The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1893-04-01
MISSOURI UNIVERSITY,

our SIaIe legislature, beside making an
appropriation of $250, 900 for rebuilding
the main building of the state university,
has at last, abolished the preparatory de-
partment OF the institution. This ought
to have been done long ago. The writer
OF this article has long been with other
friends of the institution, in favor Of this
movement, working for such an end with
both pen and tongue. No student can now
enter any but a college class in any one of
the three academic courses, arts, scientific
or literary without a thorough prepara-
ton to enter the lowest college class, the
freshman. Your correspondent is strongly
in favor of as thorough preparation for
entering the freshman class as is required
at Yale, Harvard and the John Hopkins
universities.
This course will increase the number
Of high schools, both public and private,
in Missouri and make them far more
efficient and place all our educational in
situations upon a much higher plain. The
university has from it's very commence
ment had a very scholarly course in its
academic department., taught by faithful
and competent teachers of the very best
and ripest scholarships. 1t has turned out
many most excellent scholars, who have
been of the very greatest use and orna-
ment to society in all relations. We are
for building up the university until its
genial rays of light shine into every ig-
norant nook and corner in and out OF the
state. Hence, we say amen, to throwing
out the preparatory department., and to
giving this to other schools.
We want hone in this school but such
as show by their preparation when they
make application to enter the freshman
class that they nave mind enough to make
good scholars in a university course.
A very small number in a preparatory
course, can ever advance far enough to
take a broad, critical university course,
their strength breaks down often in our
high school courses, many of them, long
before they complete any one of these.
What then is the use OF sending such
away from home to experiment in a pre-
paratory department for six or eighteen
months to find out whether or not they
have sense enough to take a university
education? There is not more than one in
twenty who entering preparatory schools
will ever be strong enough for such an
advanced course. Hence they do the uni
versity and the advanced classes of the
institution a vast amount of harm il
permitted to enter a preparatory depart
ment, drop out in a short time after ex-
perimenting and finding they never had a
mind for an advanced education. Such
rnt,,rr h0ran rrskh rn,ah ~rol.lsoa
against the university all the rest of their
lives, and sneer at anything beyond a
mere common school education.
We are in favor of all who are prepared
to enter the college class mentioned, going
to the university as by far the best school
in Missouri. 1t has the very best talent
and the ripest scholarship. Its teachers
were educated in the leading schools in
the United States.and Europe, and besides
this, while the teachers are generally
professors of the Christian religion, the
institGtion is entirely non-sectarian.
Reading the Bible, prayer by some one of
them, and singing by as many as wish to
sing among the students, generally n
great many take part, constitute the re-
ligious instruction. These exercises take
place in the chapel In the morning M
besides these teachings, students are
taught moral science and the evidences of
Christianity.
Columbia has much of the most cultured
society, and from its educational tastes OF
more than fifty years growth, the place is
one of the very best for a student wishing
a very advanced social, moral and menta
education. The tuition fees in the aca-
demic departments for ten months are
low; in the professional schools higher.
The state could vote five millions for her
university, and pay it with far more ease
than she paid a bonded debt of $50, 600, 600
contracted before the war for a few rail-
roads and this debt has long been paid.
We have a great state, one of immense
natural resources, and future come out,
and hence the Importance of fully devel-
oping our university, and of giving it such
a reputation as will induce all our young
men, seeking an advanced education, to
attend this school, for its special facilities
and advantages instead Of going away to
Europe for them, n spending years
among a people raised up under despotic
and %tyrannical influences.
We believe in American institutions,
and that our students should be educated
only in American schools. We hold tn
the proper training OF all students and
young people in such education as best
fits them for our home government.
PRO Bono PUBLICo.