Decembeb 28, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



845 



"What did you study Latin for?" was 

 my illogical but American response. 



"Why, I am a bachelor of arts!" was 

 his prompt reply, with the air of one who 

 had given a conclusive answer. 



' ' Perhaps these boys will be bachelors of 

 arts by and by," I added cheerfully. 



"Then, what in the world are they in a 

 manual training school for ? " he exclaimed, 

 with almost a sneer at my evident lack of 

 acquaintance with the etiquette of educa- 

 tional values. 



I tried to explain my theory of an all- 

 round education— and my practise of 'put- 

 ting the v/hole boy to schoor — but he would 

 not be convinced. He could not see the 

 propriety of mixing utility and tool dex- 

 terity with culture. Our visitors are not 

 all Englishmen; yet I venture the estimate 

 that fully one half of the bachelors of arts 

 who look through our study rooms and our 

 work rooms have about the same prejudice 

 as the Englishman had, though they do not 

 so openly express it. 



THE NEV^ EDUCATION. 



The evolution of the fully fledged tech- 

 nical school, or the technical department of 

 the university, has taken place during the 

 last half century, and yet its broad stimu- 

 lating, attractive features have a following 

 which bids fair to double the attendance of 

 college and university students. This does 

 not mean that letters and polite learning 

 are being neglected, but that a new con- 

 stituency is eager for the new education. 

 This new education, though it recognizes 

 at all points a high order of usefulness, and 

 contains little that is conventional, is only 

 remotely professional. If ever its curric- 

 ulum becomes narrow, it is quickly con- 

 demned by the best representatives of an 

 education which combines utility with cul- 

 ture. No longer can the 'Levites of cul- 

 ture,' as Huxley calls them, claim to mon- 

 opolize liberal education. The new educa- 



tion can be as liberal as the old, and both 

 can be narrow. Fortunately, they flourish 

 side by side and the future shall choose the 

 excellencies of each. An adequate science 

 of twentieth-century education will evalu- 

 ate the characteristics of each, and bring 

 the wisdom of the past, not its foolishness, 

 to nourish the wisdom of the future. 



In conclusion, let us not fear to lay the 

 foundations of the science of education 

 broad enough to carry and to advance our 

 twentieth-century civilization. Let us not 

 fear to strike out for ourselves when the 

 age presents new demands. Progress is 

 essential to life, as Browning says: 



What comes to perfection perishes. 



I see nowhere, in either ancient or mod- 

 ern times a people whose youth have been 

 trained as our Americans should be trained. 

 Neither Greece nor Rome with their pin- 

 nacles of culture resting on the barbarous 

 foundation of human slavery, nor the 

 blooded aristocracies of modern times, can 

 teach us how to educate, train and adorn 

 an American citizen. We must not expect 

 all our students to rule, nor yet all to be 

 ruled ; to direct, nor yet to be directed ; to 

 employ, nor to be employed. They must 

 be capable of all these things. No narrow, 

 selflsh aim, no prejudice of caste, no false 

 claim of high culture which scorns service, 

 must mislead the growing, expanding 

 minds. Give them a generous, symmet- 

 rical training; open wide the avenues to 

 usefulness, to happiness, to poAver; and 

 this age of scientific progress and material 

 wealth shall be also an age of high intel- 

 lectual and social achievement. 



Calvin M. Woodward. 



Washington University. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

 The Nervous System of Vertelrates. By J. 

 B. Johnston, Professor of Zoology in West 

 Virginia University. Pp. xx-f 3Y0; 180 

 figures. Philadelphia, P. Blakiston's kSon 

 and Company. 1906. 



