July 7, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



siderable variations of interest in the educa- 

 tional world that have sometimes forced the 

 question as to the present desire for these great 

 helps to higher scholarship. But Bryn Mawr 

 has been steadfast; never has it j'ielded an inch 

 of its purpose to ofEer women the best that can 

 be had. I suggest again the generosity of her 

 welcome to these scholarships of the graduates 

 of other colleges and universities. All over our 

 land there are women graduates of other insti- 

 tutions who owe to this one the encouragement 

 and possibility of their higher attainments. 

 Well may they rise up to-day and call her 

 blessed!" 



The president and faculty of Bryn Mawr 

 have worked out with great care and thought 

 a system of liberal training which in its totality 

 as well as in certain special features consti- 

 tutes a distinct contribution to higher educa- 

 tion and is often referred to as the Bryn Mawr 

 type. The essential features are these : a fairly 

 uniform and sound foundation on which to 

 build the college courses secured by the entrance 

 examination in fixed subjects, certificates not 

 being accepted; required courses of study, occu- 

 pying half of the student's time, in language, 

 letters, philosophy and science, which furnish 

 the essential basis of liberal culture; freedom 

 of choice of other subjects in accordance with 

 the group system, permitting seventy-one com- 

 binations of courses; unrestricted elective 

 courses for one sixth of the work, and before 

 graduation evidence by examination of a read- 

 ing knowledge of French and German (the 

 latter language temporarily replaced during 

 the war by Italian or Spanish). 



The group system, so designated for the fu'st 

 time by Miss Thomas, the central feature of 

 this plan, which in recent years has widely re- 

 placed the foi-mer Harvard system of unre- 

 stricted electives, was borrowed in 1885 from 

 the Johns Hopkins University 'by Bryn Mawr, 

 which, in amplifying and adapting it to the 

 four years' undergraduate college course, has 

 had an important share in its development and 

 spread. This system, while securing on the one 

 hand the definiteness of purpose of the tradi- 

 tional rigid curriculum and on the other the 

 adaptation to the students intere^s and needs 

 claimed for the free electives, is more than a 



compromise between these two rival systems, 

 for it has the very real advantage not inherent 

 in either of prolonged thorough training in 

 some one branch of knowledge or group of 

 kindred subjects which appeals to the indi- 

 vidual's interest and aptitudes or is prepara- 

 tory to future professional study, and this with- 

 out too early over-specialization. 



As regards certain modern, controversial ten- 

 dencies in college education Bryn Mawr has 

 taken a conservative, although by no means 

 narrow position, and President Thomas has de- 

 fended this attitude and participated in the 

 lively discussions with all of her accustomed 

 vigor, clearness of statement and intensity of 

 conviction. 



Bryn Mawr still stands for four years' study 

 of Latin as an obligatory requirement for en- 

 trance and for one year's required study of 

 either Latin or Greek in college. Shocking as 

 it may appear to some of our educational 

 refonners, she continues to emphasize the dis- 

 ciplinary and cultural value of the older, tra- 

 ditional subjects — the ancient classics, mathe- 

 matics, philosophy and history — and the stu- 

 dents follow suit in their electives. 



That this zealous interest in the older human- 

 ities is compatible with the most open hospi- 

 tality for those modern subjects of study which 

 are considered to have legitimate place in a 

 scheme of liberal education is demonstrated by 

 the ample provision here made for the study 

 of the natural and physical sciences, psychol- 

 ogy, modern languages, English language and 

 literature, which is a particularly strong de- 

 partment, long inspired by the teaching of 

 President Thomas herself, the economic, polit- 

 ical and social sciences, comparative philology, 

 Semitic languages and literature, classical 

 archeology, his-tory of art, theoretical music, 

 in a form somewhat reminiscent of the position 

 of this subject in the medieval quadrivium, and 

 still other branches of learning. 



Even those who may prefer other types of 

 college courses and methods of study will, I 

 think, concede that Bryn Mawr's curricula and 

 standards embody a noble conception of liberal 

 culture and knowledge — a true Studium G«ne- 

 rale — retentive of what is good in the older 

 and receptive to what is best in the newer 



