The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-10-14
PRESIDENTS ELIOT AND
HALL DISAGREE

President G. Stanley Hall of Clark
University gave an address Saturday
morning in Boston before the New
England Association of Colleges and
Preparatory Schools, and President
Eliot of Harvard led the discussion
which ensued, taking issue with DIR.
Hall.
DR.. Hall spoke at some length on
how far the present high school and
early college training are adapted to
the nature and needs of adolescents.
His views of the present high school
system is not f1attering to those who
have heard him speak on the subject
as he has done many times in this
city well know. He closed by attempt
ing to show that the work of fitting
for life is essentially different from
that of fitting for college. Upon this
proposition President Eliot later took
an exactly opposite stand.
The president of Harvard University
rose to speak Immediately after the
president of Clark University had fin
ished his address. With the greater
part of the speech, he declared, he cor
daily agreed, but he would have to
confine his remarks to the few points
with which he failed to agree. After
mentioning his disbelief in any we'll
defined period in the span of human
life. having a beginning and an end,
with marked characteristics of its
own. he attacked President Halls sug
gestion that the so-called boyhood per-
iod may best be devoted to drill. Drill,
he declared, is a highly mechanical
training. 1t is at its best in the fac
tory, at its next best in the army. He
would reject both of these courses as
especially applicable to childhood,
though he did not deny that in the
'fnfrmity of human nature" a great
deal is applied to them.
Coming to the adolescent period,
again he was unable to agree with
President Hall that it is characterized
by an output of Imagination. per
haps it is" he declared ito the adult
mind looking at it. But in reality the
peach bloom of adolescence has been
long prepared through childhood. 1t is
an unfolding of what has been stored
up in the process of growth. The stag
nation of the man in the period from
% to 35 should not be accounted for by
the superiority of adolescence, but by
the stunning of manhood through the
necessity of earning his livelihood. It
is that which stops growth in most
men-not a natural rerogression- As
years go on the outward forces of ma
ture diminish our power, leave us
short of the promise of our youth.
have indeed never been convinced that
there are clear, well defined periods of
life to which different disciplines may
be applied. Life is progress, growth
an expansion from beginning TO end.
Methods of teaching should be the
same from the lap of the mother to
the lap of the university
Leaving at this point the preamble
to President Halls speech, President
Eliot took up his criticism on the
teaching of certain subjects. AS re-
CARDS physics. whose teaching Presi-
dent Hall described as deplorable,
President Eliot recounted the expert
ence of Harvard University, where an
increasing number of physics scholars
are entering from an increasing num-
Der of schools where physics are
taught. He termed their work highly
creditable to scholars, schools and
teachers. He asserted that none of the
colleges which have added physics re-
quirements have expressed themselves
as dissatisfied.