Mat 14, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



763 



It is of interest to compare this vast and 

 increasing throng of students to a power- 

 ful stream which, refusing longer to be 

 confined within narrow, artificial banks, 

 has burst through and found its own nat- 

 ural channels. "What these have been can 

 be seen from the foregoing table (II.), 

 comparing the German student attendance 

 in the various channels of work for the 

 years 1869 and 1905. 



The following table (III.), comparing 

 American and German attendance, also 

 throws light upon this phase of our sub- 

 ject. 



is more nearly commensurate. Another 

 item not indicated here is the much larger 

 proportion of women students in the 

 United States. However, this broad sub- 

 ject of comparison can only be touched 

 upon and left with the statement that 

 American standards are rapidly improv- 

 ing, more rapidly than they are aware who 

 have not been giving attention to the sub- 

 ject. 



In the light of these charts and figures 

 is it too much to claim that they betoken 

 a rapid breaking down of old forms of 

 caste, class and privilege — a great social 



TABtE TTT 



Comparison of Attendance of Various Courses in Qermamy and the United States 1905-6 



Data from Aseherson, Lexis, Minerva and Report of U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1906. 



In making this comparison too definite 

 conclusions must not be drawn, as the 

 writer is well aware of the differences in 

 standards and curricula. Thus it is prob- 

 able that quite one half of our collegiate 

 students are doing work of German gym- 

 nasial grade. In the technical and pro- 

 fessional fields it is possible that the work 



° Not segregated in German data. In United 

 States, 900 Arch., 9,300 C. E. and 2,700 Gen'l Eng. 



^ Computed on basis of returns for 86.5 per cent, 

 of total. See Report U. S. Commissioner of Edu- 

 cation, 1906, p. 446. 



"' In 1902 there were 1,995 Arch, and 2,852 C. E. 

 On a proportionate division this gives in 1905-6, 

 2,220 Arch, and 3,223 C. E. 



upheaval signaling the imminence of a 

 new social order? Can no connection be 

 traced between this increasing stream of 

 trained young men and women taking up 

 their duties of citizenship, and the great 

 wave of awakening to a higher sense of 

 social obligation and civic righteousness 

 now rising in our country? 



It is folly to dream of cheeking this 

 mighty stream or of turning it back into 

 the banks of a narrow scholasticism. Our 

 problem is to provide adequate and suit- 

 able channels for it. Conditions are 

 rapidly changing and we, as educators, 

 must face the facts as they are. 



