t24 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 770 



We have had two or three notable in- 

 stances of late of institutions which have 

 deliberately renounced the name of uni- 

 versity to take the more modest title of 

 college or institute. The training school 

 for teachers which I attended in my youth 

 was burdened by law with the title staie 

 normal umversity. It made no pretense, 

 however, of being a university, and I well 

 recall hearing its downright president de- 

 clare repeatedly before the assembled stu- 

 dents, ' ' This is not a college. It is a nor- 

 mal school. ' ' 



It is, then, the moral gain that is the 

 chief good to be had from a clear definition 

 of our standards. But other advantages, 

 too, are obvious. For many institutions, to 

 define their standard is to raise their stand- 

 ard, and this is gain, save in the few in- 

 stances where the higher standard may 

 represent requirements that are really ex- 

 cessive. The possibility of measuring the 

 work of institutions even far remote from 

 the centers of population and culture, will 

 give needed encouragement to groups of 

 devoted teachers who are worthy of such 

 encouragement. Small and isolated colleges 

 wiU gain new hope of winning and holding 

 each a local constituency, and so of making 

 strong local centers of science and cultiva- 

 tion, when their claims to academic compe- 

 tence can be fairly tested and approved. 



There are two further advantages which 

 call for special emphasis, one of them ma- 

 terial and the other in the nature of senti- 

 ment. Where common standairds are 

 widely imderstood and applied, the gradu- 

 ate of a given institution will find no 

 difficulty, even in remote parts of the land, 

 in securing recognition for his scholastic 

 credentials. This is of especial importance 

 when those credentials have to do with his 

 occupation in life, as is the case with 

 teachers, physicians, and those engaged in 

 other iDrofessional pursuits. Even where 

 the practise of the profession is guarded by 



regular examinations, a professional di- 

 ploma is important, as establishing the 

 holder's prima facie claim to recognition. 

 It is desirable, too, that our diplomas and 

 professional certificates may become so 

 clear in their meaning and so reliable as 

 regards the conditions on which they are 

 issued, that they may safely take the place 

 of professional examinations, or at least of 

 the more elementary and vexatious portions 

 of such examinations. The lack of comity 

 as between the several states with regard 

 to the practise of the professions is one of 

 the extremely unsatisfactory conditions 

 affecting our professional life at the present 

 time. We can not accept this condition as 

 necessary. It can undoubtedly be reme- 

 died. But the remedy lies in making the 

 meaning of our academic and professional 

 credentials at least an ascertainable datum. 

 Here is a consideration, having serious re- 

 lation to our material needs, which strongly 

 accentuates the movement we are reviewing. 

 Then the sentimental consideration. Our 

 state pride and our institutional loyalty are 

 both of them factors in our real and effect- 

 ive life. But our state pride suffers when 

 we find the schools of our state disparaged 

 or even discredited by comparison with 

 those of other states ; and our loyalty to our 

 own institution, even if it be of no higher 

 grade than that which goes by the name 

 of " college spirit," insists that our college 

 shall not fall below the grade of the best 

 colleges in the land. The comparison is 

 inevitably made with what is believed to 

 be the best in other parts of our common 

 country. A national standard is recog- 

 nized even when it can not be clearly set 

 forth. And the state or the institution 

 which undertakes to grade its own educa- 

 tional performance without reference to 

 that national standard soon suffers embar- 

 rassment and eventually suffers a positive 

 disadvantage and loss, both for itself and 

 for its graduates. 



