
the standard, to graduate without high
attainments, and nowhere, as exper-
fence and observation teach me, Is it
more important to exact thOroughneSs
and good scholarship than in our Uni
versity. The lack of higher culture in
our State as West Virginian l may
say this makes it possible to pass of
the name for the reality. Despite our
gratifying educational progress, we are
| still in an era when We are apt to call
small things by great names, or to ae-
| cept the shadow for the substance. Our
primary school teachers are largely
| professors" Indifferent schools are
| seIfstyled colleges. But a few years
/ since there was current in our educa-
| tiOnal Journals and newspapers, an adj
| verIisement Of q college" which, in
| the extravaganza of its professions, sur
| passed the bOasting of the quack
medicine vendor, and whose Fac
| ulty (Of Onel promised To do
what neither Harvard nor Yale would
| Offer 10 accomplish. The cloud" style
| is not yet banished from our school adj
| vertisements. All this tends to debIss
| the estimate ofreal culture, and to give
| currency to its counterfeit. Moreover
| the idea is prevalent, especially among
our young men, that the chief object Of
attending college is to graduate; that
! education is getting diploma, rather
| than becoming something; that the
| sheepskinf OF tself, not the attachments of
which it should be the certificate, is the
| object Ofpursuit. All this makes it the
| more important that our University
should not range itself with that throng
| Of so-called colleges, where graduation
| depends on attendance alone, and
| which, yearly, send forth their schools
| of titled ignOramuses with scant culture
| and much cOuceit, but that no effort
| should be spared to make it seat aud
| center of genuine education, fOuntsin
| of higher culture. 1t is its mission, no
| less than its duty to dispel ideas blight
| ing TO our educational progress, to en-
| courage and require high Standards to
| stimulate our youths, no matter how
| defective their earlier training, TO faith
! ml work and scholarly attainment, and
| TO send out graduates, with the power,
| the mOdeSty, and the high ideas of true
| culture, not with the pretense and con-
| ceit of unconscious ignorance. The
| action of the Faculty in raising the
| standard was not extreme or abrupt.
They continued the grade at six,
| but doubled the value of examinations,
| counting them as One-half Instead of
| One-iOurtb, in astertaining the average,
| and they made the examinations more
thorough. Certainly it cannot be said
| that this is unreasonably high.
The introduction of the elective Sys-
tenn and the raising of the standard re-
| guired other innovations. Hitherto
lectures or recitaliOns were fOrty-tive
minutes in length, and a. rule con-
fined 10 the fOren0Ons of five days of the
week, the University students having
u holiday on Saturday as regularly as
the pupils of the common schools. With
the beginning of the last session, one
hour was allotted to each University
recitation, and some exercises were as
signed to afternoons and saturdays.
have now stated the changes which
were made i'm tine University in 1882.
they were: /. The substitution of the
elective system for the curriculum; but
students already in the curriculum
classes are allowed to continue in them
through their course. >. The raising of
the standard by increasing the require
ments aS to examinations. 3. Length
ening the time Of reeitations from forty
five minutes to one hour. (. Assigning
some college exercises to afternoons and
Saturdays. These changes could not
but produce friction and occasion some
confusion. The students viewed with
dissatisfaction the increase of hours of
study and the advanced standard, and
with bewilderment and uncertainty
the introduction of q system un-
der which graduation was a matter
of individual effort, not of mere class
membership. All this, think, would
have been temporary and as soon as
order was evolved out of the dissolution
of the former system, there would have
been slight discomfort, but that other
| influences were watchful and eager to
foment any dissatisfaction, and turn it
to the detriment of the University, aud
to the discrediting of the new admins
tratiOn. In truth the school, from the
beginning OF the session, was envelOped
in a cloud of depreciation and evil fore.
bOding, and accordingly when at the
first examinations several students
failed in the class of mathematics, there
was an effort to create q stampede.
The students who failed, with several
others who were able to maintain q
good standard, withdrew to easier col
leges, and few Others, glad Of any ex-
cuse to escape from study, awaited