The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1923-06-13
The Junior College
Taking Its Place
(By DEAN CARL HOLIDAY

er education no tendency has equaled
in swiftness of growth the Junior col
lege movement in America. An ac-
curate enumeration has not yet been
made, but it is probable that in the
last decade more than 800 of such in
situations have sprung into life. So
widespread is the movement that the
American Association of Junior Col
leges, now in its fourth year, has
members in every state in the Union.
What are these junior colleges which
have become so popular that they
are now increasing at the rate OF
Is each year? A junior college is
an institution offering two years of
instruction to strictly collegiate grade
and generally presenting it's graduate
with the title of A. A., meaning Asso-
ciate in Arts or Apprentice in Arts.
In some institutions similar tiles IN
Commerce and Engineering are Of
lfered, as A. G. ad A. E.
Curriculum Suited to Local Needs
The curriculum may include those
courses usually offered in the first two
years of regular four year college,
but as the national association points
out, "The Junior College may, and IS
likely to develop a different type of
curriculum suited to the larger and
ever changing civic, social, and voca-
tional needs of the entire community
in which the college is located" just
there is one of the chief reasons for
the unique growth Of this new type
of school; it fits itself to the intellec-
tual needs of it's own locality as no
other type of college can or at least
seems willing to do.
The student in such an institution
completes in two years from 60 to Cd
credits toward the bachelors degree,
is accepted in some of the western
and southern states as equivalent to
two years in a standard normal or
teachers college, and therefore entities
him to teach in such states. But what
is more important, the two years Of
college work thus accomplished is ac-
copied by almost all law colleges as
fulfilling their pre-legal requirements,
while colleges of engineering readily
accept such work as equivalent to
their own first two years of technical
work.
Growth Natural to Expect.
1t should not be matter of sur
prise, therefore, to find these junior
colleges multiplying so rapidly, espe-
cially in the west and south. Thus
Missouri has Is of them; California, a
larger number; the University of Chi
cago, the University of California, and
the University of Toledo have exceed
ingly large ones as part of their COM
plete organizations. The city of Chi
cago possesses very large one; the
Kansas City Junior College has more
than 1000. students; the junior col
leges at Detroit, Grand Rapids, and
Joliet are almost as large.
Within the past FIVE years more than
100 former four-year colleges have
voluntarily transformed themselves
into two-year or junior colleges, and
it is estimated that at least 200 other
American colleges might well do SO.
1t is simply movement toward edu-
cational honesty. A large number of
so-called colleges in the south and
west, especially those under church
control, at length confessed that they
had not the funds and equipment for a
four-year course leading to bache-
lor's degree of any integrity, and they
therefore decided to confine their eff
forts to freshman and sophomore
courses.
The First One
The first junior college was doubt
less that organized by President Will
liam r. Harper at the opening of the
University of Chicago in October,
1892. Dr. Harper saw that it was nee
essary to organize the first two years
of university work so as to aim at
a definite goal, and to give the stu
dent the impression that he was
really getting somewhere in earlier
college days. Moreover, many students
were obliged to give up a college
career at the close of the sophomore
year, with no official recognition of
the work accomplished. Again, Pres
ident Harper recognized the fact that
the first two years work in the Amer
lean college is largely of the nature
OF secondary or high-school education,
and he felt that, to some extent, high
school methods of instruction are still
necessary for freshmen and sophie
mores. He therefore demanded a