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SGIENGU 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. i 



I entirely share the opinion of Professor Pro- 

 kosch, who has carefully watched the results of 

 the work, that former correspondence students 

 entering our university classes have proved that 

 they had derived a full measure of benefit from 

 their work. I may add, however, that I believe 

 such satisfactory results are only where, as at the 

 university, in our case, there is close and har- 

 monious cooperation between the general manage- 

 ment of the correspondence work, the instructor 

 actually doing the work, and the regular Univer- 

 sity department in which the work falls. 



From an associate professor of history: 



The lesson papers of almost all of my pupils 

 have been of good quality, evincing painstaking 

 and thoroughgoing study and power in the subject. 

 The results of the final examinations have been 

 uniformly good. The three correspondence sub- 

 jects in which I have had most pupils have been 

 Greek history, medieval history and English history. 



At the sanie time that I have been conducting 

 this history study by correspondence, I have been 

 having quiz sections in these same subjects with 

 pupils in attendance at the university. It is nat- 

 ural that I compare the performance of these two 

 sets of pupils. The requirement made of corre- 

 spondence pupils was as great as of the residence 

 pupils. The text-books were the same, and the 

 ground covered in each subject was the same for 

 each set. The results obtained from the best of 

 the pupils in correspondence work were fully as 

 good as those from the best in residence work, and 

 the average quality of the correspondence work 

 was superior to the average quality of the work 

 done in residence. This last fact is doubtless due 

 to this, that in a large degree these pupils are a 

 naturally selected group. It is well enough recog- 

 nized that the thirst for knowledge is by no means 

 the only motive that induces a student to enter 

 college, or to continue there. It is, however, the 

 principal motive that prompts the correspondence 

 pupil to undertake the work and this makes and 

 keeps him very responsive to the teacher's efforts. 



A correspondence instructor in Latin 

 says: 



I have discovered that the students do more 

 work in these Latin courses than they do in the 

 same work as resident students, a fact that the 

 head of the Latin department in the university 

 has found out recently quite apart from my own 

 discovery. 



An instructor in the English depart- 

 ment, who also has experience in both uni- 

 versity and correspondence work, says: 



The student in correspondence work has far 

 more individual teaching than is possible in class- 

 room work, and he comes into closer touch with his 

 instructor, who knows his environment, his ambi- 

 tion and his special needs, and is therefore inter- 

 ested to teach him — not only as a student in gen- 

 eral, but as an individual in particular. It is a 

 fair statement that I am in closer touch with each 

 of my correspondence students than I could be 

 with one tenth of them in residence, and I have 

 had many pleasant letters expressing delight that 

 this condition really exists. 



You may remember that I rather regretted 

 giving up my teaching to work in the extension 

 division, because I believed so firmly in the value 

 of individual instruction. One of the pleasant 

 surprises in my correspondence work has been the 

 opportunity to continue to do individual teaching. 



Unquestionably, the correspondence stu- 

 dent loses that intangible something we 

 hear so much about, which university life 

 gives and which many value highly. On 

 the other hand, his work receives closer 

 supervision than that of the resident stu- 

 dent and his relations with his teacher, as 

 shown by the letters quoted, are more inti- 

 mate, though of a different character. The 

 student who takes work by correspondence 

 is usually mature. In residence, he would 

 belong to that class of university student 

 which does not identify itself with many of 

 the ordinary student activities. Conse- 

 quently, he does not lose so much by doing 

 his work away from the university, and it 

 should not be forgotten that those who take 

 part of their work by correspondence are 

 usually persons who, were it not for this 

 opportunity, would never enter the univer- 

 sity at all. 



Correspondence study, for purposes of 

 university extension, must include courses 

 of practically every grade. The teaching 

 force must be selected with special refer- 

 ence to the peculiar relations between 



