Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-12-20
BLIGHT OF SPECI ALI N
CRITICISM OF AMERICAN IDEA
OF EDUCATION.
Charge That College Professors Are
Not Well Rounded Men of Gen.
eral Culture.


Bearing in mind the old adage Where
there's smoke there's fire. it would seem
to be the fact that there is something
really and radically wrong with our
American system of education. In the
last issue of the Review We noticed an
article on 1.-THE Inefficiency of the Pub
lie Schools" and one can seldom take up
a magazine or a newspaper without find
ing in it some dsparagement of the edu-
cational methods now in vogue. Accord
ing to Mr.. James p Munroe, in the Popu-
lar Science Monthly. the blight on Hmeri-
can education is specialism. From one
point of view. this is tantamount to say
ing that education is up-to-date; for spe-
cialism is the order of the day.
From the professor of Greek down to
the professor who shines ones shoes,
that man is in demand who is disposed to
concentrate all his energies upon the
learning or the doing Of one thing Even
our households have become infected, for
therein is to be found the very apotheos1s
of specialization. Even so late as the be-
ginning of the last quarter of the nine
teenth century one maid would do sub
stantiaIly all the work of the house;
whereas today the lady who condescends
to burn ones beefsteak and to parDoli
ones potatoes will not enter the laundry
or the dining room, while the other maid
Tor maids) would join the family in gen.
eral starvation before so far forgetting
her place as to cook q single meal.
But what can be expected OF the rank
and file Of the modern world when the
leaders OF American life. men In the pro-
fessIons and in those higher institutions
which prepare for the professions. nave
seemingly gone mad upon the question or
specialization?
Extreme Specialists.
In Bacon's day any man. however bril-
liant. might take all learning for his
proyince," but that time is gone forever.
But that does not justify the running to
al opposite extreme. the digging of a
hoe in the side Of small mound of
erudition, getting into the farthest end
OF it, and maintaining that the tiny
patch of sky framed by the mouth of
the hole is all Of the universe worth
while If some man spends his whole life
grubbing at some Greek root, why is he to
be rewarded with titles and emoiuments.
and no scholastic encouragement be given
to the far less erldite man who Is never
theless sending intellectual and moral
roots over a wide area OF human thought
and life?
Mr.. Munroe holds that the curse of
American scholarship and of American
education is the Pho. Hundreds OF young
fellows are starving themselves and inn
poverisiiing their parents in order to OBJ
tain this degree. which is practically es-
aential as key to faculty position, not
because there is any valid educational
reason for it, but because it is required in
Germany and looks well in the prospec-
1us'' Having gained his degree and been
placed on the teaching stall OF the uni
versity. the young Ph.D.. to maintain his
"a
that quickly. He must now specialize still
more, digging like a woodpecker, into
some wormhole OF erudition. This dig
cling is politely called research. but is the
sorriest counterfeit Of the genuine thing
1t is these men. as rule. who become
professors and heads of departments: 1t Is
they who determine the atmosphere and
the trend of the colleges; 1t is this type OF
specialist who Is setting the standards OF
learning and scholarship for America. AS
result we have orr professions filled
with men who can do much within the
little cell Of their speciality. but who are
wholly Intellectual in the great word OF
human interests
Mental Expansion Needed.
Only two kinds of specialists are al
1owable-one is the man who has
such a volume OF treasure to bestow
that every minute of his time should be
devoted to dispensing it: the other, who
can concentratedly dig and who has no
other ability. The number Of these u.s.
however. compare lively limited What
most educated men need is not concern
tration, but expansion. At the present
time we specialize our high school
youth lin battles and sieges and leave
him ignorant of the great development
of mankind" We send out from our
applied-science schools many men who
are competent to put up a bridge. but
who are absolutely unable to put up Il
good front among their equals
We have been SO busy stuffing our
children and our students with facts
and lassifica lions that We are forgetting
that the main things which they as mon
must know of men. Whether boy is
to start in a store. in office or as
drummer: whether he is 10 be a min
lister lawyer an engineer a doctor
his success I'm life depends upon his
ability TO get on with and 10 handle
men.
IL American education is not actually
in deplorable condition. every one
must admit that we do not produce our
due proportion of great men. To do SO.
we must make over our whole system
of elementary education. that youth,
instead OF being put through vast ma
chimes for Importing facts shall he put
into small classes under intellectually
strong women. and especially under in
tellectualIy strong and morally strong