EVOLUTION OF THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM. 237 



else some degree of selection must be permitted, 

 that students may choose between new and new or 

 between new and old. 



Another conceivable arrangement would be to 

 omit none of the old work, but to lengthen the 

 course, with each study added to the curriculum, 

 until each could receive a proper share of the 

 student's attention. But this cannot well be done. 

 Four years is the fixed length of the American 

 college course ; and this being an arbitrary thing, 

 with no sort of reason for it, there can be no suc- 

 cessful argument against it. Besides, we live in 

 hurrying times; and to our students time is money, 

 and the only money some of the best of them have. 

 To the majority of those reached by our colleges, 

 even the traditional four years seems a long time 

 to spend in school after reaching manhood. 



In various ways it was sought to harmonize the 

 new education with the old. But the average 

 American college has finally adjusted itself to a 

 second phase in the history of the curriculum, 

 which for convenience I may call the patchwork 

 stage. In this arrangement most of the higher 

 mathematics has been crowded out, the Greek 

 has been shortened and the Latin also ; while other 

 subjects, in greater or less amounts, have been 

 more or less grudgingly admitted. The amount 

 and kind of these subjects is rarely determined 

 by any prearranged plan or in accordance with 

 any sort of definite theory of education. As a 

 matter of fact, each college has a certain number 

 of professors, this determined by the Board of 

 Trustees, in accordance with real or imaginary 



