October 8, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



459 



the bedside of the patient and, judging 

 from the statements of numerous experts, 

 the college appears to be the seat of a most 

 violent inflammation. What is to be done 

 with the victim of this appalling disease? 

 Analogy suggests that the offending 

 organ might be cut off. But the American 

 college, not being attached to anything, can 

 not be removed. We might resolve to abol- 

 ish the American college, but the American 

 colleges would remain. And perhaps, after 

 all, there is a place for the American col- 

 lege. The professional schools are rapidly 

 adding a certain amount of college work 

 to their admission requirements. It is true 

 that some high schools have added two 

 years to their curriculum, but the gap be- 

 tween the high school and the professional 

 school is widening faster than it can be 

 filled by the development of the secondary 

 institutions. Here is still ample room for 

 the American college. 



THE COLLEGE A PLACE FOR CULTURE 



We must regard as purely futile the sug- 

 gestion that the college should be turned 

 into a place for culture, if by this term is 

 to be understood something distinct from 

 scholarship. Flexner- quotes with approval 

 the statement of Professor Mann, in which, 

 after indicating the rigid nature of the 

 work of technical students, he says: 



For the non-technical or general student, col- 

 lege laboratory work is neither essential nor de- 

 sirable; the emphasis in this case should be laid 

 upon the services of science in developing and 

 maintaining intellectual, social and economic life. 



An education composed entirely of this 

 sort of work will not appeal strongly to 

 chemists. Are not deep knowledge and 

 rigid training in science required before 

 the services of science in developing intel- 

 lectual, social and economic life, can be 

 properly appreciated? Is the giving of a 



•Science, X. S., XXIX., p. 3C6. 



culture course of this description not an at- 

 tempt to produce fruit without the assist- 

 ance of organs of nutrition and growth? 

 Is a course which sets out with the definite 

 aim of conferring culture, and nothing 

 else, ever anything but a "soft snap"? 

 Stimulating it may be, if given by an ex- 

 ceptional personality, but a good deal like 

 the lemon phosphate and the ice cream 

 soda, temporary in its effects. It pleases 

 our palate for the moment and a week later 

 is not even so much as a pleasing memory. 

 I wonder if culture is not rather to be 

 sought as a by-product— a. by-product of 

 cultured parentage and sound education — 

 rather than as an end in itself? 



THE COLLEGE FOR TEACHING PROBLEM-SOLV- 

 ING 



What important ends of subsequent life 

 can the college course appropriately serve? 

 Is not the chief exercise in every profession, 

 and in all lines of business, that of solving 

 problems?^ Shall we not then so devise 

 our methods of instruction that the stu- 

 dent may gain experience in the exercise of 

 this most important function. Shall we not 

 teach him to suspend his judgment, instead 

 of acting upon the first idea that comes 

 into his head? Shall we not train him to 

 search for facts, and to realize when essen- 

 tial facts are still lacking? Shall we not 

 exercise him in correct reasoning from the 

 facts when they have been secured ? Shall 

 we not, finally, show him the necessity for 

 testing his conclusions by careful compari- 

 son with the facts and show him how to do 

 this? This is no light program. Certainly 

 no subject has gained a right to admission 

 to the college course until it has demon- 

 strated its capacity for being taught in 

 this fashion. 



' See Professor A. A. Noyes's recent address, 

 '• A Talk on Teaching." 



