October 25, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



537 



acter and needs of the particular student. 



The case of the individual student 

 should be referred and the power to break 

 rules and precedents should be given to 

 those who by training in educational meth- 

 ods and experience with students know the 

 individual case and what may safely be 

 done. These are essentially the paid, full- 

 time instructors, with such few others, 

 perhaps, as have demonstrated that they 

 are pedagogues as well as practitioners. 

 The full-time instructors are educators, 

 not physicians. They are paid to do work 

 of the kind we are considering as part of 

 their "teaching." They can be called to- 

 gether frequently. 



In the school that I represent the paid 

 teachers (with the addition of four heads 

 of clinical departments) constitute the 

 council. All paid teachers except student 

 assistants are included. This council has 

 full power to settle all questions relative 

 to students. The remainder of this paper 

 will be chiefly concerned with the methods 

 by which the council disposes of migrating 

 students. 



In presenting the work of our Council I 

 would particularly disclaim a new discov- 

 ery in education. Somewhat similar meth- 

 ods are used elsewhere. Nor would I claim 

 that our organization in its exact form 

 should be generally adopted. Each school 

 must work out that form of government 

 which best suits its environment. I use 

 my illustrations from my own experience 

 not because they are noteworthy or unique, 

 but because they constitute my store of 

 available facts. 



Taking up now the specific topic of dis- 

 cussion, migrating students may be classi- 

 fied as follows: 



1. Good students who come from 

 "good" schools. 



2. Poor and doubtful students who 

 eome from "good" schools. 



3. Students who come from "poor" 

 schools. 



(By "good" school, I add parenthetic- 

 ally, is meant a school which one considers 

 as good as or better than the particular 

 school one individually happens to repre- 

 sent! I consider Western Reserve a good 

 school. My friend Waite considers St. 

 Louis University a poor school. I pass on 

 the compliment by considering certain 

 nameless institutions poor schools. The 

 point is that in this matter of migrating 

 students the American Medical Associa- 

 tion classification is of little value.) 



Eeferring to my first class of migrating 

 students, it is a lamentable fact that few 

 good students come from good schools. 

 The migration of students for the sake of 

 coming under different environment, vary- 

 ing methods and special professors, so com- 

 mon in German universities, is almost un- 

 known in America. This type of migra- 

 tion has always been discouraged by the 

 colleges, and the fixed curricula have not 

 facilitated it. 



A few good students change colleges for 

 reasons unconnected with education. A 

 few change on account of legitimate per- 

 sonal grievances. (I can not agree with 

 Dr. Means, who states that he has never 

 known such a case. On the whole, how- 

 ever, we will all agree that tales of per- 

 sonal grievance are to be taken in homeo- 

 pathic doses, with plenty of water.) What- 

 ever be their reason for changing, provided 

 it is honorable, the good students who 

 eome from good schools should be accepted 

 on the basis of equivalence of discipline, 

 rather than exact equality of subject mat- 

 ter. If the student, let us say, has had 600 

 hours of anatomy and 500 hours of physiol- 

 ogy, whereas your curriculum requires 

 1,000 hours of anatomy (heaven save you !), 

 and only 300 hours of physiology (heaven 

 save you again !) , it is neither necessary nor 



