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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 780 



dormitory, can not be counted on to offset the 

 evils of segregation. The Edward Bowens and 

 John Henry Newmans, natural leaders of 

 youth, are rare in the educational world, and 

 too often the desire to influence young people 

 and the power to do so are not coexistent. 

 Many of the instructors by whom students de- 

 sire to be influenced, whose influence they 

 would not resist, wish after class hours are 

 over to live a life apart from undergraduates. 

 Those who, prompted by the missionary spirit 

 or the need of the remuneration offered for 

 this service, accept such positions, are often 

 merely tolerated, and prove a subduing influ- 

 ence, perhaps, but seldom a vitalizing one. 

 Even where intelligence and good will are 

 forthcoming, divergence of interests makes it 

 difficult for an instructor to discuss in a stim- 

 ulating manner a question brought from the 

 class-room by an interested student. Occu- 

 pied in his special field, he remembers dimly 

 the political economy, the literature and his- 

 tory, of his college days. Conclusions previ- 

 ously reached may be carefully registered in his 

 brain and these he can pronounce in the dog- 

 matic manner most fatal to discussion; but 

 the facts which led him to his conclusion, and 

 through which the student must be led to it 

 if he is to reach it at all, he has long for- 

 gotten. He can not recall the cogent reason- 

 ing he employed to convert his classmates to 

 bimetalism when he cast his first vote ; he does 

 not remember why he thought Maggie Tul- 

 ■ liver nobler than Tom, or on what grounds 

 Jefferson's loyalty to the Colonial Army could 

 be shown to be no violation of his duty as 

 governor of Virginia. 



To criticize with confidence an offered so- 

 lution is a much simpler matter than to offer 

 a solution not open to criticism, but I believe 

 the natural and right way to insure solidarity 

 for large groups of students is through our 

 academic departments rather than through 

 their dormitory life. The only solidarity that 

 is worth working for is one that touches the 

 social life of the students, to be sure, but one 

 that touches it through academic interests — 

 an indigenous, academic solidarity that grows 

 out of the nature of the college and is not in- 



dependent of it and merely the result of com- 

 mon youth and humanity and propinquity. 

 In the first place, are modifications of the 

 elective system that are responsible for the 

 intellectual disintegration, and so partly for 

 the social, possible? 



If we were to take practical measures toward 

 developing the individual student " in his 

 strong and in his weak points," toward train- 

 ing him to know " a little of everything and 

 something well," we should probably impose 

 some restrictions on the election of courses. 

 We should require, perhaps, the selection of a 

 major subject to be studied through the four 

 college years; we should require in addition 

 the election of such subjects as would insure 

 breadth and diversity of knowledge or train 

 the various faculties of the student. A course 

 in English might be required of all freshmen, 

 a science of all sophomores, an introductory 

 course in philosophy of all juniors. Many of 

 our colleges have, in fact, already established 

 just such requirements. This is one step 

 toward the desired end, in that it provides for 

 all members of the class, year after year, a 

 common academic interest and background of 

 knowledge, and constantly brings together 

 large groups of members of that class for lec- 

 tures and examinations. 



Such an arrangement has in it, moreover, 

 opportunities, as yet, so far as I know, unex- 

 ploited, for what I may call departmental con- 

 solidation. Presupposing the existence of 

 this regulated elective system, every student 

 in college must be closely identified with some 

 one department. During his four years' work 

 in the department in which he has chosen his 

 " major," he must come to know and to be 

 known by the head of the department. Thus, 

 every student would come in contact with one 

 of the first-rate members of the college faculty, 

 and their intercourse would be along lines of 

 real interest to them both, where each would 

 be at his best. H, further, the student were 

 required to consult the head or dean of this 

 department with reference to the election of 

 other courses, and if this head or dean were 

 the one to whom his grades in other courses 

 were reported and to whom he must account 



