September 14, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



333 



special encouragement to do so. We do all 

 we can to encourage the student, both by 

 means of letters and by having our agents 

 call on them. But there are many other 

 influences that tend to discourage a stu- 

 dent and to induce him to drop his course. 

 Many students are obliged to stop studying 

 on account of being forced to work very 

 long hours and not having the time. Other 

 students have an idea at the time they 

 enrol that it will be a comparatively easy 

 matter to study the course, and they be- 

 come discouraged when they find they must 

 work hard in order to understand the sub- 

 ject. Such students either do not begin 

 to study, or else they cease studying almost 

 as soon as they enrol. 



A large proportion of our students are 

 not only ignorant of the subject studied, 

 but are also ignorant of how to study, that 

 is, they have formed no habit of this kind, 

 and it is necessary for us to teach them 

 how to study, as well as the subject they 

 do study. A large number have enrolled 

 simply for the purpose of securing the text- 

 books, as these are not for sale and can be 

 obtained in no other way. Some enrol 

 because their friends are enrolled. At the 

 same time, when they receive their text- 

 books and look them over, they become dis- 

 couraged and never make any attempt to 

 study. Some students may start in and 

 work very well during the winter months 

 and early spring, but during the summer 

 months they stop for various reasons, per- 

 haps temporarily; but later, when the 

 weather has become cool again they have 

 laid aside their enthusiasm and do not re- 

 sume, or, if they do, the attempt is spas- 

 modic, and the studies are soon abandoned. 



We have absolutely no way of compel- 

 ling a student to study. We can not 

 threaten him with suspension or expulsion. 

 We have no inducement that we can offer 

 him beyond prizes, and these do not seem 



to produce the desired effect; and the stu- 

 dent himself frequently has direct encour- 

 agement to give up his studies, by reason 

 of adverse criticism of his relatives and 

 friends. 



A considerable number of students may 

 cease studying for a long time — several 

 years in fact— and then begin again, and 

 go on with their courses. Quite a number 

 of students have objected to doing the work 

 we require of them, saying they did not 

 have the time, and stopped sending work 

 on this account. We know of one student 

 who finished all the work in our mechanical 

 course (which we usually estimate will re- 

 quire about three years to complete), with 

 the exception of one of the papers on 

 machine design. This student did good 

 work, and received very high marks. At 

 the same time, he would not complete the 

 subject of machine design, because, he said, 

 he did not have time to make the drawings 

 that we required in connection with these 

 papers. His course was of great benefit 

 to him, and when we heard from him last 

 he was superintendent of a large power 

 plant, and was receiving a very good sal- 

 ary. On account, however, of his not hav- 

 ing conformed to our requirements, we 

 were unable to give him a diploma, al- 

 though he had actually completed the 

 entire work of the course with the excep- 

 tion of this one paper. This is by no 

 means an isolated case, but it is one that 

 has occurred with considerable frequency. 

 In some cases, a student will not complete 

 a course for the reason that it does not 

 contain, in his opinion, as much on certain 

 subjects as he thinks he should receive, and 

 he does not care to study the course for the 

 educational features only. 



When we began to teach we did not 

 know what the result of the experiment 

 would be; and, furthermore, we did not 

 have the demand for such a wide range of 



