946 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. 860 



might be mentioned which were respon- 

 sible for the original determination to 

 study the entire situation, but these will 

 suffice to indicate the points of departure. 

 As the work progressed it became increas- 

 ingly evident that nothing short of a 

 drastic reconstruction of the whole prin- 

 ciple upon which the requirements of the 

 university were based would adequately 

 meet the necessities of the case. 



For a number of years past the univer- 

 sity has maintained a list of approved 

 schools from which it admits students 

 upon proper certification. The test which 

 the schools have been obliged to meet has 

 been that of personal inspection by a 

 competent examining officer. This will 

 still be the practise when a school is put 

 upon the list for the first time. This is 

 substantially the system in general use 

 throughout the central portions of the 

 country. The university proposes now to 

 make a radical departure which involves 

 shifting the emphasis from the examina- 

 tion of the school to a test of its work as 

 judged by the records of its students after 

 they come to the university. From this 

 time on carefully tabulated records will be 

 kept, showing the work of each student. 

 The authorities of the school from which 

 he comes will be periodically informed of 

 these records and the teaching in the school 

 will be judged accordingly. As an in- 

 teresting supplement to this plan, it is 

 hoped from time to time to bring teachers 

 from the approved schools to the univer- 

 sity to visit those classes which continue 

 the work done in the schools. In this way 

 it is expected to bring about a more in- 

 telligent cooperation than has hitherto 

 been possible. Ordinarily the college in- 

 spects the schools. We propose, in addi- 

 tion to this, that the schools shall inspect 

 the college. We believe that if this be 

 done in the cordial spirit which has 



hitherto characterized our relations to the 

 schools, both the university and the schools 

 will be markedly benefited. 



The university appreciates the vital 

 significance of the development which has 

 been in progress in the high schools of the 

 country during the last decade. It 

 sympathizes most cordially with the effort 

 which these schools have been making to 

 furnish, each to its own community, those 

 things most essential to the betterment of 

 the life of that community. It recognizes 

 that amid the enormous variety of condi- 

 tions in American life, schools in different 

 localities, even schools in different por- 

 tions of the same city, may face obligations 

 in certain essentials widely divergent, to 

 meet which successfully must involve con- 

 siderable variation in curricula and meth- 

 ods of work. The university desires to do' 

 nothing which will in any way thwart the 

 fullest success of this tendency in the mod- 

 ern high school. The period of sheer dicta- 

 tion by the college to the high school is 

 forever passed. Possibly there is at the 

 present time a danger that the schools may, 

 in their turn, attempt to dictate to the col- 

 lege. However this may be, the Univer- 

 sity of Chicago desires and intends to put 

 itself in the position of cooperating in the 

 most effective way with those high schools 

 which are earnestly striving to meet the 

 needs of their communities. It desires to 

 leave them the utmost fiexibility in the ar- 

 rangement of their curricula compatible 

 with the carrying forward by the univer- 

 sity of solid and serious work, which obvi- 

 ously must have its foundation in the 

 achievements of the school. The college 

 entrance plan shortly to be described has 

 this end as perhaps its most important 

 aim. 



In compensation for the increased flexi- 

 bility which the new arrangement permits, 

 the university hereafter will expect to ad- 



