The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-07-11
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsTKIN, Director.
Washington, D. G.
A NEW IDEA IN EDUCATION.

new idea concerning the teaching OF
the exact science of engineering. who
| is attracting the attention of educators
| all over the United States and in CEN
tiers of learning abroad. He has no
| epochmaking method of supplying
brains to dull students, or filling their
minds with knowledge that will stick
regardless of the students capacity.
but he has worked out system
whereby his school is turning out bet
| ter graduate engineers.
| This man is A A. Potter, dean of
engineering at Purdue university, La
| fayette, Indiana. That the benefit of
| his system is appreciated by young
| men DESTROYS Of becoming engineers
| is shown by the enrolment in the en-
cheering school at Purdue. In the
college year just closed there were
1,S45 students, ranking the school
third among institutions of its kind
in the United States in point of num-
bers.
Summed up, what Dean Potter is
seeking and getting is to make COM
petent professional men-not just
graduates; to keep the students in
terest at high pitch; to see that his
time is spent where he can best excel.
When Il student takes up the en-
cheering course at Purdue 1t is soon
ascertained whether he knows how to
study and memorize effectively. II
he does not, it is the first thing he is
to learn any book, but to master in
! formation which that book contains.
He is urged to visualize what is set
forth to pick out the essentials OF
study and concentrate on them in
order that they will be clear and 'prac-
teal to him always.
After he has been at work for two
or three months in his first year the
engineering student has his character
inventoried by five of his fellow stu
dents and two of his teachers. This
record is kept up thruout his course,
and affords an excellent estimate of
any student almost at a glance. From
these seven reports and the students
own estimate of himself his record is
made up and kept.
Inventory OF Character.
These cards cover the students nat
ural aptitude and mental character
istics; his application; his general at
titude, whether self-reliant, opiionated.
quarrelsome, aggressive, conciliatory,
timid or self-controlied; cooperative
ability, courtesy; disposition, whether
gloomy or good-natured; efficiency;
habits of work. whether punctual, re-
sourceful, rapid or slow. and the like;
his Judgment; qualities of leadership;
mental ca1iber; general outlook on
life; sense of responsibilities tact.
On the same cards, under the head
| ing of Moral and Social Character
! istics," the two teachers and five stu
dents record whether the student being
described has an ingratiating address,
or whether it is cautious, direct ana
| brusque, or irritating, and whether he
| leaves a good or poor impressions
whether his character is yielding,
weak, firm strong, obstinate, or posi-
| lively moral; whether he is conscien-
tious, tricky, honorable, reliable, or
unreliable; whether his manner Is
trustful, guarded, suspicious, jealous,
or envious; and whether the student IS
popular or not.
The physical characteristics are also
recorded. This covers the countenance,
whether pleasant, serious, open,
strong, secretive or weak; his habit
of dress, whether snowy, stylish, taste
| full, ill-chosen, neat, or careless;
whether he has any defornity; his
carriage, whether erect and dignified
or round-shouldered and slouchy; and
his general health, covering his vision,
hearing, endurance, vitality, physique
and nervous stability.
In addition, this consensus of OBJ
servation of the student covers his
use of English in speaking and writ
ing, and whether his handwriting is
| firm, business-like, legible, illegible
or careless.
! From the data collected, Dean Pot
ter is also able to advise the student
! as to his future course, encouraging
|
| ing him If his path is badly chosen.
If student is without any faculty of
| leadership or inventive idLas, who is
prone to accept everything just as he
finds it without any suggestion of i'm
| provemenr, he is believed to have
| chosen the wrong profession as his
/ life work. Engineering in practically
| every branch demands constant in
ventive ability, vision and construc-
tive thinking of the highest order to
bring success: Dean Potter goes on
| the theory that the time to discuss
the error in choice of profession Is
before the boy or young man is al
lowed to waste much of his time at
an illchosen study. The dean has
found many students who just wish
to be this or that without having sup
plemented this desire with anything
like an analysis of their own char
acteristics or natural ability for the
work they think they want to under
take.
Follow the Natural Bent.
The student who is found to be nat
uralIy gifted and fitted for the pro-
fession of engineering requires only
the usual course, and may be de-
pended upon to make. good. For
others whose fitness and ability are
not SO we'll defined, Dean Potter holds
that it is the high duty of these young
men and their instructors to put the
student in the right way to achieve
the utmost possible, and to advise him
to study to fit himself for that posi-
ton in life for which he is best fitted
by temperament, training and natural
characteristics.
In telling of his tests. Dean Potter
says that the boy who reaches Is
years without any evidence of inven-
tive ability will never make design
ing engineer. On the other hand, the
boy who is never satisfied with his
toys as they come to him, who seeks
TO change and improve them, as well
as everything else that comes to hand,
has in him one of the main essentials
for the profession.
Dean Potter makes the broad claim
that teacher should make studies
so interesting that the students will
not have to be urged and driven to
them. Also, he warmly urges not to
falr FIR anf ad