EDITOR'S TABLE. 



849 



are well practiced in the arts of hood- 

 winking the puhlic and of managing 

 Legislatures. Will they be able to force 

 the American Congress to repudiate 

 the most honorable part of the nation's 

 historic policy ? 



CONVITIONS OP EDUCATIONAL RE- 

 FORM. 



A coEBESPONDENT from Ann Ar- 

 bor, Michigan, wants something more 

 explicit and practical from the "Month- 

 ly " on the subject of scientific educa- 

 tion. He says: "Can not you throw 

 a little more light upon the best col- 

 legiate course of education for a young 

 person who designs entering one of the 

 professions of law or medicine? You 

 constantly refer to the value of science 

 as a factor in education and as often 

 vigorously protest against the old or the 

 present classical courses ; now, can not 

 you help many who have children to 

 educate, by pointing out the best 

 course? This is a practical question, 

 brought home to thousands of your 

 readers, and it presses upon them for 

 solution. Can not we have something 

 more than glittering generahties, and 

 which will be a guide to those needing 

 the information? Is it not time, in 

 fact, to formulate the best course and 

 to give in detail and in their logical 

 order the studies best fitted for the 

 proper development of the faculties? " 



We often have communications like 

 this from zealous and impatient educa- 

 tional reformers, who think there has 

 been talk enough about scientific edu- 

 cation, and that it is high time some- 

 thing were done. But they expect too 

 much, and are looking for impracticable 

 things. It is a great mistake to sup- 

 pose that the object here sought is any- 

 where to be at once and fully attained. 

 The idea will be slowly and partially 

 realized wherever there is a suflScient 

 number of persons in any community 

 imbued with the proper convictions 

 and feelings to carry it into eifect. 

 Such a work must inevitably be gradual, 



VOL. XVI.— 54 



and there will be concessions and im- 

 provements just in proportion to the 

 strength and persistence of the demand 

 for them. Our schools, at present, fair- 

 ly represent the average intelligence 

 and aspiration, and are as good as the 

 people can appreciate or will sustain. 

 A portion of the community — and the 

 numbers are increasing — insist upon 

 more time for science in the lower 

 schools, and more science in place of 

 the classics in the higher schools : both 

 requirements have already been wide- 

 ly yielded. There is a larger provision 

 than formerly in many primary schools 

 for elementary science ; and the mul- 

 tiplication of scientific schools in con- 

 nection with colleges, or independently, 

 and the modification of the old curricu- 

 lum with better chances for science in 

 many other institutions attest a saluta- 

 ry change in obedience to the growing 

 wants. As the public demand becomes 

 more discriminating and urgent, insti- 

 tutions will improve. 



The line of progress, therefore, con- 

 sists in making existing schools better. 

 They are not to be displaced, but hber- 

 alized, and the culture they give made 

 more useful and valuable. There would 

 be no diflSculty in forming a rational cur- 

 riculum, but public ignorance, educated 

 and otherwise, has to be reckoned with 

 in carrying it out, because schools have 

 to be supported. The principles of a 

 better education than we now have are 

 sufficiently understood, and the men are 

 not wanting who could give a receipt » 

 for making a college much superior to 

 those now in operation. But, if our 

 correspondent had furnished him a 

 perfect ideal plan, and the whole Johns 

 Hopkins endowment to execute it, he 

 would break down in getting his teach- 

 ers and trustees, and his establishment 

 would fall to the level of what could be 

 publicly approved. If he merely wants 

 help to construct a liberalized modern 

 curriculum, he will find abundant ma- 

 terials in such works on education as 

 those of Spencer, BaAn, and Johnnot. 



But there is a good deal of prelimi- 



