Apeil 15, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



595 



The median ages of graduation for the middle 

 60 per cent, of the colleges are included within 

 the limits, 22 years and 6 months, 22 years and 

 9 months. For women the median age is 22 years 

 and 8 months, the middle 50 per cent, falling 

 between the limits 22 years and 23 years and 3 

 months. 



The economic status of college students may be 

 roughly indicated as follows: 19 per cent, have 

 fathers who are engaged in professional work; 

 15 per cent, have fathers who own farms worth 

 more than $5,000; 7 per cent, have fathers who 

 own smaller farms; 20 per cent, have fathers 

 engaged in trade or commerce, making more than 

 $2,000 a year; 15 per cent, have fathers who make 

 less than $2,000 a year in trade or commerce; 

 6 per cent, have fathers who are skilled laborers; 

 3 per cent, have fathers who are unskilled laborers, 

 and the fathers of 15 per cent, of the students 

 are dead. 



Further light upon the economic status of stu- 

 dents is shown by the fact that 25 per cent, of 

 the student body engage in gainful employment 

 for from four to twenty-four hours or more, per 

 week, while in college. 



Mr. Clarence F. Birdseye, editor of the new 

 journal. The American College, and director of 

 the Higher Education Board, spoke on the pur- 

 poses of that association. Mr. Birdseye explained 

 how the life of the student is lived upon three 

 distinct planes; the statutory or the govern- 

 mental plane, wherein the written law defines, 

 commands or forbids certain rights, duties and 

 acts; the contract or community plane wherein 

 contracts, more or less formal, govern his rela- 

 tions with his fellows; and lastly, the home plane, 

 wherein the parent enforces his commands under 

 quite a different law from that of the other 

 planes. The college used to pay considerable at- 

 tention to the development of students on the 

 home and the community planes, but now has 

 centered all its efforts on the statutory or govern- 

 mental plane. The new college and new style of 

 learning required constantly more money for new 

 buildings and a larger faculty. It gradually 

 abandoned its home functions and centered its 

 attention on the curriculum with a corresponding 

 loss of its power to build up strong character. 

 The college also offers no opportunity for recog- 

 nizing unusual power or successful work by in- 

 structors. The Higher Education Association be- 

 lieves that the colleges need standardizing of 

 efficiency and that this must come through radical 

 changes in the college administration. 



Extracts were read from the charter of the 

 association to show how this would be done. The 

 paper will be printed in full in Science. 



Professor Wm. G. Hale, professor of Latin at 

 the University of Chicago, presented a paper on 

 " Problems in Grammatical Terminology." 



The third session of the section was devoted 

 to the report of the committee on the distribution 

 of students in college courses. 



Professor E. L. Thorndike, as chairman of the 

 committee appointed to collect facts concerning 

 (1) the practise of American colleges with respect 

 to the number of students taught in one group 

 by one instructor, and concerning (2) the studies 

 actually taken by individual students to fulfill 

 the requirements for the bachelor degree, pre- 

 sented the following data: (a) a list of the col- 

 leges which report in print more or less adequately 

 the provision for teaching each course oifered, and 

 the number of students enrolled in it; (6) a 

 table of frequencies of classes of different sizes 

 in some twenty institutions, a class being defined 

 as a group dependent on one person for their 

 instruction in the subject; (e) a statement of the 

 variation amongst institutions in the size of class 

 in certain instructive cases, such as the first 

 course in history, the first course in psychology, 

 the first and second courses in French and 

 German; (d) the per cent, of the total degree 

 requirement given by each student to each subject 

 in the case of some five hundred students from 

 sixteen institutions; (e) measurements for the 

 frequency of specialization in each institution; 

 if) measurements of the frequency of super- 

 ficiality or scattering in each institution. 



The following resolutions were presented by the 

 committee and adopted: 



Resolved, That samples of the facts concerning 

 the number of students taught by one instructor 

 be sent to the colleges and universities on the list 

 of the United States Bureau of Education. 



Resolved, That those in charge of collegiate 

 instruction in each of these institutions be re- 

 quested to report in print or to this committee 

 any facts concerning the relation of the size of 

 class to efficiency in teaching, with special refer- 

 ence to the following questions: 



1. Is not the number of students taught at one 

 time by a single individual in many college 

 courses so great as to reduce that individual's 

 knowledge of the attitude, preparation, difficul- 

 ties, errors and achievements of his students to 

 almost zero? 



2. Is not the number of students taught at one 



