El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-08-22

tined Whereas the term college" in
is strictest sense, designates only a
for university or protcs-
sional training, in many IF the smaller
American cities colleges attempt uni
work without the proper
equipment. This work has been bad
for the educational standards of the
country. A generation ago. the col
lege in America, as IN Europe, sup
piled one general course, which in
cluded about two years of the work
now being done by the American high
school, and two years additional in
struction in literature, classics, Ian
guages and the elementary sciences,
which gave the degree A B., which
is recognized throughout the world.
At that time it was quite possible
for young man to complete his col
lege course at II or Is years OF age.
and thus permit him to be graduated
in medicine or law by the time he was
81. Or g. Nowadays few students are
able to finish high school before Is,
and four years college course makes
it impossible for them to begin pro-
fessional training before the age of
81 or %. Consequently, at 20. a man
now is barely able to begin his profess
sional work, while each year the adj
mission requirements of the best pro-
fessional schools are becoming more
severe.
One Troubling Question.
The lack of correlation between the
college and the public high school is
still one >of the questions troubling
educators. The colleges make the
complains that, Notwithstanding the
amount of time spent, the high schools
do not properly prepare students for
college work. The high schools claim
that the college requirements are in
definite and varying 1t would seem,
however, that the colleges have a right
to expect that high school graduate
should have proper. training in read
ing and writing and the elements of
English grammar. yet this is not al
ways apparent. A professor ein the
University of Pennsylvania states that
the majority of students on entering
show a lamentable ignorance of gram
mar, and that men have entered the
freshman class without having any
knowledge Of the meaning of an ad-
jective.
Students Defective In Spelling.
Last year, it was discovered that a
very large percentage of the students
in Smith college were defective In
spelling. and a special training class in
photography had to be organized on
Saturday afternoon. Neither of these
subjects should come into college work
and yet since the province of the coll
lege is to fit the student for his future
life. whether he enters a profession or
some other calling, SO serious a defect
in his elementary education must be
overcome.
There Is now feeling that If the
high school provides the proper prep
aratfon in the way of preparatory
work, the general college course, es-
pecially for those who intend taking
professional work, might be shortened
TO three years, or else that the last
year or two might include some stud
les helpful to the professional or uni
versity work to follow. Many college
men are strongly opposed to such a
change, however. They claim that the
college course, as IL now exists, sup
plies the ideal preparation for life for
those who desire only that, and is at
the same time a satisfactory founda-
ton for those who are contemplating
graduate work in some special line
The term college, has been so mis-
used and abused that its real signif-
canoe is seldom recognized. 1t should
be distinguished from the university
absolutely by the fact that it's work
can only include q small part of the
work of the larger institution. With
but two exceptions, Clark university
and the Catholic University of America
at Washington, D. c., each of the large
American universities embraces a col
lege whose province is preparing the
student for graduate work in other de-
partments
Restricting the Term.
The committee on nomenclature of
the National Association OF Colleges
and Universities recently decided that
the term college. be restricted to a
branch of the university which has a
considerable faculty devoted to teach
ing special subjects connected with
that branch. For example. the college
of engineering of a large university
may include me schools of civil en-
cheering. IF mining engineering. of
electrical engineering, etc. In the col
lege OF letters and science. may be in
cluded schools of teacher) training.
journalism, commerce and any other
subject made sufficiently important by
demand. In the typical American uni
yersity the following lines of work
are usually organized as separate col
leges: Arts aud sciences, medicine,
law, theology, engineering and agricul-
ture.
The organization of these colleges
as parts of a large university, does
not in any way affect the establish
ment of individual colleges in any one
Of these subjects. 1t is the college of
arts and science. however, which has
been found generally masquerading
as a university in small American
towns where its equipment and fac
ulty is not sufficient in some in
stances to entitle it even to full coll
lege recognition.
There are many educational organi-
cations now actively working toward
the Standardization of college require
ments in order that the entire educa-
tional system of the country may be-
come absolutely uniform. The subject
is before several state legislatures at
present. During the past year the leg
islature of Virginia adopted a COM
plete system of Standardization of the
institutions of higher education in the
commonwealth. No college or other
institution will be recognized by the
state board Of education which does
not fully meet the conditions OF it's
class, as defined in this new law. re-
garding admission reouirements