December 10, 1009] 



SCIENCE 



847 



for all academic failures, if, in short, he he- 

 longed to the department in which he took his 

 major subject and felt himself under the 

 supervision of one officially and personally 

 important to him, he could scarcely maintain 

 an attitude of irresponsibility toward aca- 

 demic work. 



The making the department the unit of 

 organization would serve not only to bring 

 into more vital relationship the student and 

 teaching force ; it could also be made a strong 

 agency in the bringing together students of 

 like interests. It would be a simple matter to 

 have students belonging to the same depart- 

 ment take their required work in other de- 

 partments in the same divisions. That is, 

 members of the zoological department would 

 recite together in required freshman English 

 classes, in required sophomore mathematics, 

 and so on. For elective courses such an ar- 

 rangement would be difficult to manage and 

 undesirable. The major course and the re- 

 quired courses would sufficiently bring to- 

 gether the members of one department, and 

 the elective courses should give an opportu- 

 nity for them to become acquainted with the 

 members of the other departments of the col- 

 lege. 



It would be at the discretion of the dean of 

 each department to do as much as he wished 

 toward bringing about inter-class sociability 

 within his department through receptions and 

 lectures for all its members. But even should 

 he do nothing, the social integrity of the de- 

 partment could be depended on. As has al- 

 ready been shown, the acquaintance of the 

 members of each class with each other would 

 result from the mechanical fact of common 

 class divisions for recitations. Departmental 

 publications, " shop " clubs, and so on, would 

 bring the members of the four classes together. 

 Departmental pride would come into being, 

 and the older men in the department would 

 take a friendly interest in the new recruits. 

 Having common academic interests and com- 

 mon friends, members of one department 

 would gravitate towards common lodgings. 

 Under such circumstances esprit de corps 

 would promote good fellowship within de- 



partments, and wholesome rivalry between 

 them. 



This plan of mobilizing the forces for cul- 

 ture in our colleges through the academic de- 

 partments is open to the criticism that it wiU 

 result in early, and so mistaken specialization 

 and make students narrow. It is also open to 

 the objection that it will greatly increase the 

 burden of the head of the department. 



Safe-guards are provided against extreme 

 specialization and consequent narrowness in 

 that a diversity of work and contact between 

 the members of the several departments, are 

 provided for. Even slight contact between 

 students of centralized and developed interest 

 would be more fruitful of reciprocal interest 

 in the personality and in the work of those 

 concerned, than is the helter-skelter mingling 

 of students too neutral, because of diffused 

 interests, to be felt. 



Escape from mistaken specialization would 

 of course be possible through transfer from 

 one department to another. There would, 

 however, if the departments were what they 

 should be, be comparatively few of such cases. 

 It is true that students are unable to tell at 

 the beginning of the freshman year for what 

 work they are best fitted ; but this is also true 

 for many now at the close of the senior year. 

 In fact it yearly becomes more difficult for me 

 to doubt that " predestination," so far as work 

 is concerned is largely a matter of accident. 

 I once put to Edison the question, " Had 

 your interest chanced to be directed along 

 some other line, do you think you would have 

 succeeded so well?" His reply was, " Hard to 

 say — I should have made an eighteen-hour-a- 

 day try at it, anyway." And for most of us 

 it is the " eighteen-hour-a-day try " that 

 counts more than inherent aptitude. The 

 marked success of workmen engaged entirely 

 without selection, brought William Morris to 

 this conclusion in a field in which natural 

 ability is supposed to be most indispensable. 

 With the rank and file of college students, as 

 with the rest of mankind, want of interest is, 

 in general, due to want of understanding. 

 With the vitalization of academic work that 

 the proposed plan seeks to effect, no student 



