Von. :- Vi Woe.
NEW HAVEN, CONN., THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 1898.
——_—_—___..,
Prick Tren Cents,
A GREAT MOVE FORWARD.
What the Academic Elective Pam-
Phiet Shows and Suggests.
If one looks over the catalogue of
Yale College for 1824-5, he will find
the complete announcement of the
schedule of studies for the four years’
course on a single page. It covered
Greek, Latin, Mathematics, Rhetoric,
Natural Philosophy, Astronomy, Men-
tal and Moral Philosophy. There was
but one option given, and that was for
the third term of Junior year between
Greek, Hebrew and Calculus. To this
list was added, in 1825, French, which
was the first appearance of a modern
language in the curriculum. In 1841
German and Spanish were added in the
same way. The number of subjects
from which a choice could be made
being thus increased, in 1845 a student
was allowed to elect one study of this
group for one term of Junior year, and
also for one term of Senior year. In
1876-7 the elective system was so far
expanded that every Junior and Senior
was required to select a single study
(four exercises a week throughout the
year) from a list of subjects which in-
cluded Philosophy, Ancient and Mod-
ern Languages, Economics, History,
Natural Science and Mathematics.
The present elective system took its
rise in 1884, when the study of the
modern languages was required in the
Freshman and Sophomore years, and
eight of the fifteen hours of recitations
in Junior year and tyelve in Senior
year were assigned to elective studies.
The announcement of the schedule in
1884-5 for Junior and Senior years cov-
ered two pages, while the elective pam-
phlet for 1898-9 contains 64 pages and
gives a detailed description of the
courses, with such directions for choice
as will insure a connected program for
the student who wishes to specialize in
any line of work.
The following table gives a compari-
son of the schedule for 1884-5 with that
of 1808-9, showing an increase in the
opportunities for class room work from
94 to 204 hours per week, and of in-
structors from 27 to 79:
a
1884-5. 1898-9.
gR Gg fs
OM 3/2 ws
DEPARTMENT OF STUDY. O84 5% oH 53
gg |e?
oe a mee
Philosophy 6.2 736-2 7
Economics and Law G2 257-6
History oo ee 0
Romance Languages ie. 2240
German SHER ph or CaN, |
English | Os Rese | ee
Classics and Ling. 1B 6¢ 37-16
Science $6 G6 36 i2
Mathematics se §- 25 8
Music 0.0 105-2
Fine Arts Ge o 8 c2
Physical and Mil. Sci. oO. 23
Biblical Literature Ce. 8 47 <3
94 27 204 79
In the Department of Philosophy,
the elements of Psychology and. Ethics
have been transferred from the Senior
to the Junior year, and advanced
courses along the lines of speculative
philosophy have been added, while
there have been opened up the new
fields of Physiological Psychology, the
experimental work of the Psychologi-
cal Laboratory and the course in the
Theories of Biological Evolution.
In Political and Social Science, by
the bringing of Economics into the
Junior class, the opportunities of the
student in this line have been vastly
increased along the line of general
political economy, while special courses
in Finance, Transportation and the ap-
plication of mathematical methods to
Economic Science have been added, to
say nothing of the creation of the new
Department of Sociology.
American History, from a_ single
course of two hours per week for one
term of Junior year, has developed into
three courses, each running through a
year, covering National, Colonial and
Constitutional History. The addition
of a course in Medieval History and of
three courses in Asiatic History, as
well as the large increase in the amount
of instruction given in English and
general European History, show the
growth of this department of study.
The Department of Biblical Litera-
ture and Semitic Languages is a crea-
tion of the past few years.
In the Department of Natural and
Physical Science, the work in Physics
has been brought into the Sophomore
year, thus making it possible for the
student to specialize two full years in
subjects based on a knowledge of this
branch of. study.
_ The opening of the Kent Laboratory
has made it possible to offer two years
of Chemistry. . The courses in Biology,
which have been added within the past
ten years, combined with other courses
in Chemistry and Physics, give a con-
nected line of studies in preparation for
the highest grade of medical schools.
The courses in Ancient Languages
have been very greatly enlarged, and
the facilities for instruction in that de-
partment have been wonderfully in-
creased by the assignment of Phelps
Hall to that department.
In comparing the opportunities for
the study of English and the Modern
Languages in 1884-5 with 1898-9, it
should be remembered that each student
is now required to pass an entrance
examination in English which implies
a course of study for nearly two years
and that this, added to the requirement
for English in Freshman year and the
work in that subject which nearly every
student takes in Sophomore _ year,
makes for each student by the time he
reaches Junior year, practically three
years (three hours of recitation per
week each year), whereas in 1884 Eng- ©
lish Literature was begun in Junior
year. The same may be said also of
the Modern Languages, showing that
in this group of studies the opportunity
had increased much more than in al-
most any other department of study in
the College. ze :
In Mathematics one is reminded that,
up to 1845, Arithmetic was the only
requirement in this group for admis-
sion to, and that no geometry was re-
quired for admission till 1855. The
bringing of Elementary Calculus, the
present year, into: the Sophomore class |
as an option for those who propose to
carry on advanced mathematical work,
either in pure Mathematics or in its
applications, has enabled the College
to offer for next year four strong
courses in that department to the
Juniors, namely: Advanced Calculus,
Analytical Geometry, Mechanics and
Higher Algebra, which form a solid
basis for the work in Vectors and the
Higher Analysis, offered in Senior year.
In addition to what has been stated
concerning courses leading to the Med-
ical School, it may be said that equally
valuable combinations can be made for
those who expect to enter the Law
School or the Theological School as
well as for those who wish to enter
almost any business or profession.
he
AN ANALYSIS OF YALE,
A Combination of College and Uni-
versity in the Heart of a Small
City—** Mass Formations”
—The Present Admin-
istration’s Great
Service.
[Being a speech delivered by Prof. Bernadotte Perrin
at the dinner of the Brooklyn Association, March 10.]
Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the
Association:
I am still proud to be a Yale man,
still proud to represent Yale, and you
may still be proud as Yale men, in
spite of all attacks yet made. There
are foes, “of whom to be dispraised
were no small praise.” ‘‘Madam,” said
an aged clergyman to a mother anx-
iously enquiring about the dangers
encountered by her son at Yale, ‘‘my
father went to Yale and lived an hon-
ored life; I went to Yale and am try-
ing to be a blessing to my fellow men;
my son went to Yale, and his son shall
go there, if I have anything to say
about it.” This illustrates one striking
effect of the recent attacks on Yale.
Her alumni are still more closely knit
together in loyalty to their Alma
Mater, as our great nation is now
being welded together under the pres-
sure of a danger from without.
And yet we must often ask ourselves
the question: “why these frequent at-
tacks upon an institution which we
love and honor so much?” “Why
should Yale be contrasted so unfavor-
ably with Oberlin and Harvard?’ I
shall attempt an answer. It is because
she is neither a college in an inland
town whiclf votes no license, nor a
University in the suburb of a great
city, which suburb votes no license, but
a peculiar combination of College and
University in the heart of a small city
which votes license. This constitution
and situation are so peculiar as to
lead to misunderstandings and mis-
judgments on the part not only of
strangers, but even of alumni and
undergraduates.
Not many years have passed. since
our popular education was mainly by
compulsion. The apparatus and meth-
ods of schools and academies, particu-
larly in the country, were extremely
simple, but extremely effective. A
teacher with more or less formal
knowledge laid a small section of that
knowledge before the pupil, usually in
unattractive form, and compelled him
to acquire it within a given time under
pain of punishment. There was little
elucidation or enticement. The pupil
was driven, not led. But the rude pro-
cess fostered in the pupil a confidence
in his own powers, an expectation of
conquest and a delight in it, a vigor
and persistency of effort, which many of
us miss in the products of the modern
educational processes. For now_edu-
cation is largely by seduction. From
nursery and kindergarten up through
Grammar Schools and High Schools
and Academies, the approved tendency
is to smooth difficulties away from
before the pupil, to lure him on over
easy and attractive paths, paths even
of his own immature choice. Acatt-
sitions may be larger and more varied
under this modern system of education
by seduction, but the mental fiber of
the pupil lacks the aggressive vigor of
the older days. In the face of a moun-
tain of difficulty, the pupil’s first in-
stinct is to call for help rather than
boldly attack and master the obstruc-
tion.
MASS. TENDENCIES.
Now the old college system of train-
ing, as it survives at Yale in Freshman
and Sophomore years, is to a great
degree a continuation of the older
spirit and method in education. Meth-
ods of teaching and apparatus of teach-
ing even in these two years of “re-
quired studies” have indeed improved
vastly over those of earlier years. Thé
influence of the new education is of
course felt here. Subjects are made
interesting to the student, and taught
for his benefit rather than for that of |
the instructor. Zeal and ardor and a
contagious enthusiasm now enliven
the instruction here, and redeem it
from scholasticism. But, after all,
tasks are necessarily set the student in
subjects which he did not directly elect
to pursue, and he is rigidly held to
frequent, almost daily, tests of the faith-
fulness with which he performs those
tasks. Such a system has its disad-
vantages. Where three or four hundred
men are forced through the same
course of study, regardless of their
individual preferences or tastes, there
results a kind of collective or mass
individuality. The large divisions in
which men are necessarily handled and
the impossibility of individual treat-
ment by the instructor, encourage mass
intellectual plays. Genius suffers, of
course, but learns.the great lesson of
standing shoulder to shoulder with
fellow men, a lesson worth all it ever
costs. And so this lower undergradu-
ate life at Yale fosters mass movements
of every kind; keeps alive the old “class-
spirit,’ with all its objectionable rival-
ries and petty collisions, brings out
crowds of noisy boys to fires, proces-
sions, celebrations, and open air func-
tions of every kind. We all know the
tendency ofa crowd to fall to the level
of the lowest member of it. We know
the cruelty and cowardice and mean-
ness of a crowd. A man will do in a
crowd what he would never forgive
himself for doing by himself.
These objectionable mass tendencies .
are nowhere more plainly seen than in
our compulsory chapel services, from
which not even the two upper classes
are yet exempt, though they otherwise
breathe the air of University election.
The coughing and hawking, which
makes the place suggest a large bench
show; the contagiousness of the idiotic
laugh, or of the mischievous reminder
of the flight of time; all the acts and
postures and garbs which make the
judicious among us grieve, are the
result of this mass coherence which is
so highly developed during the first
two years of college requirements.
THE BRIGHT SIDE.
But there is a bright side to all this.
Such responsiveness to good soul-stir-
ring leadership, such glorious momen-
tum in good causes, such collective
loyalty and enthusiasm, such energy
in all the manifold enterprises .of our
undergraduate life, such slowly gather-
ing but grandly culminating demands
of public sentiment, and, even in chapel,
such collective tributes to the really
true and great and simple and pure;
where else can they be found? Be-
sides, it is not in groups and squads
and crowds that idleness thrives. And
vice, as the late Lord Laureate said,
“vice sometimes appears to me as the
shadow of idleness.” Whatever else
may thrive at Yale, idleness does not.
Everybody belongs somewhere and is
doing something. The work may not
be entirely the work of the curriculum,
but “fervet opus.”
Out of this old-fashioned college-
period of close supervision in the per-
formance of allotted tasks, the student
is gradually, not abruptly, transferred
into the larger and freer air of Uni-
versity election. Full University free-
dom in the Continental sense he cannot
have before the graduate departments;
but University election of courses, an
University methods of instruction, an
enlarged freedom in attendance he can
have in Junior and Senior years. :
this freedom he comes with no jade
