204 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



intuitively that it was not safe to entrust the education of their children 

 to men whose circle of vision was so contracted. A reaction came ; and 

 when it came, the pendulum, as was to be expected; swung too far in the 

 opposite direction. Semi-technical schools were established, which 

 soon became either purely technical or purely scientific, in each case 

 thrusting aside almost wholly the literary studies of the older system. 

 These appeared to meet the requirement of the time and quickly grew 

 to gi-eat importance, in some cases overshadowing older institutions 

 near at hand. They gave degrees, commonly the scientific baccalau- 

 reate, of the college; in many cases they were incorporated with uni- 

 versities and at length stood on the same footing with the schools of 

 law, medicine or theology. They admitted students at the same age 

 as did the colleges, though the entrance requirements in some directions 

 were less rigid. But those requirements were made more and more 

 severe until it became necessary to increase college requirements; and 

 this in turn led to increased requirements as well as to elevation in 

 grade of instruction in law and medicine with, as a final outcome, a 

 lengthening of the course in these two departments — while in some 

 institutions a bachelor's degree became a prerequisite for the pro- 

 fessional diploma. The results of these varied changes have been dis- 

 astrous in several ways to the college and to college training. 



The outcome was inevitable in one direction. Two schoolmates, 

 leaving the preparatory school together, go for advanced study to the 

 same institution; one enters the college on the scientific side, to take 

 a course in cultural studies; the other enters the technical school to 

 become an engineer. The boys meet on the same campus almost every 

 day; for a time, they may meet occasionally in the same class-room; 

 they speak in both cases of being at college. At the close of four years, 

 each receives the degree of B.S., one in pure science, the other in 

 engineering. To their friends, the degree is the same in both cases; 

 but it is not, as the friends quickly discover; the engineer has now a 

 profession and is ready to begin his life's work, whereas the other is 

 still confronted with a course of three or four years, if professional 

 work be his aim. 



It was natural that a demand for shortening of the college period 

 should be made, that there should be a cry to save the early years of 

 the man's life. It was said that increased requirements for entrance 

 had made it impossible for men to graduate at sixteen or eighteen as 

 they did fifty years ago; that the advance in grade of instruction had 

 made the man who completes the junior year fully equal to the graduate 

 of fifty years ago. But this argument can not hold. The average of 

 college graduates, as appears from study of alumni catalogues, is very 

 little greater to-day than it was thirty or forty years ago, and, in any 

 event, there is no reason why it ought to be greater. That requirements 



