522 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 431. 



tional fabric, and by reason of the extent 

 and variety of its curriculum, broader 

 indeed than the college course of fifty 

 years ago, is not inappropriately called the 

 ' people's college.' 



The improvement of the high school, as 

 an educational organization, has been 

 brought about by many agencies. Physics, 

 chemistry and biology have appropriately 

 found a place in our schools, as they have 

 in the lives and thoughts of all intelligent 

 people. The progress in educational 

 methods and in the facilities of instruc- 

 tion, particularly in the laboratories for 

 practical work, has also strengthened the 

 courses of study and brought a great in- 

 tellectual stimulus into the pupils' lives. 



But there has been another agency at 

 work, outside the high school, namely, the 

 advance in college entrance requirements, 

 and the throwing back upon the schools 

 studies formerly pursued in the college. 

 Whether this was a wise measure on the 

 part of the colleges it is now not worth 

 while to discuss, since it is an' accomplished 

 fact; it has, at least, increased the value 

 and dignity of the high school course to 

 such a degree that the graduates of our 

 best-equipped and best-manned high schools 

 are as well prepared for their life's work 

 as were the college graduates of the middle 

 of the last century. 



The college after having thus put upon 

 the schools an additional year's work, has 

 not been as liberal as it might have been in 

 recognizing the efficiency of this work. 

 Most of our larger eastern colleges still 

 insist on their own entrance examinations. 

 This makes a break in our educational 

 system which affects unfavorably the high 

 school course preparatory to college, inas- 

 much as this course is then too apt to have 

 for its aim the successful passing of ex- 

 aminations rather than a serious prepara- 

 tion for advanced work. This is an old 

 and much-discussed question, and I touch 



upon it now to assert my conviction that 

 it is practicable to throw such safeguards 

 around the system of certification that the 

 diploma of graduation, accompanied by the 

 personal statement of the principal, will 

 become much better evidence of a boy's 

 fitness to enter on college work than a few 

 days' written examination can be. En- 

 trance examinations show but little more 

 than that a boy had or had not, on the 

 days of examination, writing under pecul- 

 iarly trying circumstances, a certain 

 knowledge of mathematics, history, lan- 

 guage and science. Whether or not he is 

 likely to prove a diligent student, with 

 tastes and aptitude for his work, the college 

 gets no indication from the examination 

 papers, and seems to be indifferent to these 

 qualifications. 



The western states find no difficulty in 

 articulating the high school and college in 

 their educational system, but in the eastern 

 states, in addition to the supposed difficul- 

 ties in this articulation, there seems to be 

 also a feeling that the dignity of a college 

 is better maintained by insisting on its 

 own examinations, a notion which rests on 

 a mistaken idea of the reason for the ex- 

 istence of colleges. If the time of the ex- 

 amination were extended, so that the college 

 could determine by actual experience the 

 fitness of the applicants to undertake 

 profitably college work, there would be a 

 rational basis for an opinion as to this fit- 

 ness. Why should not all secondary school 

 graduates, who are vouched for by the 

 principals of these schools, be admitted and 

 given a trial until the Christmas vacation? 

 In other words, let the entrance examina- 

 tion extend over three months instead of 

 three or more days. At the end of this 

 period (during which there will be every 

 incentive for the earnest boy to prove his 

 fitness) let those who show they are unpre- 

 pared, through lack of knowledge or apti- 

 tude or industry, be returned to the school 



