The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-04-14
A COURSE.

SHORTER COURSE.
It does not appear from their ex-
pressed preference for a shorter collie
giate course that some of the most emil
nent teachers of the United States place
implicit faith in the verify of POpe's
dictum that "a little learning is a dan
gerOus thing " and that unless the stu
dent is resolved to dip deep he had bet
ter not dip at all into the spring of
knowledge. Such distinguished teach
ers as President Eliot of Harvard,
President Gilman of Johns Hopkins,
and President Adams of Cornell, are
of those educational refOrmers who
contend that the term now fixed as
necessary for the acquisition of an
academic degree may be advantage
Ously shortened, and that the cOurs of
study may be, in reasonable measure,
made eclectic. The American college
or university system was for too long
a time carried along upon the lines OF
the Old World institutions of learning,
the chief intent of which was to create
from among the leisure class a great
scholastic body. The founder of Har-
ward itself had no broader purpose in
establishing the institution than that
of providing a college for the prepare
ton for the pulpit of 1.-The Cody"
young men of Massachusetts, and New
England. In the European meaning
of the phrase, there is no Leisure
class" in the United States. There are
individual idlers, and, in the aggregate,
a great many of them, but they are
not exclusively OF even largely, in pro-
portion, college-bred men; and if they
were all of the latter class, it is doubt
full that they would ever be eminent
scientists, philosophers, historians,
statesmen, ecclesiastics, or publicists.
Out of the leisure class of the Old
World, and especially of that of Eng
land, have come many of the men dis
tinguished for their achievements in
thought. They are a numerically small
body, though the class of which they
are part is large. In this country,
there being no leisure class, all men
who wish to give an excuse for their
existence, as Emerson says all men
should do, being in M fashion or an
other working men, it is desirable that
not a comparatively few only shall en-
Joy the advantages of higher education,
but that the largest possible number
shall enjoy them, to the end that their
usefulness as working men shall be in
creased. This country is as yet largely
un~developed, and to develop fully it's
industries, commerce, and agriculture
great numbers of young men are needed
whose energetic action all be directed
by trained thought. Only during com
paratively recent years have the best
teachers of this country recognized
that the masses of it's young men, hav-
ing work of the most practical sort to
do, should be trained to do it in the
most effective way. Out of this recOg-
milton have grown the several great
technical or scientific schools of the
United States, and also the general
broadening of the courses Of the elder
colleges and universities, the teachings
of which were formerly almost purely
academic. 1t is now perceived, even
by the president of venerable Harvard,
the original purpose of which was so
contracted, that, as the aim Of nearly
all young men in this country is the
adoption of a professional or business
that their studies shall be such as to
specially prepare them for the particu-
lar work they are to do. An eclectic
course, and a not too prolonged one, is
seen to be the best for the youth of a
country who are to be working men
rather than mere academicians. The
American college of the future must
not only prepare the men for practical
achievement, but show him the way,
which he can follow or refuse to follow
subsequently to the attainment of pro-
found erudition and the ripest scholar
ship. 1t is the many, not the few, who
should have the benefits of the teach
ing of the colleges and universities, and,
as the shorter course requires less ex-
penditure of both time and money by
the student, it follows that the greater
number can take it. What the, college
authorities have chiefly to consider in
respect of the shorter term is how to
make it most advantageous to the stu
dent by directing his steps in the paths
which, after leaving college, he is to
pursue as a professional or business
man. The distinguished teachers who
are now ~contending for higher educa,
tlonal reform have shown their wisdom
L nothing more than in their recogni
ton that the courses of the colleges
should be adapted to the requirements
of the country, and to the needs of the
larger number of young men.-PbiEG
deLphid Ledger.