460 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 771 



THE COLLEGE AS A PRE-PROFESSIONAL SCHOOL 



So much for the general aim of the in- 

 struction. As regards the curriculum, 

 would it not be well to hark back to the 

 plan of the old college, with suitable modi- 

 fications 1 The college can no longer fur- 

 nish complete professional training, but it 

 can do pre-professional work. It can do 

 work of professional quality, so far as it 

 goes. Let us exclude from the college rig- 

 idity all those whose aims are so indefinite 

 that they are not willing to prepare for 

 some profession. And I include banking, 

 insurance and other lines of business 

 amongst the professions, for, in spite of 

 isolated opinions to the contrary, the col- 

 lege can furnish training in the sciences 

 fundamental to business. Let the work be 

 scholarly, exact and thorough. Let the 

 chemistry and physics be a suitable foun- 

 dation for further work in the same sub- 

 jects, or for application in physiology and 

 other more distinctly professional studies. 

 Let the political economy prepare for more 

 strictly professional courses in finance and 

 transportation. If every student is en- 

 gaged in one of these pre-professional cur- 

 ricula, shall we not be able in a large meas- 

 ure to restore the purposefulness of the old 

 colleges? True, we can never reintroduce 

 the regulations and restrictions which 

 guided the life and moulded the character 

 of the early undergraduate. But, if we 

 require every student in college to select 

 some one curriculum, and exact of him 

 scholarly work in every study, shall we not 

 so occupy his attention, that waste of time 

 will be reduced to a minimum, and social 

 occupations will be relegated to the sub- 

 ordinate position which alone they are en- 

 titled to occupy? 



To avoid possible misunderstanding, let 

 me add that by pre-professional curricula 

 I do not mean narrowly speeialistie curric- 

 ula. With six or eight years available for 



the total pre-professional and professional 

 training, there should be ample room for 

 breadth as well as for intensity. What I 

 mean is that the present more or less com- 

 plete waste of the first part of the total 

 course, which is so liable at present to 

 occur, should be rendered impossible. 



TWO CHANGES IN THE PRESENT SITUATION 

 REQUIRED 



If the American college is to be re- 

 habilitated along these lines, namely, those 

 of teaching problem-solving and giving 

 work of professional standard, or along 

 any similar lines, two important improve- 

 ments in the present situation are required. 

 To give in all subjects the kind of instruc- 

 tion indicated will require skilful teachers, 

 and it is generally admitted that the teach- 

 ing of undergraduates is at present less 

 satisfactory than is that of the pupils in 

 the grades and high school on the one hand, 

 or of the students in the graduate on the 

 other. The second need is that of more effi- 

 cient methods of teaching, particularly in 

 non-linguistic subjects. 



TRAINING IN THE ART OF TEACHING NEEDED 



The various causes of poor instruction 

 in our college classes have been discussed 

 at length by Flexner and Birdseye. I wish 

 to speak of only one out of the whole num- 

 ber. When we desire the services of a 

 physician we seek a man who has been 

 trained in the practise of medicine. And 

 when we employ a lawyer we entrust our 

 business to one who has had training in the 

 practise of law, and not to one who has a 

 merely theoretical knowledge of the sub- 

 ject. Yet when we set out to find a college 

 teacher, we enquire for a doctor of philos- 

 ophy. The doctor of philosophy is a per- 

 son who has devoted several years mainly 

 to the study of one subject and often of a 

 small corner of one subject. He is a per- 



