The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-08-28
liam and Mary college to similar pur.

liam aid Mary College to similar pur-
poses.
But betwasn the colleges In general
and the ordlrary high school, designed
to enlarge somewhat the general cul-
ture of those pupils OF the public
schools who can AFFORD no more ex-
tended education, and, Mt the same
time, to furnish link for others with
the academic course OF the college,
there is minimum Of cooperation.
SO that whntever the efficiency Of the
instruction and whatever the value Of
the courses In either or in both, the
boy who comes out OF the high school
is rarely fitted" for the college. The
trouble is not lack of preparation, but
absence OF agreement In the direction
or the preparation.
The old .fnshioncd college. winch used
to aim merely at giving general equip
ment for the professions. has adapted
its courses to modern demands, not to
be sure, without due conservation. 1t
has. for instance. pretty generally en-
braced the so-called elective system,
which. 1t may be noted. though intro
duced at Harvard as late as the adj
ninstration of President Eliot just
closed. had been In operation at the
University from the beginning. Mr..
tive In education.
In the days before the elective ays-
tenn there were many private schools
which set themselves tho deliberate
task of preparing boys for colleges.
OF how well they discharged this Of
flee Mr.. w. Gordon McCabe. so long
hcadmnstcr OF such a school, has writ
ten with the cloquencc and authority
which his perfect knowledge f-rne
matter entities him to use. But with
changed conditions these fitting
schools" as Mr.. McCabe calls them,
| have grown fewer and fewer. proper
tionally to the bulk OF youth to be cd
ucated, at least. The popular demand
has been for another kind OF training
| deemed more practical, and at the same
time within the reach OF boys OF
Strengthened means.
Tho public high schools, which
should have taken up the task, have
as indicated in DR.. Dennys article
much enlarged their number and thei,
scope. They are turning out every
year hundreds OF young men who de.
sire to enter the professions, who
ought to have a college course. who
can, many of them, reasonably afford
| 1T. who are just tho men the college
wants most and can do the most for
| Yet the transfer from one to the 9TH
err. instead of being simple and easy. a
| part OF a regulated system, ts accom-.
| plished, except where tho college II
urban and has the city high school a
! its very doors. In fashion entirel,
| haphazard, simply because the col
1eges and the schools which should
supply them with large proportion
| OF their best material are. In fact
utterly out OF touch with each other
It seems to the writer that the mos
| immedia need of education for TIN
professions-in Virginia and the Soutl
especially--!s action on the part o
| the public school authorities and TIL
| colleges TO bring about the co-opera
| ton which is here lacking. Under tn
| old plan, in the limited Held then oc
| cupied by educators, there was def
| mite goal, coferency and uniformity Il
! the studies pursued both in the fittinl
schools and in the colleges. The pro
| erosion of these studies led pretty di
rectly and certainly to the calling
| which in those days absorbed the vas
majority of educated people-the law
medicine, the pulpit, teaching and-fo
it, too, was almost a learned PROBES
sion In those days-pubiic affairs.
To-day. with the multiplication o
professions having their origin chief
iy in the machinery which plays
large part IN modern life. and, there
fore. themselves mainly scientific !
character. II has seemed necessar,
keeping in mind the original funcno
of the college as the entrance nan I
the professions, TO add to the origina
function of the college as the entranc
j hall to the professions, to add to tn
original curriculum many new course
INTENDED 20 lay foundation OF prac