Large 

 liberty of 

 election in 

 prepara- 

 tion 



The Days of a Man [^1892 



scribed list of studies. The general consensus of 

 opinion thus favored some adaptation of the Johns 

 Hopkins "group system"; namely, the distribution 

 of preparatory subjects into groups Science, Lit- 

 erature, History, Languages from each of which 

 the student must present one or more units. There 

 was, however, no common agreement as to the 

 make-up of the several combinations, which at the 

 best are largely arbitrary. Algebra, for instance, 

 pure logic in its higher reaches, is registered under 

 the group system as a science along with inductive 

 (or laboratory) sciences like Chemistry and Zoology. 

 Several of the faculty, moreover, were totally opposed 

 to all attempts at grouping, holding out for the 

 acceptance of any sixteen high school units of 

 credit that is, four years' work however com- 

 posed, if satisfactory as to quality. By this scheme 

 the adjustment of courses would be left to the 

 discretion of the individual secondary schools. 



No agreement having been reached, the matter 

 was finally referred back to the president. I then 

 ruled that in view of the great variety and wide 

 geographical range of the institutions from which 

 our students came, the sole requirement in all de- 

 partments should be in English Composition, while 

 the other fifteen units might be chosen from a list 

 of very liberal range. In other words, a student 

 need not necessarily decide in preparatory school 

 as to what lines his future education should follow. 

 Brief courses in language or science would not, 

 however, be accepted, and laboratory work would 

 be required in all natural and physical sciences. 



Faculty meetings are as a rule monotonous, being 

 highly technical, but getting acquainted at Stanford 



C 4H 3 



