Omaha daily bee., 1898-08-16

asked a professor in Yale college, who is
an author OF several books demanding much
research, how he was able to write them.
His laconic answer was: In the vacation"
II Is at once to be said that the shortened
college year and the heightened vacation
have arisen rather from the demands OF
tho professors than from the demands Of
the students. The element. too, OF the
summers heat has relation to the question.
Colleges are becoming more and more
urban, less and less rural. The disintegrat-
ing influence OF the heat is more felt in a
college placed as Harvard and Yale are now
placed than it was felt in the villages OF
Cambria and New Haven Of sixty or even
thirty years ago. Like American life, the
college is becoming metropolitan.
Significance of the Change.
The significance Of the shortened college
year is far greater than It might appear to
be at first thought; for l cannot doubt but
that there is a certain relation. positive and
vital. between the usefulness Of the college
to its students and the length of time that
the students spend in the college. OF
course, certain men get as much from a
college in one week as other men get in
four weeks, certain men get as much in
one year as other men get in the whole
course; but 1t is not to be doubted in gen
eral that a certain length Of time is neces-
sary for the student to receive that rich
ness of culture and that discipline of train
ing which it is the purpose of the college to
bestow. The college cannot do as much
for its men or women in thirty-six weeks
as it can in forty-two, and certainly 1t can
do much less for them in thirty weeks Of
advancing instruction than it can in forty.
A. tbfv poip+ tho p,irraDf diGpuS Siou ae m
the shortening Of the college course from
four years to three has value. At the pres
ent time in not a few colleges thirty weeks
represent the advance work that the stu
dents are doing. Sixty years ago these
same colleges we're Offering their stu
dents forty weeks of work in each
academic year. II we could restore the
academic year to it's former limits Of
forty weeks, and lessen the number of
years by one, we should have as long a
period Of progressive work in the college as
we now have in the four years of thirty
weeks each. y
1t is also to be said that the forty weeks
of four years of sixty years ago represent
$50 weeks. Today four years Of thirty weeks
each represent 100 weeks. We have, there
fore, cut out practically forty weeks from
the whole college course Of the present time
as compared with the course of half a CEN
fury ago. Such a diminution in time repre-
sents a very serious diminution in the power
which the college has over it's students.
1t is not to be doubted that the shortening
of the college year gives to the people the
impression that the college Is primarily an
opportunity for leisure. Til college is Of
course an opportunity for leisure Of a GER
tain sort, but the people have the idea that
the leisure Of the college student and of the
/ nnllnoa nrnfnGcnr &c q laiCitrn for 1ayinlGC
and not, as the truth is, a leisure for work.
For people are constantly asking themselves:
What is the need of college teachers or
college students working only eight or nine
months when most of us work ten or
e~leven?" Whatever, therefore, should tend
to deepen or to promote the impression that
college people are indolent and lazy should
at once be done away with. We ought
through the colleges to impress the people
that there is one place in the American life
where there is leisure-not an hour of leis-
ure for Incidence, but weeks of leisure for
the most important and satisfactory service.
Reverse Currents.
Any tendency in American society that
looks toward the depletion OF its highest
and noblest interests is usually accompanied
with an opposing and correcting movement.
This shortening OF the college year has been
accompanied with two movements, one that
has been in progress for thirty years and
the other of more recent origin. The So
called summer school is the antidote OF the
long summer vacation. But the summer
school is chiefly ordained to serve those who
are teachers and not those who are pri-
marily students. In the summer schools in
various colleges are found a few
students of those colleges, but the
students are few compared with the
hundreds of teacher who are also mem
bers. The summer schools has some
value in doing away with the evils arising
from the shortening of the college year, but
the value is not great.
But a second method Is emerging which
may have great worth. 1t lies in the college
having four terms in a year rather thar
three or two. The best known illustration
of this method is found in the University Of
: Chicago. In that institution the academic
year consists OF four terms OF twelve weeks
each. A student can remain in college
three years of four terms, or he can spend
four years OF three terms; or, II he sees fit
he can prolong the time of his academic
residence before going up for his degree tt
any period which may seem to himself ant
to the university authorities fitting. Suct
a method may become the usual one in tn
American college. 1t is, however, Difficult
of application for the reason that 1t can b.
applied in only such colleges as have
c large teaching force. Wherever it is use'
= the teachers in the departments must b.
l sufficiently numerous and the variety 0
> tastes sufficiently diverse TO permit, in tn
vacation periods, a proper number of tn
teachers in each department to be in serv
I ice in order to insure the giving of prope
{ instruction. But the success which thi
method has met with in the University o
Chicago has great value in any considera
. ton of the doing away with the evils arts
ing from the shortening of the college year
Educational Notes.
. The Board of Education of Chicago pro
q poses TO introduce sewing and cooking i
the public schools.
n The enlarged City OF New York contain
7O2, 1862 children of school age, with 9,45
t teachers, Of whom $3.50 are women. Their
: are 4O5 school houses and school propert