Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1901-07-04
STUDENTS AS PROFESSORS.
Harvard Undergraduates ORer In
struction to MOrkingmcn.

IN interesting experiment has been car
riod on for some eight or ten years in
| Cambridge, Mass, with the idea Of utiliz-
lns the waste energy, so to speak, of ITar-
ward university, not exactly in a plan Of
university extension, as it Is usually I'M
/ dorstood, but for the direct advantage Ut
| the univcrsity's immediate neighbors
among the working classes.
some ten years ago n young man, Mr..
| Robert l.. Ely, was attending the lectures
of the Harvard Divinity school and ut the
! same time carrying on meetings in the
Port" ms the manufacturing part of
/ Cambridge is called. The idea occurred
/ to him from this double experience Of life
! in Cambridge that something might he
done Systematically to bring the cutiva-
ton and instruction of the university di-
! r"'tly TO bear upon those whose lives
/ were passed more or less hopelcssy in
the toll and struggle OF the factories and
shops.
This was the germ Of what IS now
called the Prospect union, an organza-
tion Of workingmcn. comfortably housed
in commodious, we'll appointed building,
with regular instruction in classes taught
iy Harvard undergraduates. The union
has no official connection with the uni
vcrsity itself but unohicially the ties that
bind the two together are very close in
deed The volunteer UNDERGRADUATE fac
ulty numbers some - Harvard students
and teachers, and the union has never
lacked help and encouragement from the
officers and professors of the university
Among its warmcst helpers have been
Colonel Thomas Wentworth IIiggiuSon,
Dr. Edward Everett Hale, Professor
Charles Eliot Norton. the late governor
Of Massachusetts. William f. Russell;
Oliver Wendell Holmes and James Rus
sell Lowell
The principal features Of the union are
its evening classes and lectures. The
classes in English are usually among the
largest and most satisfactory, from read
ing spelling and grammar to rhetoric and
the writing of themes and clocution and
debating. Arithmetic naturally attracts
large number of pupils The work in
algebra and geometry is always encourage
ing. and Their" are small classes in trig-
onomctry, calculus and mechanics. Latin
is n much more popular study at the be.
ginning of the first term Of the year than
at the end Of the last tenn; many also
who begin the study Of French and Ger
man with too sanguinc expectations drop
classes. However. there are several Nom
b"rs who have in two three or four
years acquired a reading knowledge II
foreign language and some facility in
writing and speaking it. and some men
continue 10 grnppl" with Lctm and even
Greek for successive years with fair rc-
suits. History is not 50 well appreciated
rs il might be. although the effort to
stimulate interest in it has met with some
success.
That such an Institution has been in
crrasincly successful for nearly ten years
is due perhaps not SO much to what work
has been done rs to how it has been done.
There has been no restriction calculated
III any way to hamper the most perfect
freedom whether in membership, discus
sion or study The union las no consti-
tuition and there are not even any house
rules. There is never any trouble about
discipline, for that takes care Of itself.
There is a small membership fec, hut On
payment Of that any one cnn join There
is no election Of members and no inves-
tgnton as 70 character. II man OK
presses his desire to enter the union, that
fact i'll itself is sufficient qualification.