162 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVIII. No. 449. 



form ; so that one may no longer expect to 

 strike a responsive chord, even in classical 

 colleges, by an appeal to the ideas and the 

 ideals of oar distinguished ancestors. 



It has seemed to me best, therefore, to 

 depart from the beaten track, and to invite 

 your attention to a subject which lies closer 

 at hand; and as the merchant acts wisely 

 in taking stock at the end of his fiscal year, 

 so I trust we, teachers and students alike, 

 may utilize advantageously the end of this 

 academic year to enquire what education 

 is and to what extent it meets the demands 

 of our times. 



We all know, of course, in a general 

 way, what education means; but most of 

 us would hesitate, I think, if called upon 

 to give a concise definition of the word. 

 Indeed, those of us engaged in the pro- 

 fession of teaching might be held to be 

 ill-qualified to explain the import of the 

 word. We are so near to the business and 

 so much occupied with its details that we 

 may fail to see it in its true proportions, 

 and hence fail to estimate aright its effects 

 and tendencies. On the other hand, those 

 unacquainted with the elaborate machinery 

 of educational affairs are plainly disquali- 

 fied, for they lack the precise and intimate 

 knowledge essential to define so compre- 

 hensive a term. If we appeal, American 

 fashion, to the majority, it will be found 

 that the consensus of public opinion ^ re- 

 gards education as a series of routine per- 

 formances, carried on by means of more 

 or less elaborate methods, involving tasks 

 which students sometimes undertake with 

 joy and sometimes with sorrow, and ending 

 for those who complete the program Avith a 

 ceremony called graduation. At any rate, 

 this is what we usually mean by elementary 

 education, and we all believe that its ad- 

 ministration is desirable, if not essential, 

 to the average boy or girl. And yet I 

 think it would be found troublesome to 



explain just what is accomplished by this 

 process and why a person subjected to it 

 may be called educated and why one not so 

 fortunate may be called uneducated. Of 

 course, the easy explanation is at hand. 

 We justify the process by its results. These 

 are found to be on the whole elevating to 

 the majority, and so we drift on with the 

 current of public opinion, forgetting, com- 

 monly, that while this democratic leveling 

 of intelligence has certain obvious advan- 

 tages, it has also certain, though perhaps 

 less obvious, disadvantages. And if Ave 

 enquire what factors should enter into a 

 scheme of elementary education, we at once 

 meet with a confusing diversity of opinion, 

 and with the bewildering fact that the 

 schemes already elaborated are so crowded 

 AAQth subjects that there is little chance 

 of adding anything new, and so tenaciously 

 maintained that there is little chance of 

 omitting anything old. 



But if we encounter difficulty in defining 

 precisely the meaning and scope of elemen- 

 tary education there would appear to be 

 still greater difficulty in formulating clear 

 ideas as to the meaning and scope of higher 

 education; for Avith respect to the latter 

 Ave have to deal Avith a diversity of opinions 

 AA'hich are to a large extent crystallized. 

 Ask the average college-bred man Avhat is 

 the best line of Avork to pursue in a college 

 course, and he is pretty sure to answer, if 

 he replies spontaneously, that the line he 

 himself pursued is probably the best, or, 

 perhaps, unquestionably the best. Since 

 the average collegian belongs to the tradi- 

 tional school, the average opinion is as 

 unanimous as it is unilateral; and he who 

 expresses it may justly fortify his view 

 by pointing to the excellent results AA'hich 

 have come from the pursuit of the time- 

 honored literary curriculum, or, as he 

 AA'ould prefer to piit it, from the pursuit of 

 the 'classics and the humanities.' Quite 



