The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-10-02
Educational Drift.

NC DlOuu 10 hOW III Ito uouhi ANh7
ming order-well settled down to the
steady, routine work which experience
has pronounced the best system that
can, on the whole, be adopted in such
schools. All the smaller colleges of
standing are also in operation, and
this week will see the two'great institu
tons of Boston, Harvard and the In
stitute of Technology, again at their
work. 1t is inspiring to see these in
situations opening their doors once
more, calling in the undergraduates,
fresh from their vacations, and gradu-
ally firing them with the spirit of study
and the enthusiasm of ambition. Just
at this time these students grow very
perceptibly. New purposes and a
healthier tone prompt them to do better
work and be more than they were in
every way. This is the feeling of the
average student, as he returns to his
college duties or enters them for the
first time. 1t is a spring-time. All
looks fair, and each day is brighter than
the day before. How many OF these
hopeful young men and women will, at
the end of the college year, look back
and say; "I've wasted this year, or
nearly the whole of it," There will be
many such; but there will be many, too,
who will say, conscious of having
done much less than they expected to:
"Well, have worked hard and the
year has been profitable"
With the beginning of this school
year two institutions come very prom
inently to the notice of Americans in
terested in education. These are both
postgraduate schools-Johns Hopkins
University, at Baltimore, Nd, and
Clarke University, at Worcester, Mass.
The former has been the highest school
in the United States in its purpose and
scope for the thirteen years of its ex-
istence. 1t was founded by Johns
Hopkins, a Quaker of Baltimore, who
left his Baltimore & Ohio railroad stock
to it. For years the stock yielded an
income of $50, 900, and the University
fourished, attracting the best minds of
the country thither and giving them
something of the life of German uni
versity. The quickening interest in
special work and the broadening effect
in general culture that Johns Hopkins
University is directly responsible fol
have been of very decided educational
benefit to this country. The good work
however, has received a temporary I'll
is to be hoped only temporary setback
by the rapid decline in value of the
stock from which the revenue of the
University was derived. A short time
ago it was feared that the work of the
present year could not be continued
Happily, an emergency fund of 500,
900 has been raised, and, cramped il
every way, the institution will run al
usual, for this year at least. The future
is doubtful, but it seems hardly likely
that the friends of education in thi
country will allow the University t
actually die from lack of money.
While Johns Hopkins University il
thus undergoing life-and-death strug
gle, Clarke University, with the SAM
sort of graduate work in view, i
just coming on the stage. 1t open
, with few courses, and offers to star
college graduates on the road to tn
higher degrees. 1t is well endowed
| has broadly educated men on its gov
erning board and faculty, and is locate,
, in city admirably fitted for such al
educational project. While many hav
questioned the wisdom of the founde
in using his money in establishing
new school, with so many older college
all about it needing financial help, it
certain that now that the University
a fact, all, and especially New Englan
: people, will wish Clarke Universit
l success. There is need of at least on
= such advanced school in this country
The pity is that the money devoted t
8 both universities could not have bee
g given to either one or the other. AS it il
it is greatly to be feared that neither wi
g receive the moral and financial supper
4 that such schools need to give theI
Y their largest possible influence.
d The temporary disaster to the on'
= and the suspicious opening of tn
e other, of these great institutions, al
( the noticeable facts connected with th
g new school year, together with th
= largely-increased attendance at all til
!, New England colleges and the broa'
It ening of Princeton's curriculum. 1t
, to be noted, too, that the two leadir
s colleges for ladies in Massachusetts,
Y Smith and Wellesley-are literal
d filed with young women who are takir
l. the earlier steps toward liberal educ