EDUCATION FOB PROFESSIONS. 441 



EDUCATION FOR PROFESSIONS.* 



By Director R. H. THURSTON, 



SIBLEY COLLEGE, CORNELL UNIVERSITY. 



f I ^HE preparation of the man who has chosen to enter a profession 

 -*- involves, jjroperly, suitability for the profession chosen, in char- 

 acter, ability and a special talent, if not a genius, as a basis and an 

 excuse for that preparation. It should include a general education 

 sufficient to give the individual the knowledge and culture demanded, 

 in this generation, of all who aspire to enroll themselves in the ranks 

 of the leaders of the professions, broad enough and deep enough to 

 command respect and to justify confidence both in the man's attain- 

 ments and in their utilization. It must involve training, both gym- 

 nastic and 'practical,' and development of that strength and maturity 

 without which the professional apprenticeship of the special school can 

 not be appreciated or its best results attained. Education, in the com- 

 monly accepted meaning of the term, should be carried as far and as 

 high as the time, the means and the ability of the man permit and 

 continued, if possible, until he has acquired maturity, earnestness, in- 

 telligent ambition and thorough assurance that he has chosen the right 

 field of work for his life's long endeavors. Yet, from the day when 

 it becomes certain that his field of work may be safely selected, a thread 

 of special preparation may run through all the sequence of his studies 

 without injury to their value in the development of the man. 



Mathematics may be taught by examples selected from the practical 

 problems of the coming days of professional work; modern languages 

 may be given large place in the curriculum; the sciences may be 

 studied in a serious manner and intensively; these latter studies may 

 be made to conspire for his advantage in the reading of scientific 

 matter in foreign literatures. In many and very various ways, the 

 bent of the child, the youth, the man, may be favored without loss of 

 culture and with the great advantage of stimulating and maintaining 

 his interest throughout. But, in the earlier stage, it would be a mis- 

 take to sacrifice culture and gymnastic training, true education, to 

 professional training. Quite enough can usually be accomplished in 

 the manner just indicated without observable distortion of the general 

 education which every youth should rightfully claim. As secondary 

 education and collegiate work in the 'liberal' arts are to-day conducted, 

 it is probably always possible to secure a large part of the needed sci- 



* Read before the N. Y. State Science Teachers' Association, Syracuse meet- 

 ing, December 30, 1902. 



