722 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 802 



American colleges have changed their 

 official emphasis from training for char- 

 acter and citizenship to training for class- 

 room work and marks, and examinations 

 to test class-room acquirements and for 

 grade promotion. 



Until about a century ago every college 

 was conducted as a boarding-school home, 

 with moral, religious and mental growth 

 as a matter of far more serious concern 

 that class-room work or diploma values, 

 and without any catalogues. 



A six months' probationary period for 

 freshmen prevailed at Yale tiU 1848, but 

 officially applied to moral conduct and 

 not to class-room marking. The Yale laws 

 provided that, 



The senior Tutor shall keep a matriculation 

 book, in which shall be registered the names of 

 all students, who by their regular behavior, and 

 attention to collegiate duties, for six months at 

 least after their admission, shall exhibit evidence 

 satisfactory to the Faculty of their unblemished 

 moral character. And if any candidate shall fail 

 of exhibiting such evidence, within a reasonable 

 time, he shall be allowed to attend on the exer- 

 cises of the Collie no longer. Each candidate 

 shall be particularly required to exhibit proof 

 that he is not guilty of using profane language. 

 All those who are Students on probation, as well 

 as the regular members who have been matricu- 

 lated, shall be subject to the laws, penalties and 

 discipline of the College. No candidate's name 

 shall be registered, \mtil he shall have subscribed 

 the following engagement: 



I, A. B., on condition of being admitted as a 

 Student of Yale-College, promise, on my Faith 

 and Honor, to observe all the Laws and Regula- 

 tions of this College; particularly, that I will 

 faithfully avoid using profane language, gaming, 

 and all indecent, disorderly behavior, and dis- 

 respectful conduct to the Faculty of the same: 

 as witness my hand, 



A. B. 



A study of Yale's printed laws from 

 1765 to 1906 enables us to trace certain 

 fundamental changes in the college and its 

 ideals. Seventy per cent, of the laws of 

 1774 related to the reo-ulation of the stu- 



dent's personal and college life as distin- 

 guished from class-room work or the func- 

 tions of the college or its departments. 

 Two chapters were entitled, respectively, 

 "Of a pious and religious life" and "Of 

 a regular moral behavior." The entire 

 examination is treated in fourteen lines, 

 as foUows: 



No Person may expect to be admitted into this 

 College, unless, upon an Examination by the 

 President and Tutors, he shall be found able 

 extempore to read accurately, construe and parse 

 Tully, Virgil, and the Greek Testament, and shall 

 be able to write true Latin in Prose, and hath 

 learnt the Rules of Prosody and vulgar Arith- 

 metic; and shall bring suitable Testimony of a 

 blameless Life and Conversation. 



About the twentieth of July (on a Day ap- 

 pointed by the President) the Senior-Sophisters 

 shall appear in the Chapel, to be examined by the 

 President, Fellows, Tutors, or any other Gentle- 

 men of liberal Education, touching their Knowl- 

 edge and Proficiency in the learned Languages, 

 the liberal Arts and Sciences, and other Qualifi- 

 cations requisite for receiving a Bachelor's Degree. 



There was nothing about marks or the 

 marking system. This relative unim- 

 portance of class-room work, examinations 

 and the marking system gradually changed 

 until in the printed laws of 1906 we find 

 the proportion more than reversed, and 

 only ten lines, or 95 words, devoted to 

 conduct as such, while over 13 pages, or 

 about 450 lines, relate to the marking sys- 

 tem, class-room work and grade examina- 

 tions. The laws of 1774 were not supple- 

 mented by any catalogue. The present- 

 day laws are a mere supplement to an 

 800-page catalogue. I call attention to 

 this entire change of official emphasis 

 merely to direct your thoughts to the 

 genesis and results of a right-about move- 

 ment universal in the colleges which, if 

 studied earnestly and impartially, may 

 show us the source of some of our present 

 troubles and the way out. 



The life of the bread-winning citizen is 



