The World. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1891-1896, 1891-12-11
The Universal University.

Professor G. Hanford Henderson writes
for The Popular Science Monthly, one Of
the most comprehensive and understand
able papers that have yet been in print.
on what is popularity called university
extension. He writes, university ex-
tension has been we'll defined as uni
versity education for the whole nation
by an itinerant system connected with
established institutions" That is to say,
comparatively few of the whole popula-
ton of the country can afford to go to a
university several years to get high
training and culture, therefore the uni
yersity will come to them. A university
is school that offers special courses OF
study to the learner whereby he may fit
himself for any profession, such as law
yer, physician, preacher, teacher OF
artist. The meaning of university ex-
tension is that practically such univer-
sity will come into each students own
neighborhood and give him its advan-
tages Even where he does not wish to
take any of the learned professions, uni
versity extension will step in and make
him what is still better for tho general
interests of society than the specialist
an all round cultured man. In such all
round cultured men and women Amer
lea is sadly lacking, and thoughtful,
scholarly persons who are watching the
drift of things fear that the time will
come ere long when we shall suffer for
this need. s5l L gcf a-oi- Nf
The Chautauqua course furnishes the
foundation, and an admirable one, for
the university extension. The extern
sion idea is that from the centers of
learning, such as Harvard, Michigan
university and Johns Hopkins, professors
shall go out to different localities and
give courses OF lectures and instruction,
just such as they give to their classes at
home. The expenses of these lectures
will be betrayed partly by the students
who are benefited and partly from a
fund provided by subscription. Profess
sors who stay in one place become lazy
and rusty anyhow, and out of touch
with the world, and this outside contact
with real workingmen and women will
rub them up. 1t will be just what they
and their outside students need The
promoters of university extension see in
the plan magnificent possibilities, moth
ing less than that every man and woman
in America may obtain thoroughly
trained intellects and become as schol-
arly and cultured as those who have all
the advantages wealth and leisure can
give. ra.
We need the higher education in America,
and we need it in large measure, for we are
a people with large opportunity. And we
need it particularly now, for the grave prob
lens which press upon US for solutio viii de-
mand tolerance and large mindedAess which
come only when the human spirit is we'll disci-
plined. We have here q great and busy people,
but a people too unimaginative and too un-
Ideal. We need the infusion of a spirit of Gull
ture into the national thought and life, If we
Are to realize the destiny which seems possible
to us.
The preaching O. Peter the Hermit aroused
all Europe. The present occasion Is less pic
ture5que. but the crusade which II breaches
stands If interests much more vital than the
tecovers's Jerusalem.