292 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 295. 



tion to a probable explanation of the imag- 

 inary change. 



The old education, which is reputed to 

 have had such beneiicent results, was a 

 magnificent training ; but it must never be 

 forgotten that it was an example of extreme 

 specialization. A narrow round of subjects 

 was continually studied and all that can be 

 claimed for specialization appeared in the 

 result. Like all specialization, however, 

 its effective application depended upon the 

 mental aptitude of the student. As these 

 aptitudes are quite varied, the old special- 

 ized education selected from the mass the 

 few to whom it was adapted, and these be- 

 came really educated and dominated the 

 university atmosphere, their more numer- 

 ous fellows falling out unnoticed in the un- 

 equal race. And so the flavor which be- 

 longs to this special kind of education 

 became the universal flavor of the educated. 



"When new subjects appeared, and courses 

 began to be multiplied, other students be- 

 gan to be selected fi-om the mass and joined 

 the society of the educated, and the old 

 flavor ceased to be one peculiar to educa- 

 tion in general. 



The change, therefore, is simply that more 

 students than formerly are reaching what 

 may be called an education, and the differ- 

 ence is one of proportion, not of actual 

 number. Opportunity for the old educa- 

 tion is still with us, and those who are 

 adapted still take advantage of it, and their 

 number is greater than ever before. But 

 they are compelled to acknowledge as 

 brothers in the fraternity of the educated a 

 host who had been excluded before through 

 lack of opportunity. There is no longer an 

 aristocracy in education, and the democracy 

 of to-day demands that all who are trained, 

 by whatever method, shall strike hands as 

 brothers and equals. 



In conclusion, may I be permitted to say 

 that the full significance of scientific train- 

 ing will appear only when it begins in some 



form in the primarj' schools and touches 

 the student at every stage of progress. Ap- 

 pealing as it does to the most natural ten- 

 dencies of childhood, its greeting at the 

 threshold of school experience is that of the 

 one familiar friend, whose presence relates 

 the young to things which they can see and 

 handle, and saves them from that desola- 

 tion of spirit and mental warping which 

 comes from exclusive contact with the con- 

 ventional and the intangible. The univer- 

 sity owes a great service to the schools in 

 this particular, and the tentacles of its in- 

 fluence must constantly be reaching deli- 

 cately and inquiringly into school instruc- 

 tion. What the schools can do or cannot 

 do, what they should do or should not do, 

 are questions which cannot be answered in 

 ex cathedra fashion. The wilful ignorance of 

 many university instructors in reference to 

 the work of schools upon which they depend 

 is amazing. The university as a whole rec- 

 ognizes and encourages the intimate rela- 

 tionship, but only an instructor here and 

 there interests himself in discovering the 

 real situation. The result of this appears 

 usually in requirements for admission, 

 which are often adapted to some theoretical 

 university position rather than to the pos- 

 sibilities of the modern American high 

 school. In the debates upon these admis- 

 sion requirements a large faculty is apt to 

 be divided, and the line of division usually 

 separates those who know the schools from 

 those who do not. If the latter be in the 

 majority, the university is at once eifect- 

 ively handicapped. There is much talk of 

 forcing schools to university standards, but 

 this forcing is necessarily artificial and 

 temporary if it runs counter to the in- 

 evitable tendencies which one who knows 

 recognizes in the American school sys- 

 tem. This system is more impregnable 

 than the universities, for it is more exten- 

 sive and better adapted to the peculiar con- 

 ditions of American civilization. It is only 



