The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1900-10-06
FOUNDERS DAY.
LCo,sti1ued iron, Page IL

leading universities, and perhaps the most
serious problem presented to teachers in
such schools is bow to deal with this diff
Guilty. Any reasonable hope of satsfac-
tory solution must he founded on accurate
knowledge Of the problems conditions,
and sometimes these seem to be strangely
misapprehended. The essence of the cleo
tive system consists in a double admission
on the part OF the universities adopting il {;
first, that they can no longer prescribe an
'all-round' course of collegiate studies eX
necessitate rel choice of branches to be
pursued and branches to be neglected
must now be made in the case Of each
undergraduate second, that this choice
can be made better by she student himself
propositions the fomer is, for praotiCa!
purposes, no longer disputed anywhere,
and indeed, Us truth seems as the French
say, to leap into the eyes acquescence
in the latter is by no means so general o.
80 unqualified but the example and the
experience OF Harvard aAd the earnest aud
persistent advocacy II President Eliot are
telling steadily and surely in other seats Of
learning 1t seems obvious that the grave
revolution in college methods and fradi
tious involved in their general and prac-
teal acceptance must on the one hand,
oh!ige secondary schools to do no small
part Of the work once allotted to colleges,
and, on the other tend strongly to remove
the distinction between preparatory and
other secondary schools and to render every
secondary school, at least of the higher
grade, to some extent a feeder for col.
leges,
"Since boy at college will pursue but a
small fraction of the studies with all Of
which an educated man must have at least
some acquaintance, the indispensable mod
icum OF instruction in the branches he will
lay aside must be impaired before he goes
to college and RS these cannot be, or
ought not to be, known in advance a very
broad scheme OF instruction must be adopt
ed by the special preparatory Schools, a
scheme leading them away from fellowship
with Examiners and toward uniformity Of
system with schools of substantially the
same grade, not primarily preparatory.
at cannot be denied that by adopting
the elective system institutions Of higher
education shift heavy burden from them
selves to the secondary schools
TIE HUMAN ELEMENT INCREASING,
There is very much the same reason for
letting young man choose his own studies
that there is for letting him choose his own
wife in both cases outsiders will often
think they could have chosen more Wisely
but the very TACT that it Is his choice, and
not theirs, goes far personally, I am pre-
pared to say it goes all the way-to make
this the be.5 Of all choices for him. say
this because deem il Of vastly more i'm
portancc how he studies than what be
studies regard Greel, literature as the
study Of all Others for a gentleman and a
scholar bat if q boy will only browse
and lawie over Greek and will put his
heart and mind INFO the mastery Of Choc-
taw say let him lay aside Greek aud
study Chootaw. Scholarship does not de-
pend on it's subject matter here, as in all
other phases OF lie, it is, after all, the
human element that counts, and believe
there is far better chance for young man
70 work, and therefore not loaf, if he deter
mines foI himself il ~hat field he shall
Work, even though his father be astonshed
and The professor shake his mead, just as /
shall have the greater hope Of his happiness
II, few years later, he gets that particular
girl he may want notwithstanding that
his mother aud auuts cant imagine what
he finds in her 20 attract him -