New-York tribune., 1903-02-15
THE HARVARD STANDARD.

scholarship. The world will take freSldent
Eliot's word for it that the quantity or Work
now done in the three years course Is as great
as in the former four years course and that the
quality OF work has actually been raised. Inc
only question will be whether Intellectual dis
cipline and culture differentiated from the mere
acquisition of information, can be made as com
| plete in three years as in four. That is a ques-
ton which cannot be answered by comparison
of currculums or by measurements of grades
A man may get through vast array of stuoles
and pass examinations in them with nlgh
marks, and yet have an unframed and inencient
mind; while the other hand one may pur-
sue comparatively few studies and win only
low marks in them, and yet develop an lntei-
lectual efficiency approximating to Huxieys nne
ideal of "a clear cold logic engine with all Its
parts of equal strength and in smooth work
ling order, ready, like the steam engine, TO be
| turned to any kind of work, and to spin the
| "gossameres as we'll as forge the anchors of the
| mind" Such intellectual efficiency, Huxley In
sisted was essential to liberal education, which
it is the especial province of the college to pro-
vide; so that the crucial question is how far
toward that ideal the three years course can
carry a man, or how much, If anything, Is lost
in that work in shortening the course from four
years to three
With this assurance that the standard OF
| scholarship required for the baccalaureate de-
gree is to he fully maintained, at least so far as
courses of study and examination markings in
dicate President Eliot couples the equally en-
phatic declaration that Harvard will insist upon
| such degree as prerequisite to admission to
her professional schools. Indeed, 1t Is now re-
ouired in all the schools save that of dentistry.
| With the wisdom of that policy we shall not
quarrel On the contrary, it is to be cordially
| commended for Harvard; especially since it is
coupled with an infexible determination not to
lower the standard OF the baccalaureate degree.
It is to be commended for Harvard, however.
and perhaps for some other universities, but not
| for all. 1t may be that the ideal system would
be one in which that rule was universally
adopted, and all preachers. DOCTORS lawyers.
dentists. engineers and who not were first
bachelors of arts or of science. But we are not
yet within even measurable distance of time
when that will be possible. 1t is probably true,
as general rule. that the college bred profes-
sional man has an advantage over him VINO
went to the professional school directly from
the high school. It is also indisputable that the
| latter pursued by considerable
number Of men who have attained great sue
cess and commanding eminence In professional
pursuits. 1t is well to have universities like
Harvard in which the professional schools are
all Oh post graduate basis, for those who can
afford the time and money necessary for such
courses 1t is also we'll to have others, no less
scholarly and sincere in which young men Of
suitable attainments, but with less time and
money at command may enter professional
courses without first completing a full college
course.
President Eliot thinks that if the leading uni
yersities of the United States should announce
that four years hence they would all require the
| rfoir
| fessional schools there would at once be great
rush of students into the secondary schools to
prepare for college and into college. We are
not so confident of that. There would probably
| be some increase in the number of college and
college preparatory students. but there would,
we think, also be marked increase in the num-
Der of those seeking entrance to the professional
schools or other universities where the bacca
laureate degree was not required The fact Is
that the entire "Studium generate" is now too
great to be mastered by the average man. 1t is
well to have institutions in which the happy
few may pursue their studies to the very high
est and deepest and widest extent. 1t is also
well TO insist upon a suitable standard of quail
ication for the practice of the professions. But
the idea-f any one cherishes it-that the whole
range of human knowledge is to be gone over
by every university student would better be dis
missed in short order. President Eliot rightly
says that young meIi should get their bacca
| laureate degrees by the time they are twenty
| one and enter professional life at twenty-four
| or twenty-five. But with the volume of human
| knowledge constantly and rapidly increasing,
| more and more study is being imposed upon
| those twenty-one twenty-five years You
cannot put constantly increasing quantity into
q fixed space Either you must enlarge the
space, which we are all agreed cannot in this
case be done, you must limit the quantity
according to the space. 1t may well be believed
that In the latter is to be found the solu
tion Of the problem. Let us recognize frankly
the fact that men cannot learn everything and
that it is far better to learn few well selected
things thoroughly than great and indiscrimi-
nate lot of things superficially
1t is in the application of that principle that
the theory Of electives, which has been So ably
set forth by President Eliot and by Harvard
University, will find its highest utility. There
must be election. and before that there must be
selection 1t is nonsense to let children in pri-
mary and grammar schools unrestrainedy elect
their own studies. and 1t is still worse to make
them pursue ten or twelve solid" studies at the
same time, as some of schools doing.
There the instructor must make the selection,
and if the child Of twelve is not taught Civics
or Greek we are not to say his education is be-
| ing shockngly neglected In college the same
principle is to be followed by the student him.
self; and il he gets in his three four years a
thorough grounding in at least one of the
classics. and in one or two modern languages in
| addition to his own, but in his own especially;
in history and the general principles of the chief
sciences. and above all In what we may still
call by the good old name of the Humanities he