St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-01-22
SHORTER COLLEGE COURSES.

There is an active discussion Waging
in scholastic and literary circles at pres
ent as to whether it would not be wise
to reduce the course at our American
colleges to three years. President
ELIOT, of Harvard, favors the reduc-
ton, and at his suggestion the overSeerS
of that university have considered 1t.
but with some division of opinion. Inc
requirements for admission to the best
Eastern university have been Increased
in the last twenty-five years. The num-
Der of Greek and Latin authors remains
about the same, but the examination
papers demand width and variety OF
information on the subjects prescribed
that would not have been expected OF
graduate in the old days. The effect OF
this is that, where boy used to be able
to enter the freshman class at fifteen or
sixteen, he is now nineteen or twenty
before he is ready. The larger profess
sional schools, like the Columbia and
Harvard law schools. at the same time
have heightened their course from two
to three years, SO that if a man takes all
mis- degrees he is tWenty-siX or twenty
seven before he is equipped for the be-
ginning of life's battle. This is good
deal later than the age at which the
men of the past generation started In,
and it is open to some question as to
whether there is not some waste here.
The advocates of the present plan
maintain that it takes more years to ed
ucate man now than it used to because
the sum of human knowledge has in
creased, and if a man is to attain to the
same lights on the standard Of the pres
ut day he must equip himself by
severer and more protracted preliminary
training than he used to. There are
several answers to this, however. One
is that the vast majority of boys who go
to college do not go to train their minds
for subsequent severe intellectual effort,
but to round out their lives by pleasant
experiences, the memory OF which Will
be delightful to them afterwards, by
penetrating the sources of human
knowledge and by coming in contact
with strange environments and foreign
points of view during their formative
periods. They may not acquire any
appreciate knowledge during their
course, but if they enter into
things in the proper way they will
grow in character and in capacity for
enjoying and understanding, which are
very important matters. Men get these
acquisitions in real life even without
college educations, but they get them
more easily and quickly with them. Ii
the curriculum is SO long, however,
that it helps them to achieve no
economy in this direction, it is not
worth while for the purpose.
Another, and at present unanSWer-
able objection to the views of the advc-
Gates of the established system, is that
the length of the contemporary cur
riculum is not in point of fact due at all
to the increase in the quantity OF things
to be learned.
The average list of subjects studied
in the four years of the college course is
very much the same as it was twenty
years ago, in spite of efforts to disguise
it by Understanding names. The same
dreary succession of Latin and Greek
writer's is pursued with the same weari-
some attention to the details OF
etymology and syntax. The boy who
entered the university twenty-five years
ago had to go through this during his
first two years because he did not know
it when he entered. Now he cannot be
admitted until he is proficient in this
field already; and yet. after his admis-
sion, the same ground Is traversed until
it becomes quite loathsome to him. We
are not prepared to take the position
that he ought not to be taught Latin
and Greek at all, but 1t is at least open
to doubt as to whether any of the work
ing part of the years after twenty will
be profitably spent in this way. Ii
American colleges are to have the first
right Oh the young men for four years
| of their lives, they should teach them
things which it is worth while for them
| to know.