556 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



a "master," and has ruled his sub- 

 jects by arbitrary coercion. The rod 

 the instrument of most degrading pun- 

 ishment has ever been the symbol of 

 educational control ; and, although it 

 begins to be widely seen that it does 

 not represent the better method, thou- 

 sands of schools are still fighting to 

 maintain it. The schools reflect the 

 general condition of thought, and, if the 

 state is stringently coercive and the peo- 

 ple tolerate it, the schools will imitate 

 the policy. Besides, men love the ex- 

 ercise of power, and teachers are no 

 exceptions to this dangerous propensity. 

 External compulsion, moreover, is the 

 simpler and easier way of governing, 

 and, in fact, is all that is left to the 

 teacher without resources. The resort 

 to the rod and kindred measures stamps 

 the teacher with incapacity for his vo- 

 cation that is, with an ability to gov- 

 ern by the best methods. Everybody 

 knows that the rod plays no such im- 

 portant part in the work of education 

 as it formerly played. Its sphere has 

 been encroached upon by superior in- 

 fluences. Its stanchest defenders only 

 claim to use it but " sparingly," and the 

 best teachers reject it openly and en- 

 tirelv. 



The old system is thus partially out- 

 grown and much discredited ; but there 

 has as yet been but little intelligent and 

 adequate effort to organize the method 

 of self-government in its place. The 

 more offensive forms of coercion are 

 abated; but school-government still 

 mainly rests upon external authority, 

 though brought to bear in milder ways. 

 There seems to be still but little recog- 

 nition of the principle that the essential 

 and supreme work of education is to 

 form character by the cultivation of 

 self-control, which implies liberty and 

 responsibility. And this is not to be 

 learned by precept, but by practice. 

 Self-government, like music, can only 

 be acquired by exercise, and to gain this 

 thescliool itself must be worked by this 

 method. Students must be thrown 



back upon themselves, and habituated 

 to responsible self-direction. 



As this is the highest result of edu- 

 cation, so it is undoubtedly the most 

 difficult of attainment. The grosser 

 forms of punishment may be quite dis- 

 pensed with, and still the school-gov- 

 erment may be that of external care- 

 taking and paternal regulation. The 

 model college president has been the 

 man who could know or divine every- 

 thing that is going on among the stu- 

 dents, and circumvent and disconcert 

 them in all their little irregularities. 

 Under this system it has ever been the 

 ambition of the students to beat the 

 faculty, and it naturally engenders a 

 state of antagonism between the stu- 

 dents and the governing authorities. 

 Such a system by its very nature must 

 fail to develop the most valuable traits 

 of manhood. 



From this general point of view we 

 have taken much interest in the reform 

 of collegiate government which has 

 been attempted during the past year at 

 Amherst. It is reported that President 

 Seelye submitted a new plan to the fac- 

 ulty, that it was adopted, and that the 

 results thus far have been in a high 

 degree satisfactory. 



The method consists in placing the 

 student and the college upon an equal 

 footing, and bringing them into relation 

 by a mutual voluntary engagement. A 

 correspondent of the " New York Even- 

 ing Post " says : 



Every student upon enteiing college signs 

 an agreement to observe its laws. This agree- 

 ment is held to be a contract. If it is broken 

 there is an end of the contract, and the con- 

 tracting parties are as they were before it was 

 formed. The student is no longer a member 

 of the college, and the college owes nothing 

 further to him. . . . The ground taken by 

 the Amherst College government is that the 

 fliculty are the helpers of the younger men 

 who want an education. The manhood of the 

 students is recognized, and they are trusted to 

 govern themselves without the interference of 

 the faculty, save when the rupture of the con- 

 tract compels the separation of a student from 

 college. 



