The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-12-27

I to it, he spoke with a good deal of
warmth and emphasis, saying:
I'm my opinion the American COL
lege-by which l mean the academic
department so called-is the chief
characteristic of our entire educational
system. 1t is in the college that the
great advantages over the educational
system of Continental Europe are to
be found.
I'm a recent address 1 said that the
spirit and the purpose of the college
are our strongest defense against the
purely materialistic and commercial
ideals in education and in life. l want
to save the college. 1 want to keep
for it those influences which are the
best of its results and which ought
to be steadfastly maintained; and yet
l feel certain that there are forces
at work which will surely impair, If
not destroy, the American college as
we have known it, within a few years,
unless this harmful tendency is check
ed. profess to be-and l believe with
all my heart that l am-as warm and
true a friend of the American college
as any educator or any alumnus can
possibly be; and it is for that reason
that am so earnestly advocating this
change"
Gould you identify these harmful
tendencies of which you speak, Dr.
Butler?"
Certainly. On the one hand they
are caused by the very swift and mar
velous development of secondary
schools, and especially of the public
high schools, although the secondary
( school is deserving of all praise for
this development. Many of these
schools to-day graduate students after
curriculum almost as far advanced
as that maintained by many of the
smaller colleges of a generation ago.
~ uI.
States is now, in many of it's require
ments, upon a par with the require
ments of some of the colleges for the
first and second years of their courses.
The tendency in the public high
schools is to advance more and more
into the field hitherto occupied by the
freshman and sophomore years of
the college. On the other hand, we
have the professional schools, those
which prepare students for the voca-
ton of the law, medicine, higher
science and the ministry. The tend
ency has been strong, and is increas-
ing, 1 regret 10 say, to displace in the
junior and senior years of the college
proper the curriculum adapted for
those years and to adopt professional
and technical studies which are, in my
opinion, foreign to the spirit and the
purpose of the studies thus displaced.
Some are Of the opinion, doubtless,
that these changes are all for the bet
ter; that they are in accord with the
modern tendencies OF American life.
Well if they are, then there is no oc-
casion for the modification of the coll
lege curriculum which 1 am advocating.
But I am persuaded that they are not
in the interest of better or more eff
fective educational standards in a
democracy. I am thoroughly persuad-
ed that the growth of the public high
schools has been of inconceivable adj
vantage to the youth of the United
States. They have given educational
opportunities to thousands of students
who could not have obtained such ed
ucation in any other way, or who
were unable to consider a college edu-
cation.
1 recently said that I accept these
! changes as not only inevitable, but
beneficial I know that the best Of the
| public high schools have so main
/ tanned an educational system as to