Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-05-09
THE COWNSMAN
1.-THE PRovosT's PLAN"

| II
L university circles. quarrel as old as edu
cation itself, as old as the first radical VINO
stirred up the first conservative, whoever
these ancient folk may have been but 1t may
| he doubted IL the solution is quite so easy
| as that redoubtable speaker out OF what IL
| in his mind Professor Wilmer, would nave
| it, The Gownsman knows that there are
| those who believe in the classics ana that
| there are those who don't. He has yet to
| meet the bugaboo who really wants the edu-
| cation Of fifty years ago and nothing more.
| He has yet to meet the man or the group OF
men who deliberately conspire to make edu-
| cation the perquisite of the rich or who wish
| to control education absolutely in the in
| terests of capital. Undoubtedly the reaction
! aries of which the Gownsman is not one no
| many unwise things in their efforts, con-
scious or unconscious, to keep n hold on that
| which they have so long neglected to ad-
| minister with any appreciation OF the trend
| OF the times. But education has other enc
mics than the reactionary. and 1T is by no
| means certain that he is the worst.
| THE college has long been ground between
L the upper and the neither milestone. and
perhaps the ultimate logic will be its disap-
| pearance as a separate stage in education.
| The growth of the high school has trespassed
| in the earlier years in subject. il not always
| in quality. Doctor Wilmer is right when he
| declares that there are high schools doing
| better work in much the same grades than
| some of our colleges-at least in the earlier
years. This pressure from the schools mas
| forced up the standard and the age of stu
dents entering college. Secondly, the voca-
tional and technical schools have come into
active competition with the college, offering
| practical training with the prize Of an imme-
date livelihood. These schools have mostly
| failed in the almost impossible effort to turn
| out educated men and women simultaneously
| with those technically trained. Again, the
| professional school has made inroads on the
| college, demanding that part Of its currc-
| uum be given over to preparation for the
| study of law or medicine. So that there
remains of the old college of liberal studies
| little but shell. and there are few students
who pursue its courses except with view OF
becoming teachers. ministers, lawyers or
doctors. and these last, as already suggested,
are vocatioualized in the process. as the
| teacher is likewise in his school of educa-
ton.
| THE average American wants to know
L what he is getting wherefore he is not
content with an education; he wants to know
| what it will fit him for when he has got it.
Owing to this. the old college has been still
further disntegrated by the establishment
| of parallel schools lthat is. schools attracting
| students of the same years and training as
the college, in which the newer subjects
| that is the aggressive topics which have not
| vet succeeded in running out the classics,
| mathematics. history and languages--arc
/ taught with a degree Of specialization and
| particularly impossible when they must
compete with the older curriculum: hence
| the Wharton School of Finance and Com
| Of nd thn In
| these schools students are now admitted at a
| stage of development which corresponds to
the entrance of college. and their work still
| comedies in some degree with the older
| curriculum. Every one of these schools is a
| compromise between college course and a
course in "A university. And every one OF
them to that extent is a short cut. substitut-
ing special training for thorough education.
| s6NHOROtGH education does not beg
l. the question. a thorough education il
| one that is well founded and not sided.
| A thorough educati does not admit special
| ization before a sound and wide general foun-
dation. Our graduate schools for the most
| part demand a Thorough foundation. believing
that a man can not specialize either in
| science. philosophy or language unless he has
beforehand a wide general knowledge. Our
professional schools acknowledge this by
demanding-that is the best of theni--a col
lege degree as the basis of professional study
| Some of them accept the degree of n school
| Of education or a school of politics; most of
| them prefer the bachelor of arts degree and
| why? Because it still is. to some extent at
| least. guarantee that specialization has not
| been allowed to set in too soon. because it
| still stands for II thorough education.
| TNHE logic of the situation stands en-
| l. phatically for the provOst's plan, which,
| as the GOwnsman understands it, is not the
| sudden suppression of the Wharton or any
other school which is doing good and honest
work. experimenting with education along
specialized lines the basis of the prppara
ton which the high school can give. The
| provost's plan rather looks to an ultimately
| sOunder foundation for our technical and
other specializing schools, a foundation not
| confined to the study of Latin and Greek
| but to liberal curriculum in which no study
old new shall be excluded by prejudice,
| but all shall be pursued with that freedom
and disinterestedness which is not at pres
Pnt a conspicuous feature of any of the new
schools of utiltarian aim. If we demau
that our lawyers and our doctors be college
trained before they become university trained
shall we deny this training to our psycho-
ogists, our botanists, our men of finance our
| engineers? We can not look to the realiZa
| ton of this fine ideal Immediately. There
are vested rights; there are also vested
prejudices. for the reformer often equals the
reactionary in his resistance to any change
but his own. In the family of human
knowledge there should be no favorites; and
a plea that it takes so long to become n
scholar i'll becomes any voice that proceeds
from university. Between a university
based on the high school and a university
based the college foundation, liberaIly Y
interpreted, there can be no question.