93 



exporionoe. A certain trniniiip; is dosirahlo to proparo a boy or girl for those 

 manual ojierations. and a certain other and nnu-h more comprehensive training 

 is necessjiry for one who is to enter the administrative Held. The one is 

 included in cmr concei>tion of the scoi)e and purpose of manual training:, trade 

 schools, etc. The (»ther involves the higher or professional education. :ind lies 

 within the province (,f the college t»r professional school. It is not necessary 

 or even desirable that all persons engaged in a givt<n industry should have the 

 same training, or that this training sIkuiUI be that comprelien<led in a college 

 course. It follows, also, that the college, even though deeply concerned m 

 industrial and scientitic education, is not necessarily expected to train men and 

 women in the elements tlieri'of. any more than to inclntU' in its curriculum 

 elementary instruction in mathematics or English. If this view is defensible, 

 it may serve as a basis for distinguishing between th()se things which may or 

 may not be considered worthy of a place in the curriculum leading to a degree 

 in the land-i^rant celleges. , , • 



rerson.illy. I am convinced that a subject which is adnnmstered solely in 

 order to tra'in the student to a greater degree of skill in manual oi)erations can 

 not <-onsistentlv be inclndtMl in a degree coiwse. Examples of this kind may 

 doubtless be fi'.und in many if not all of the land-grant colleges, but iiroi)ably 

 their sponsors would agree that these are matters of temi»orary expediency 

 rather than permanent educational milestones. The nuestion as to desira- 

 bility of offering instruction in certain subjects in response to an evident need 

 for useful training by the constituents of the college, is (|uite distinct from the 

 question of what we should iiicor|iorate in a curriculum, every part of which 

 is sui)posi'd to have weight in (pialifying the student for a d(>gree. 



I'ublic (Hlucatictiial institutions, i)articnlarly those of such democratic char- 

 acter as the land-grant colleges, must give large heed to public needs. In recog- 

 nition of this principle many of these colleges have been iirompt to provide for 

 their constituents instruction in a variety of subjects which were essentially 

 manual training, and which in an ideal system of education would be relegated 

 to secondary or even i>rimaiy schools. The wisdom of this is not to be ques- 

 tioned. No' phase of the development of agricultural education has been so 

 well advised as the great tendency to poi)nlarize the work of tlu> colleges, even 

 to the extent of offering eUMiieiitary instruction in college halls, but such a 

 policy is to be approved only when it has for its ultimate purpose the broader 

 education of the public to an ai>preciation of tlie needs for such instruction in 

 its lu'oper place, viz. in the elementary schools. 



The .Morrill Act s])ecifies that the institutions of which it is the foundation 

 shall be coUe</c.s. It behooves these institutions, therefore, to cherish college 

 standards of scholarshii), bearing in mind that the tendency in educational 

 institutions of all grades is toward higher standards and more advanced curric- 

 ula. If the land-grant colleges find it a good policy to engage in instruction in 

 manual training, it should be for the sole reason that such instruction is not 

 elsewhere available to its constituents. It should never, under any considera- 

 tion, be regarded as a permanent part of a degree course. It wimld be far 

 better, therefore, if in colleges where such sulijects are offered, they were not 

 made a part of a degree course at all, but turned over to that educational catch 

 all the " short course ;" the student in which finds his reward in the acquire- 

 ment of knowledge alone without the accessories of sheepskins and degrees. 

 It is. moreover, very doulitful whether colleges should undertake to administer 

 such' courses, even under these conditions, unless it is quite clear that the re- 

 sources of the institution will permit so doing without detriment to the mainte- 

 nance and development of instruction of college grade. 



Degree courses in the land-grant colleges should be composed of scientific and 

 cultural elements, and subjects which can not be shown to have some definite 

 relation to such elements should have little or no weight therein. It is note- 

 worthy that there are some subjects which may be classified, because of the 

 pnrpo'sr with which they are taught, as purely manual training: or. on the 

 other hand, as illustrations of the sciences, with the study of which the 

 student is engaged. For instance, shop work, planned and administered as an 

 essential part of a. course of instruction in engineering, in which it is desired 

 to correlate all scientific knowledge of mechanisms, as regards their design, 

 construction, operation, and efficiency, is entirely justifiable in being given a 

 reasonalile weight among the scientific elements of a degree course in engineer- 

 imr. P.ut shop work, aciiniiiistered with no other purpose tjian to impart s':il' 

 in the use of tools, does not belong thei'e. Training a student to make biit'e:- 

 simply as an industrial operation, would seem to be outside the province ol: u 



