2 38 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



OLD LAMPS FOR NEW 



By JOHN MILLS 



NEW YORK CITY 



THE lament for the good old days, which rises so frequently from 

 academic circles, has recently in the case of Amherst College re- 

 sulted in definite action and policy. Following the recommendations 

 of a group of alumni of the eighties, Amherst has reacted against the 

 commercial and technical tendency of modern education, and here- 

 after is to be wholly and frankly classical in its aims and its curric- 

 ulum. Whether the hands of this particular college clock can be 

 turned backward without injury to the works, or false guidance to the 

 youths whose period of training it apportions, is a question for the fu- 

 ture. That something is amiss in our present scheme of higher edu- 

 cation, and that the unassisted processes of evolution will lead too 

 tardily and expensively to a solution is, however, the feeling of many. 



The form of the lament and the burden of its criticism depend 

 upon the early training and business or professional experience of the 

 critic, and upon his business or social relations with present-day col- 

 lege graduates. One critic attributes his own personal success to the 

 study of Latin and Greek, another to the course in "moral and phys- 

 ical philosophy" pursued under his college president, and a third finds 

 his intimations of immortality in the mathematical concept of an 

 infinite series. But one and all, in final analysis, agree that the college 

 prepares for no special vocation, and the technical school for a too 

 special vocation. 



The failure of the technical school is not due to the over-speciali- 

 zation of the doctor of philosophy or German-trained research student. 

 The average doctor of philosophy can at least think in the terms of his 

 own narrow division of the world's knowledge, whether he is gifted 

 with scientific imagination or not. The average technical school grad- 

 uate is a Tomlinson of the laboratories and text-books, a product of 

 modern motion study, who can perform certain laboratory manceuvers 

 or calculations with a minimum expenditure of mental energy. These 

 various operations are listed in the school catalogue and referred to in 

 the diploma. The better the name of the institution, the greater 

 surety does it offer to the captain of industry who buys its wares that 

 they will meet the specifications. 



In part, this unfortunate condition has resulted from the short- 



