New-York tribune., 1906-11-12

the schools and a situation In which certain
demands Of the colleges were once the deter
mining factor now finds its determining factor
in the demands of the public high school" To
this may add that in 1902 the pupils entering
college from the tax supported high schools
stood, as 10 those entering from acaden1ies or
private schools, in the proportion of . Ia 70
Ihey comprised less than quarter of a million
boys and nearly a third of a million girls
Naturally, then, the secondary schools are
striving to make the education thew give stand
on It's own merits and to avoid having Il mar
roWed into a process OF cramning for college
examinations. Help is given To this effort by
some or the colleges themselves which do away
with entrance examinations altogether in the
case or pupils from certain schools whose GER
uncates OF fitness for entry they accept This
means that 1t is the school that is examined, its
nethods, fitness. and thoroughness: and that
~ Is the oally work Of the pupil that counts, not
nc acClaental performance few points on
q single day Of apprehension and nervous strain.
ne school is thus sustained in trying to give
IT'S puplls rounded mastery Of their subjects
and 10 rate their work by both its average
quallty and its quantity. The pupil is sttmu-
lateo TO learn his subject for its own sake, not
10 think only Of what he must know to pass
on the questions OF some particular college.
Methods OF instruction, too. are changing.
There is abandonment Of mere learning by
rote and Of old routine a greater tendency TO
make him think for himself: a vast extension
OF practical illustrations and particularly OF
biological sciences. Textbooks often come then
TO be used chiefly TO formulate and explain what
the pupil has already found out
The Massachusetts system still keeps the IN
spiration Of its great educator, Horace Mann,
and leads the country in carrying free secondary
education into the reTnotest hanlets. BY state
Law, every township is compelled 10 furnish
high school education TO every child within its
limits prepared TO receive it l may be par
doned for the belief that in other respects the
system of secondary schools in New York stands
a the head at least abreast of the foremost,
the best in organization and inspection, with as
good results as any, and on the largest scale
There are eight hundred secondary schools in
that single state. Independent OF their support
through local taxes. they have been discriTni-
natingly aided from the literature fund since
1880, constant inspection Of schools and ex-
animation Of pupils by the State Regents. 10 the
extent Of over $4.50O GEO. In 1903 they had
$4,000 students. spent IN the year over $1,000 600
(say 000) and had net property to the
amount OF s34000,000 (say nearly f7.000.000).
The whole country had only fourteen times as
many secondary schools in its forty-siX states,
with only eight times many pupils. The
secondary school attendance in the whole COM
try has doubled in thirteen years; II has
doubled in New York in nine years. Yet while
attendance at the primary school is compulsory,
that az the secondary schools is not-the state
feeling that IT has exhausted its right Of self
protection against ignorance when 1t has COM
PEELED its children TO acquire an elementary
education The secondary schools are held 10
q high standard by inspections. examinations
and special allowances for special efficiency;
while the attempt Of feeble beginners 10 mas
pressed. AS the State Superintendent ex-
planned IL, there is nothing 10 be said against
their starting before they are QuaIined 10 give
a fun four years course, but everything 10 be
said against a hfty-Cent piece having the
efrontery 10 try 10 pass itself for a dollar
Throughout the Union the secondary schools
are generally 10 be found in good buildings
often, especially at the West, better than the
church or the courthouse. The further West
you go the more noticeable IL is that in the
newest and toughest settlements the one i'm
pOrrant structure visible in the landscape is the
large. substantial and attractive two story
schoolhouse. So II IS in the deserts Of Arizona
and on the shores Of Puget Sound; so II IS in
the remotest and most isolated communities in
Montana or in Wyoming or in Idaho. The
hardy pioneer himself may still be living in
adobe IN q sod cabin; but his child, that royal
parsonage who holds the sovereignty OF the
future. must be schooled in what is TO him a
palace.
And now let ne refer more briefly to the top
Of the system. the colleges and universities No
doubt, with reference TO the wisest conservation
Of educational force, there are too
The Crown many of them. One may count up
OF the about AIS. OF these not less than
System. go under some sort of secteriau
or denonlinauOnal control while
over forty are state institutions. The severest
unworthy 10 stand in the class headed by Har-
ward. Yale, Columbia and Princeton. The scope
and quality Of others may not be rated so high
but more and more the education they impart
grows worthy Of the degrees they grant. The
C0llated reports Of 32s OF them show a total OF
6,207 professors. associate and adjunct profess
ore receiving an aggregate Of over nine and a
half million dollars IN salaries (neary 70 600 000(
average Of over $500 a year (f300). In
CeIOnlLalOnal colleges the average salary rails
10 SLlo0; IN the state institutions II rises 10
nearly $500 and in those independent of both
Church and State control TO over 81 900 (nearly
f400D. In these colleges and universities there
were in 1902 $4,000 students II you add the
numbers in separate professional schools Of law,
medicine and theology, there were in all over
100000 students pursuing university studies
There has been an enormous expansion in the
Oldest and best universities within the last
twenty-five years. Their teaching force has
oeen doubled or even trebled the standards for
admission and the thOrOughness OF instruction
have both been raised: there has been a great
broadening scope, and while the Humanities
have not been displaced, there is far greater at
tenuon than formerly 10 modern languages. TO
literature, history economics, civics, and to SCI
ence pure and applied.
But after all the most notable recent evoIu-
tons in the field OF higher education have been
the state universities and the scientific and
chronological schools. Of the lat
State ter I spoke at some length IN
Universities. Bristol a few months ago. and will
not now repeat myself. But the
state university development is less known and
Il promises equal interest and success.
The feeling was early and widespread, par
ticularly at the West, that the government
should support colleges and universities as well
the primary and secondary schools. AS far
back as in 1918 the constitution Of the new state
Of Indiana provided that 1t shall be the duty ot
the General Assembly as soon as circumstance
viii permit to provide by law for general sys-
TEN Of education. ascending in regular grada-
ton from township schools 10 a state university,
wherein tuition shall be gratis and equally open
10 all" Other states moved IN the same direc-
ton, but the great impulse came in the passage
Of the Land Grant act in the second year OF our
Civil War. Il gave each state in the Union
public land in proportion 10 its representation in
Congress, TO the smallest ninety thousand acres.
10 the largest over a million, for the endowment
and maintenance Of at least one college. whose
leading object shall be, without excluding other
scientific and classical studies, and including
military tactics TO teach such branches Of learn
ing as are related 10 agriculture and the me-
chanic arts. IN order TO promote the
liberal and practical education OF the industrial
classes IN the several pursuits and professions
OF life" Congress has since increased this
princely endowment by an annual appropriation
OF $4,000 IN cash. 10 each institution founded
under rnfs