966 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 442. 



I 



The sciences are all, ultimately and 

 necessarily, taught as applied sciences. 

 There is no time, and no needless expendi- 

 ture can be made, for the acquisition of 

 abstract knowledge when so much is to be 

 learmed which is to be utilized directly. 

 It is thus essential to complete success that 

 the teacher be entirely familiar, as an ex- 

 pert, with the applied science. Experience 

 shows that, in the engineering colleges and 

 schools, thoroughly satisfactory work in 

 the sciences is best insured by the selection, 

 as teachers, of talented and interested sci- 

 entific men who have given sufficient time 

 to the business for which it is proposed to 

 fit the student to become practically fa- 

 miliar with it and with its applications of 

 his science. The pure sciences are as 

 necessarily also best taught by experts, and 

 this means those who have specialized in 

 the sciences commonly taught in the acad- 

 emic departments of our schools and col- 

 leges. In fact, the rule that teaching 

 should not be permitted to amateurs, in 

 any branch, least of all in technical de- 

 partments, should be made universal. 



The curriculum should be as obviously 

 constructed by experts in the business to 

 which the school acts as feeder. Only the 

 expert in the business . can say what 

 branches of instruction properly constitute 

 the technical plan of instruction. The de- 

 termination of the character and extent of 

 the technical work in turn settles the ques- 

 tion, What sciences and what general in- 

 struction must be supplied as a basis for 

 the technical work? The form of the 

 whole scheme of instruction being thus 

 completely fixed, the details should be as- 

 signed to specialists, so far as practicable; 

 each to be familiar as an expert with the 

 work demanded of him. 



Every business, even purely commercial, 

 involves some connection with the pro- 

 ducing industries, and the commercial man 



should evidently, in each case, have suffi- 

 cient familiarity with the industry to be 

 able to buy and sell intelligently and to 

 discuss details involving financial interests 

 with his correspondent. 



It would seem that, in the individual 

 case, only the student himself can say pre- 

 cisely what kind and approximately what 

 extent of scientific and technical instruc- 

 tion is required by him. The technical 

 school should be prepared to meet the de- 

 mands of as large a variety of business 

 interests as practicable, after sufficient ex- 

 perience has been had to permit decision. 

 Probably some knowledge of mathematics, 

 chemistry and physics will prove useful 

 to all. Those intending to go into lines of 

 business connected with the iron and steel 

 industries will demand some instruction in 

 the chemistry of metallurgy; those expect- 

 ing to deal in products of the machine- 

 making arts will need instruction in ap- 

 plied mechanics and machine-design ; those 

 about to enter upon commercial work re- 

 lating to transportation will need some 

 knowledge of the principles of conduct of 

 shipment and construction of invoices. 



The whole case, so far as relates to cur- 

 riculum building, may be put in a few 

 words, thus: The practitioner in the voca- 

 tion, professional or other, for which edu- 

 cational apprenticeship is to be provided, 

 should decide what sort and how much 

 technical instruction is needed at entrance 

 into that branch of industry. This sched- 

 ule of required work should be assigned 

 to experts in each of its divisions, to those 

 who have practical and expert knowledge 

 of the business. The requirements being 

 thus ascertained, the next step is to pro- 

 vide for such studies and such tuition as 

 are needed to prepare the student for be- 

 ginning the prescribed studies. These be- 

 ing introduced, the next lower stratum of 

 subjects is laid out as introductory to the 



