The New York herald., 1920-01-26
SAYS CONVENTION
RULES STUDY HERE
Prof. c. F. E. Spurgeon Com
pareS Educational Methods of
Americans and English.
LATTER ARE INDEPENDENT
Pursue Course That Appeals to Them
Regardless of That Followed by
Their Fellow Students.

| Americans are concentric and circle
around a common centre. Britons are
eccentric, and each centres upon the point
that most strongly attracts him. and pur-
sues his course regardless of that followed
by his fellows. That is the way Miss
Caroline +. e. Spurgeon, professor of
English literature in Bedford College, Uni
versity OF London, characterizes the diff
ference in the educational aims and
methods of the two races.
l. Professor Spurgeon, who is president
Of the British Federation of University
Women, and DIR. Ida Smedley Mclean,
Lister Institute, London, treasurer of the
federation, have just arrived here on the
invitation of the Association of Collegiate
Alumnae of the United States to forther
the organization OF an international fed
Grafton of college women.
This difference is especially notable in
the academic attitude of each country
toward the study of English language and
literature, Professor Spurgeon said. Her
Characterization was brought out by a
question as TO whether British students
iare still worrying about Ruskin's worth
as an art critic That question, Professor
Spurgeon said, proved to. her own salts
faction that American methods are far
more conventional than Americans them
lselves believe them to be, and that in in
ldividual education, If not in etiquette, the
!
tional
The British idea of teaching literature or
any subject not an exact science is to let
the student soak himself in all the thought
and experiment and criticism and tradition
of his subject, and then, when he is able to
orientate himself, follow the line which
seem sto him to lead in the most desira-
BILE direction. American teachers, she gath
cred, sought. perhaps unconsciously, to
guide the minds of their pupils along GER
tain we'll defined roads which they. in
their turn. had been taught were the worth
while roads to follow. The tendency II
seemed to her, was to fill the mind full of
pigeonholes. to card catalogue 1t for ready
reference, and not to leave 1t free for the
pursuit of original research or criticism.
Asked if she did not think the American
tendency toward specialization and the
card catalogue methods in teaching the
arts were not the results of the German
idea which American educators are now
coming to believe has sfted into the Amer
lean educational system, Professor Spur
geon asserted positively that she could see
the German influence very plainly.
Professor Spurgeon. after short stoy
IN the East. will visit various southern
cities in the interest of the International
College Women's Federation and is to ad-
dress the National Association for Wom-
ems Suffrage at its convention in Chi
cago, February II. DR.. Mclean is to visit
the Far West. stopping first at st. Louis.
Later she will travel up the Pacific coast
from the University of California north
ward A third delegate. DR.. Winifred Cui-
lis. professor of physiology in the school
of Medicine for Women of LONDON Uni
versity. will reach the United States in
March and after lecturing at Vassar will
make a tour of the Eastern colleges. Pro-
fessor Spurgeon and DR.. Mclean are to
be introduced officially at the Colony Club
this afternoon at meeting presided over
by Dean Gildersleeve. of Barnard Col
lege