242 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. 1103 



in tlie solution of the problems raised by the 

 war. It intimated that an increased amount 

 of faculty, in contrast to trustee, government 

 over our universities would contribute to this 

 end. It requested that others who might have 

 ideas on this subject should publish them. 

 Three points occur to me. 



1. If the members of our university and 

 collegiate faculties are given such a part in 

 the direction of the policy of their institutions 

 as Professor Paton suggests, and as Professor 

 J. McKeen Cattell has contended for, they 

 will undoubtedly be much happier and better 

 satisfied with their station in Ufe. With Pro- 

 fessor Paton and Professor Cattell this ap- 

 pears to be a theory. For a Tale professor it 

 ii! not a theory but a fact. For here at Yale 

 professors have, in as full a measure as one 

 could possibly ask the trustees to concede, the 

 power of shaping educational policy and 

 choosing colleagues. As a result we are an 

 unusually contented lot of men. Perhaps we 

 are too contented. 



2. Professor Paton is in error I think in be- 

 lieving that this mode of university govern- 

 ment makes for progressivism in education. 

 The more people there are who have to be con- 

 vinced of the wisdom of a new measure, the 

 longer it takes to get the measure adopted. 

 Yale under faculty government is not cele- 

 brated for radicalism. The great advances in 

 which Harvard led were effected largely be- 

 cause of the aggressive spirit of President 

 Eliot in support of new ideas. Experience 

 demonstrates that presidents and deans ' are 

 comparatively easily won over to changes of 

 educational policy and methods. Boards of 

 full professors are far less readily convinced, 

 while general faculties including assistant pro- 

 fessors and instructors are usually overwhelm- 

 ingly dominated by stand-pattism. 



3. The principal obstacle to the introduc- 

 tion of the idea of service into the work of our 

 universities is the American college. On the 

 whole our colleges are stronger in fumds and 

 prestige than all our professional schools and 

 the other departments of our universities put 

 together. The ideal of the colleges is almost 

 universally that of diffuse culture as opposed 



to special training. For social reasons their 

 students enter two years older than they 

 should. For no reason that can be justified in 

 utility they are kept for four years. Against 

 every dictate of reason and service they 

 usually work, even under the elective system, 

 in a sort of lock-step which sets the pace for 

 the most earnest by the average or even the 

 indolent. 



To develop American education so that it 

 will turn out our young men prepared to be of 

 service in the various highly specialized fields 

 of modern life, the first essentials are to reduce 

 the importance of collegiate education, to give 

 the B.A. degree after two years of work, and 

 to have accepted as part of this work whatever 

 the professional schools want as preliminary 

 training. 



I doubt whether there is a sufficiently gen- 

 eral comprehension in college faculties of the 

 enormous handicaps which they now place 

 upon professional education to bring about 

 these changes within any reasonable time. 

 Meanwhile a general introduction of arrange- 

 ments between professional schools and col- 

 leges such as those involved in the six-year 

 combined course for the B.A. and M.D. de- 

 grees, and similar arrangements for law and 

 engineering, should be encoxu-aged in every 

 possible way. 



It is only by the introduction of the voca- 

 tional motive that collegiate instruction can 

 be made serious, and the student freed from 

 the idea that, as it doesn't matter what he 

 studies in college, it makes no difference 

 whether or not he studies at all. 



For those who have no vocational object it 

 might be well to institute a course coordinate 

 with the professional schools, and leading to 

 the degree of C.G.L. or Cultivated Gentleman 

 of Leisure. The materials for it could easily 

 be culled from the present list of academical 

 studies. It would afford the needful university 

 registration for the devotees of athletics, 

 secret societies .and other extra-curriculum 

 activities. Yandell Henderson 



Yale Medical School, 



New Haven, Conn., 



January 30, 1916 



