Seitembkr 4, lilOli.J 



SCIENCE. 



297 



statement: "Here is our collegiate bill-of- 

 fare; a fine array of courses with which, 

 if yon choose properly, yon can satisfy 

 your proper appetite and at the same time 

 be disciplined as we know you ought to 

 be disciplined. However, help yourself to 

 what you want — we shall interfere only in 

 case of violent indigestion." In spite of 

 traditions to the contrarj-, then, and in 

 spite of ample opportunities for hard work, 

 a liberal education may come to consist too 

 largely of the imparting of information 

 and cultivation, with not enough mental 

 discipline, and not enough hai-d work. In- 

 deed, student opinion, quick to detect a 

 weakness and caricature it, has already 

 adopted the name 'culture-course' for an 

 easy-going snap. 



The above a la carte scheme, if you will 

 allow the term, contrasts strongly with the 

 table d'hote service universally found at 

 technical institutions. These have, by a 

 curious paradox, fallen heir to the rigid 

 disciplinary method of the old schoolmas- 

 ters. As we all know, there is very little 

 latitude in a technical course, once the gen- 

 eral aim of the course is decided upon ; 

 much of the work recjuires a good memory, 

 and more important, clear thinking— and 

 students are forced to do it whether they 

 like it or not. The student, in his labo- 

 ratory work, is constantly confronted with 

 problems the solution of which develops 

 self-reliance and independence, and there 

 is opportunity for him to try his hand at 

 "knowledge-making.' There is, therefore, 

 little need to worry about the efficacy of 

 technical training as regards power, ex- 

 cept in one important particular. Train- 

 ing for poirrr aims not at the production 

 of the graduate who shall be most im- 

 mediately successful in the particular work 

 which he first undertakes, but rather one 

 who shall have, as has been said, the great- 

 est capabilities for growth. This means 

 that principles rather than details should 



be taught ; that an independent, self-reliant 

 gra.sp of a subject should be given, rather 

 than facility in special methods. The re- 

 cent graduate, thrown for the first time 

 entirely on his own responsibilities, fre- 

 (luently resents this, and is disposed to 

 argue that he should have been taught all 

 the details of the particular machine he is 

 first called upon to design or the special 

 points of the particular lighting system 

 he first has under his control. But he soon 

 learns the short-sightedness of such a 

 policy. Again, any extended engineering 

 career involves extended and varied inter- 

 course with men; to be successful in this 

 demands character and knowledge of men 

 and institutions. There is little of the 

 formal training of the engineer which di- 

 rectly aims to satisfy this demand; and 

 while it is also true that much of it must 

 come from association rather than from 

 formal teaching, still the value in this 

 respect of a curriculum based on the so- 

 called humanities is amply shown by the 

 output of the English universities and the 

 older and more conservative institutions of 

 this country. 



Turning now to the other two groups 

 into which we divided the aims of educa- 

 tion, we find, of course, that the technical 

 training is here much less efficient. The 

 knowledge embodied in the course is almost 

 entirely special and technical, such as 

 forms a necessary basis for the discipline 

 already outlined. The general or 'hu- 

 manities' side may be represented only by 

 a relatively small amount of two modern 

 foreign languages, a little economics or 

 political science and English. A narrow 

 basis, surely, for the broad activities, the 

 general intercourse and the contact with 

 nu'u which are features of a successful en- 

 gineering career. It is a pity that men 

 whose disciplinary training has been so well 

 calculated to bring out their best abilities, 

 to ti-ain them for control and leadership, 



