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SCIEJSrCJEJ. 



[Vol. VI., No. 142. 



tional subjects have been added from time to 

 time to the requirements, additional quantities 

 also in the traditional subjects, while each college 

 has more or less contributed to the diversity of the 

 programme submitted to the preparatory schools. 



Those unsatisfactory relations were the subject 

 of a very frank discussion at the meeting of the 

 Massachusetts classical and high school teachers 

 association in 1884. Resolutions were passed 

 setting forth the deshability of a meeting of 

 delegates of that body with representatives of the 

 New England colleges to consider matters of com- 

 mon interest, and at the following meeting, in 

 April, 1885, a committee was appointed to make 

 arrangements for such a conference. 



The response of the colleges was most cordial, 

 as may be inferred from the fact that fourteen 

 colleges were represented at the recent meeting, 

 and eleven of these by their presidents. Nearly 

 every one of the leading academies which fit for 

 college, as well as many of the public high schools 

 of the larger New England cities and towns, were 

 also represented by their principals. 



The programme of the meeting involved the 

 presentation of only four papers, with a discussion 

 of each. Two of these were prepared by persons 

 connected with colleges and two by preparatory 

 teachers, and in each instance the discussion was 

 opened by a delegate representing the alternate 

 interest. From the side of the colleges. President 

 Porter of Yale spoke on the question, ' How can 

 the preparatory schools cooperate more effectively 

 with the colleges'?' and Professor Fay of Tufts 

 college had prepared an answer to the query, 

 ' What are some of the most prominent and pre- 

 vailing defects in the preparation of candidates 

 for college ? ' the material cited in evidence being 

 collated from nme leading colleges. The ques- 

 tions, ' Is any greater degree of uniformity in the 

 requisitions for admission to college practicable ? ' 

 and, ' Under what conditions might admission to 

 college by certificate be permitted ? ' were treated 

 respectively b}^ Principal Bancroft, of PhiUips 

 academy, Andover, and Dr. Robert P. Keep of the 

 Free academy, Norwich, Conn., while the discus- 

 sions on these topics were opened by President 

 Eliot of Harvard and Pi-esident Robinson of 

 Brown university. 



The papers were characterized by the com- 

 pletest frankness, and the evils which stand in the 

 way of a consistent, consecutive, and honest 

 national system of education, were unflinchingly 

 faced. The representatives of the colleges were 

 given a clear understanding of the practical diffi- 

 culties they created for the fitting schools, while 

 the teachers of those schools learned, perhaps for 

 the first time, just how the products of their efforts 



are regarded by the college professors, into whose 

 hands they are committed for a continuance of 

 the work begun by them. The showing was 

 anything but gratifying to our national vanity, 

 for the fact was not overlooked that the colleges 

 find it hardly possible to correct the careless or 

 lazy intellectual habits contracted in the prepara- 

 tory schools. On the other hand, the colleges were 

 held responsible for the larger part of the evU, 

 owing to the excessive burden put by them upon 

 the schools. The traditional absurdity of setting 

 quantity above quality in the requirements for 

 admission to college was boldly criticised, and 

 hopes were expressed that some plan, that will 

 prove satisfactory to all parties, may yet be devised 

 for admission of students upon the certificate of 

 competent teachers that they are prepared to pur- 

 sue a collegiate course with profit. 



If any came to the meetmg skeptical as to any 

 practical results of a conference of two classes of 

 teachers, whose work, however naturally a unit, 

 has thus far been conducted in entire independ- 

 ence, the one part of the other, he must have been 

 happily disappointed. When one considers the 

 staleness of the subjects usually treated at educa- 

 tional meetings, the threshing of old straw, and the 

 half -dreariness of the interest manifested in many 

 cases by the leaders, the freshness and enthusiasm 

 of the conference were something worthy of espe- 

 cial comment. While to the college men certain 

 of the subjects were j)erhaps commonplace, they 

 came with a degree of freshness to the teachers of 

 the schools ; and so, on the other hand, it was 

 something quite new for the presidents and pro- 

 fessors to hear clearly voiced the sentiments of the 

 preparatory teachers, of which they had heard only 

 vague echoes. Hence, when the programme of 

 papers and discussions was ended, the conference, 

 with an eager unanimity, resolved itself into a 

 permanent organization, to be known as the 

 ' New England association of colleges and prepara- 

 tory schools.' 



The first practical result of the conference was 

 the passage of the following resolutions with re- 

 gard to uniformity of requisitions : 



First,— Resolved, That this conference of college 

 presidents, principals and teachers in preparatory 

 schools, earnestly appeals to the colleges for con- 

 certed action on their part in order to secure uniform 

 requisitions in all subjects and authors in which they 

 have a common requirement. 



Second, — Resolved, That this conference urge upon 

 the colleges a still closer agreement on their part as 

 to the subjects to be set for examination, the recom- 

 mendations to be made to the schools, and the nature 

 and extent of the entrance examinations. 



Third, — Resolved, That this conference request the 

 colleges to make reasonable announcement of any 

 changes in the requirements for admission. 



