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Conservative.
THE HIGH SCHOOLS , COLLEGES AND
UNIVERSITIES OF AMERICA.
[ By P. P. Mnt7. , So. D. , Ph. D. , Professor of
Mathematics , Defiance CollcKO , Defiance ,
Ohio. ]
Tlio American high school is a school
mti tjencris. It has frequently been
called "tho poor man's college. " This
school makes paramount the greatest
good to the greatest number. In a
word , the American high school is a
necessary good , an indispensable insti
tution , and has come to stay. The North
glories in these educational institutions.
The South increases their number every
year. The course of studies for Ameri
can high schools , high and excellent as
it is , bears the American stamp , "Ex
celsior ; " and , as a consequence , is grad
ually made higher.
Experience teaches that the genuine
college-spirit cannot be transferred to ,
and fostered in , the high school. The
college is a necessity , and its sphere of
usefulness should be to complete thp
grand educational structure begun in
the high school.
The preparatory schools are the proper
institutions for those who may be
averse to having their sons and daugh-
f. ters fitted for college in the public high
schools. They are thoroughly Ameri-
| T can institutions ; and in this land of
liberty , science and religion , the preparatory -
$ paratory schools are eminently proper
is institutions of learning.
If the course of studies in our high
schools be gradually and incessantly
raised and advanced , even if the time
required for graduation has to be ex
tended , the preparatory schools will
promptly raise and advance their
courses of studies. As a consequence ,
there will be many Exeters , Andovers ,
and other places of equal name and
fame.
The Smaller Institutions.
Are not the courses of studies in all
our American educational institutions
gradually raised and advanced ? A
glance into the past for a decade will
convince the most sceptical of this
fact.
fact.No
No young high school , or preparatory
school , or technical school , or college ,
or university , which keeps in the edu
cational procession during this great
march , will necessarily die out. There
is room for all our educational institu
tions , and more of them are needed
every year.
These young and vigorous western
colleges and universities , with their low
expenses and with their work now done
as thoroughly and as well as it is done
at Johns Hopkins , at Yale , at Harvard ,
and at Olark , are the ones that have of
late been making the most rapid and
pronounced growth. Are not the courses
of studios in all these western institu
tions of higher education every year
advanced to a higher plane , are not
then- professors men of the highest
scholastic attainments , and is not the
sphere of usefulness and influence of
these educational institutions thereby
correspondingly increased ? Western
educational institutions may now justly
be called A morica's growing educational
institutions. Westward the educational
Star of Empire takes its way ; and this
is not a descending star OF facts and
history show.
America to Be the Leader.
The final result of this gradual and
incessant raise and advance of courses
of studies in our high schools will ne
cessitate a corresponding raise and ad
vance in the courses of studies in our
preparatory schools , technical schools
and colleges. In fact , our American
colleges , both great and small , and our
universities , will become institutions of
higher education or institutions of re
search.
As an ultimate consequence , America ,
which already has many universities on
more than par in every respect but ago
with the universities of the Old World ,
will be the educational center of this
mundane sphere before the next ten
years have elapsed.
THE PRACTICABILITY OF CORRE
SPONDENCE INSTRUCTION.
[ By H. M. Lavers , Supt. The International
Correspondence Schools. ]
Any system of instruction by cor
respondence must bo practical to be
successful. The extent of its success ,
therefore is a reflection of its practic
ability. Some systems are conducted
solely as a financial investment , but
true correspondence instruction does
not make that feature a first consider
ation. Education is a product that
takes slowly to commercial methods ,
and the attempt to make it an object
of sale is one great reason for the
prejudice it has encountered. The
prejudice was directed first , against a
departure from the old plans whereby
education was largely a scholastic
affair , and second to the apparent im
practicability of the method. The
prejudice no longer exists. It has been
set aside by results.
Ten years of careful thought and
search for what were the educational
requirements of thinking people , have
given every man who watches the
times , a clearer appreciation of the
purposes and scope of corrsepondence
instruction , and the system is , there
fore , understood much better.
Instruction by mail is intended for
the development of an ideal practical
man , and does not aim for those fine
effects that lead the followers'of other
systems into airy nothings. A proper
ly conducted system of practical edu
cation is of the earth earthy at all
times.
Instruction by correspondence is
specific. There is nothing dilatory
about it. It is direct and pertinent ,
with little respect for menta/l / feats
of an acrobatic nature.
It' is a busy man's method and more
than any'othor system has cultivated
habits oftsolf dependence.
"It is the handmaid of every-day
business , and is applied and modified
in accordance with the rapid changes
of the activities there. The improve
ments in it are , therefore , proportion
ately rapid , and represent the latest
phase of every departure. It directs
its instruction and examples to the
heart of the business in hand , and as
a resiilt cannot bo indefinite. In the
language of simplicity it holds up for
study the practices and processes of
the immense industries by which the
majority of men earn their daily bread.
It is endorsed by the ' 'producers' ' of
this country because of its simple
thoroughness , but chiefly , in that it
has rendered science a useable rather
than an adorable thing.
All methods of correspondence in
struction are not a success , but a criti
cism should be leveled at the manner
of carrying out the method , and not
at the method itself. The relative
proportion of success and failure in
this system of instruction , is , , .however . ,
not much different from other lines
of human endeavor.
The practicability of , correspondence
instruction has come into question by
reason of the class of people it deals
with. Its roll of students 'is highly
cosmopolitan. Many of them are ab-
solutelv untrained in habits of study.
A large number have neglected earlier
opportunities and come to the corre
spondence method as a last resort. Cir
cumstances drove them there. Ninety-
nine out of every hundred earn their
own living. They are busy bread
and butter busy. Some few have more
leisure time at their command , and
have been favored with a better start ,
but these are the exception. If , then ,
any system of instruction can en
lighten them in the pursuit of their
daily business , and can train them tea !
a grasp of the subject , so that when
confronted by difficulties that hereto
fore they could not master , they eas
ily command the situation , must not
then the method of necessity , be
practical ?
What shall we say of a man who
gets a clear insight into the difficul
ties of compound proportion , who
previous to study by this method ,
was stalled by a complex fraction ? ;
What shall we say of a method that
renders the intricacies of algebra in
to the "language of babes ? " What is
the measure of a system that makes
trigonometry the mouthpiece of every
body ? Is machine design so simple
that its successful exposition will en
title the system to no credit ? What
is there in the fact that clerks have
become draughtsmen , apprentices
have risen to foremen , superintend
ents developed into managers , and me
chanics into engineers of great capaci
ty ? These men had no other avenue
of advancement than through the cor
respondence method ; but , backed by
a wholesouled ambition and a deter
mination to advance , they have profit
ed1 by the corresouience method , and
have proved that it is today the ideal
plan of study.
The men of the present generation
have in the correspondence method a
means to intellectual advancement
that is , more than any other agency ,
working out the trade supremacy of
this great country. Three hundred
thousand students in one institution
alone prove that.
St. Louis , Mo. , Nov. 20 , 1901.
