June 2, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



843 



of the well-rounded engineer and the use- 

 ful citizen outside of his strictly profes- 

 sional field. In this respect the institute 

 has been a pioneer in engineering educa- 

 tion and its founders took a position far in 

 advance of the times. Nevertheless the 

 Institute has not escaped the charge of nar- 

 rowness and this has sometimes come, alas, 

 from some of her own sons who were not 

 over-zealous in availing themselves of the 

 opportunities actually offered during their 

 student days. More specifically, as has al- 

 ready been implied, it is charged that the 

 graduates from engineering schools are not 

 as a class showing themselves capable of 

 development into men who can occupy suc- 

 cessfully the commanding positions already 

 described; and again the institute is not 

 exempted. So far as this charge relates to 

 breadth of view within the professions it is 

 the immediate and vital concern of these 

 schools. So far as it relates to those traits 

 which go to make up the accomplished man 

 of affairs it is serious, and demands earnest 

 attention, but the remedies are less obvi- 

 ous; for these remedies must mean the 

 superimposing upon an already heavy 

 burden, a task which should be begun in 

 the home and largely completed there; a 

 task, indeed, which no college has satis- 

 factorily met with respect to all of its pro- 

 fessional or non-professional graduates. 

 So far as books can help, an added year of 

 student life would seem to afford a remedy 

 and there has been much discussion of the 

 desirability of extending the undergradu- 

 ate course to five years, and of making the 

 engineering schools graduate schools. The 

 arguments can not be reproduced here, but 

 it seems clear that the added expense in- 

 curred and the increased age at which the 

 young man enters his life work, militate 

 seriously against the adoption of either of 

 these as a universal procedure. For those 

 to whom such opportunities are open they 



are likely to prove of great value, and it is 

 interesting to note that each year seems to 

 bring to the engineering schools a larger 

 number of young men who have already 

 graduated from some college, and encour- 

 agement is also to be found in the fact that 

 more and more of these men have planned 

 their courses during their college years 

 with reference to later work in the tech- 

 nical school, a procedure which is much 

 more to their advantage than what Pro- 

 fessor Jackson refers to as a "butt-joint" 

 between a general college course and a later 

 engineering course. It should also be re- 

 membered that this is a recent educational 

 development and that these men have not 

 yet been tried out. 



One serious difficulty which technical 

 schools are encountering has been fre- 

 quently referred to by recent writers, but 

 deserves a mention here, namely, that of 

 securing and holding broad, ciiltured 

 teachers. Specialization has seriously in- 

 vaded the teaching profession, especially in 

 scientific lines where the mastery of any 

 large field of knowledge to a degree corre- 

 sponding to the needs of the expert is 

 rarely possible. The specialist is apt to use 

 the microscope far oftener than the field 

 glass and this habit is partially reproduced 

 in his students. It is encouraging to note 

 that certain schools are now recognizing the 

 need of men who are efficient teachers with 

 a broader outlook, to deal especially with 

 the younger men. They are recognizing 

 that not every eminent specialist or suc- 

 cessful investigator is a successful teacher, 

 more particularly in this very matter of 

 breadth of view, and are leaving the special- 

 ists greater opportunity for the presenta- 

 tion of their specialties to the older classes, 

 while improving the instruction in the more 

 general courses. It is obvious that these 

 difficulties are enhanced by the larger finan- 

 cial rewards which tempt the broad-minded 



