DEPARTMENT REPORTS. G5 



The minor was the idea of learning something worlh while by going 

 to school without financial anxiety. 



3. The principles of organization were business-likfe and applied, there- 

 fore, with directness and efficiency. 



4. The pedagogical principle was that of "learning by doing" which is 

 bound to produce better results with the majority of young men than an 

 academic training. 



5. Regular habits and duties have been preached by many but their 

 benefits have never been so strikingly shown as in the work which we are 

 discussing. 



Reactions. 



Our experiences will undoubledly react on educational methods of all 

 kinds and in all branches of education. 



Just now, many colleges are undergoing relapses from army discipline — 

 such as more serious out-breaks of hazing and inter-class scraps than for 

 many years past. 



(*» This is natural and will pass. Moreover, the colleges train only a very 

 few relatively. The masses must be trained vocationally. The war has 

 shown what can be done under the motivation of the war spirit. Let it be 

 our task as a nation to lift up the industrial spirit to motivate vocational 

 work. 



If this can be done I feel sure that the experience that we have had with 

 the soldiers will be very useful. 



A useful reaction of the experience will appear in college training. 

 Most of us learned much that will help us, 



1. The advantage of individual instruction. 



2. The importance of tying instruction to the student's previous ex- 



perience, aptitude and sympathies. 



3. The value of discipline. 



4. The importance of vocational selection by systematic mental 



tests. 



5. The necessity of revealing to the student as far as possible the 



practical value of the subject matter. 

 All of which we thought we had fully appreciated and about which we 

 had certainly talked to the extent of "rain repetitions" but which we 

 should know by experience. 



REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING. 



President F. S. Kedzie, College. 



Dear Sir — The first half of the college year just passed presents a record 

 of uncertainty, distractions and an almost complete disorganization of 

 the regular educational plan, so far as engineering courses are concerned. 

 The year before had been bad enough, but a hopeful sign appeared in 

 the deferred service regulations of the War Board. However, the summer 

 of 1918 brought a shock in the dissipation of this one promise for the future 

 and deferred service for engineering students was revoked. Without doubt 

 the connection of the College with the war program will be given ample 

 historical record elsewhere, but I desire to pay my respects to the short- 

 sighted policy which could and did throw into the discard all systematic 

 training of real engineers. Had the duration of the war extended for 

 several years I wonder whence would have come the necessary supply 

 of trained men in this line. 



