510 PATRICK H. YANCEY 



The Church engaged in the operation of a full-scale educational 

 system from kindergarten to university. This system under the 

 aegis of the National Catholic Educational Association has 

 become a potent force for education, as well as for the preser- 

 vation and spread of the faith in this country. It has won the 

 admiration of Catholics throughout the world. There are, 

 however, certain disadvantages in such an education, especially 

 with respect to the development of scientists. 



In the early days when Catholics were few and mostly poor, 

 the schools also tended to be poor. The curriculum of the pri- 

 mary schools was held to a minimum — mostly the four R's — 

 and science was not even thought of. High schools were fewer 

 still, and concerned chiefly with the humanities with little, if 

 any, science included. When science courses were offered, they 

 were not infrequently taught by instructors themselves un- 

 trained in science. The same inadequacies obtained in the 

 colleges. As a matter of fact, there was no clear distinction 

 between high school and college. The early Catholic " colleges," 

 following the European system, embraced everything from first 

 grade to philosophy. The last three or four years corresponded 

 roughly with the American college, at least with the junior 

 college. Apart from the commercial curriculum, which was a 

 catch-all for those who lacked the ability or taste for the Arts 

 or Science program, the education was of the classical type with 

 very little science. The " science " curriculum was distinguished 

 from the arts curriculum not by the amount of science taught, 

 but by the substitution of modern languages for Greek and 

 Latin. This in itself is an indication of the low esteem in which 

 science was held. 



The science that was taught consisted of a general course 

 called natural philosophy, largely physics. In some cases this 

 was taught by a man well trained and really interested in the 

 subject, though the field was so vast that he could scarcely do 

 it justice. Often an individual teacher would take some part 

 of the field as a hobby, such as astronomy or seismology, and 

 develop an observatory where serious scientific research was 

 conducted. The ordinary student, however, did not benefit 



