IMPROVEMENTS
REQUIRED IN
Diitlirni (Tollrps
BY WM. LeROY BROUN, M. A.,
Professor Nat. Philosophy, University of Ga.
Read before the Teachers' Association of Georgia, in Macon, Decb'r 19th, 1867.
MACON, GA:
J. W. BURKE & CO., STATIONERS, PRINTERS AND BINDERS,
1868.
|mproi)cmcnfs ^Rrqairib in Swi%nt (Mrgcs.
As the social condition of man changes, he requires
new forms of government, and new systems of educa¬
tion adapted to his altered development. The changes
that take place in the forms of governments of the va¬
rious nations of the world are necessitated by the fact
that the old is no longer adapted to the wants and con¬
dition of the people. They require a change; and this
change generally indicates progress.
But while we see constitutions modified to suit socie¬
ty, we do not observe similar changes in the working
of those educational institutions in which our youth are
trained. They are required to prosecute the same
studies, by the same method, and frequently with the
same text books, that were used by our fathers. "True
cultivation involves progress and movement, while ab¬
solute stability produces a condition of stagnation;
and social stagnation is death.'1 While progress is
evinced in all other departments, in this, the most im¬
portant of all, the education of the youth, have we
nothing better to offer, than the old well tried plan of
our fore-fathers % Is the same order of education suited
to all classes and to all ages ? Do not new conditions
necessitate new methods' adapted to them ?*
* " It would seem that our whole system of instructionrequires an honest,
thorough and candid re%'ision. It has been for centuries the child of au¬
thority and precedent. If those before us made it what it is, by applying to
it the resources of earnest thought, I can see no reason why we by pursuing
the same course, might not improve it. God intended us for progress, and
we counteract his design when we deify antiquity and bow down and wor¬
ship an opinion, not because it is either wise or true, but merely because it
is ancient." Extract from an Address delivered at Union College, by
Francis Wayland, D. 1).
4
IMPROVEMENTS REQUIRED
Let ns examine these questions,- and see if tlie old
system, at present retained in so many of our institu¬
tions, is the best adapted to the wants and altered con¬
ditions of the people of the South. We allude to the
old prescribed college curriculum, embracing four years
of study. It is a time-honored system, introduced in
this country from England in the early Colonial days.
It has done in many instances most excellent work. But
it is a question whether the conditions which its estab¬
lishment presupposed, ever did exist among us, especial¬
ly among the Southern States. The college curriculum
of four years presupposed the existence of well organ¬
ized academies and high schools, where the applicants
for admission would be thoroughly drilled in the ele¬
ments of mathematics and ancient languages. The
system though adapted to England, with such schools
as Rugby and Eton, was transferred here, when in many
of the States, the existence of a High School was an
exception. The result has been, our Colleges have been
compelled to do the work that belonged to High
Schools. They have been forced to begin with the
elements of Science and Literature, and hence have had
to close the four years' curriculum in many instances,
painfully conscious that only a superficial knowledge of
many important subjects had been obtained ; conscious
of the deficiency, without the power of remedy.
The Professors in Southern Colleges mainly depend
on the precarious tuition fees of the students for their
support, and hence the necessity of having a large
number of students. Here we have a powerful ten¬
dency to lower the standard of scholarship. If the
standard of admission in the various colleges is made
very high, and observed with rigorous exactitude, the
number of students diminishes correspondingly, for the
IN SOUTHERN COLLEGES.
5
reason that the requisite preparatory schools do not
exist.
It is true, that we must look to the Colleges to give
tone and character to the education of the State. The
elevation will not begin at the schools, for they will do
no more than they are required to do by the college
catalogue. The students leave the schools for the col¬
lege as soon, generally, as they can enter the lower
classes. Qn the contrary, if much more is required for
admission, in the vain attempt thus to elevate the stand¬
ard of scholarship, the college is hopelessly crippled for
want of funds by reason of the small number of stu¬
dents that are admitted.
It would seem, then, with the system adopted, there
is small hope to be entertaiued that scholarship will be
so elevated in the South as to make real, bona fide,
good mathematicians, or good linguists, or superior
belles-lettres scholars.
Even were a college endowed so as to be independent
of the tuition fees, it could secure a high standard of
admission only at the expense of the number of its
students. Schools and colleges are intimately associ¬
ated with each other, and no where is the equality of
action and reaction more fully established than in their
relation. Yet, is our system so arranged as to admit of
no progress ? While the system is not so interlocked
as to be compelled to remain absolutely stationary, yet,
it is true, that our Southern colleges, cumbered with
poverty as they are, admit of very slow progress in
elevating scholarship. Facts bear us out in this state¬
ment.
Examine our college catalogues, and see what are the
requisites for graduation now, and what were the requi¬
sites a quarter of a century ago. Has any great pro-
6
IMPROVEMENTS REQUIRED
gress been made ? If any change has been made, we
will probably see there has been introduced, in a course
of a few weeks' length, some professional, scientific
study of very, questionable educational value, and* a
corresponding amount of pure, educational science or
literature, of less popular name, abstracted therefrom
There has been change, but often of questionable ad¬
vantage. The controlling motive has been, how to
make the Institution popular, and not how to elevate
genuine scholarship.
There has been decided improvement in the discip¬
line, and in the manner of governing vonng men.- That
disgraceful system of espionage, which begot a spirit of
antagonism between the teacher and student, is among
the things that were, and students and professors now
act toward each other as gentlemen should.
It has been remarked that " a general education
ought to develop with equal care all the dispositions
and all the faculties whose assemblage composes the
superior or rational nature of man," that the principle
of education is "universal in its character, excluding
all private interests or special ends." While we cor¬
dially subscribe to this view which teaches that the
object of education is to lead us to that perfection of
which we are capable, yet it is obvious, this cannot be
attained by all that class of people called educated.
The education of each individual depends on circum¬
stances that are peculiar to himself. We of the South
are not now in a condition to theorize in regard to the
ultimate aim of education, and to adopt our institutions
accordingly. We are more concerned at present with
that education which necessity has imposed upon us.
New views in regard to education should not be hastily
adopted, but should be examined with that care which
IN SOUTHERN COLLEGES.
7
the importance of the subject demands, yet we should
not rest quietly under the adoption of a system because
endeared to us by the remembrances of the past, and
refrain from examining its adaptations to our present
necessities, on account of its antiquity. Are there no
defects in the present four years curriculum ? Is it the
best that can be adopted ? Is it the best for our pres¬
ent condition %
(1) Among the objections that may be urged to
this system, may be mentioned first: that too little time
is devoted to each department of study. So many
subjects are crowded together within the four years,
each having its own merits, that often breadth is gained
at the expense of depth. A large area is passed over,
but not closely examined. Thoroughness is lost, and
superficiality gained; and the student is not made
aware that education is a thing of three dimensions.
This objection is inherent in the system. The time all
lotted to one subject cannot be increased without tenet-'
ing on some other department.
(2.) In the expansive ness of science, as new subjects
are developed which become essential to a complete
course, it is impossible without a sacrifice of some other
department to introduce them. This objection is vital
in its character, and furnishes the clue why the system
so opposes progress ; or, if not in opposition to, at least
not in sympathy with it.
(3.) Again, is it not the iron-led system, which
classes all minds together; subjects them to the same
treatment, to the same lines- of thought; enforces the
prosecution of the same subjects; compels clever minds
and dull minds to spend the same time in the same
classes, and affords no opportunity whatever-for an ex¬
tended prosecution of any literary or scientific studies ?
8
IMPROVEMENTS REQUIRED
Is not the restrictive system, or "close course," as it is
called, procrustean in its character?
(4.) When students are admitted in t'he regular
classes, they generally are not equally well prepared in
all the departments. The consequence is, it is impos¬
sible to maintain a uniform high -standard of scholar¬
ship. A diploma from the college is not refused for a
deficiency in one subject, and cannot be.
(5.) In this system it is customary to regard of much
greater importance the examination for admission into
college, than the final examination, when the collegiate
course is completed. It is considered that scholarship
is elevated by having a high standard of admission.
The applicant, especially, for a higher class, is closely
examined ; but if once admitted to enter, provided he
violates no rule of the college, he can have an easy time
of it, and with a very small amount of study, pass a
mere formal examination at the close of the course, and
receive a diploma. The final examinations are general¬
ly matters of form. For deficiency in them, how many
students are refused diplomas ? Only one instance has
come under our observation in a large experience.
Does it not, therefore, appear that we put the gate at
the wrong end of the road % We make it difficult to
get in, as if scholarship depended on that, and very
easy to get out. The system should be reversed ; ad¬
mission to enter should not be difficult, but the closest
possible examination should be made at the close to de¬
termine who are fit to receive the award of the diploma.
The restrictive system, therefore, prevents a uniform
high standard of scholarship, and has degraded the
signification of a diploma, simply to a certificate that
the possessor has enjoyed collegiate ad vantages; noth¬
ing more. It has no reference whatever, to the amount
IN SOUTHERN COLLEGES.
9
of knowledge lie has acquired, or to the mental train¬
ing he has undergone. If the student will attend his
recitations, and act quietly, at the close of the course
he will receive the attestation of all his Professors that
he is so skilled in the department of arts, as to deserve
the honor of a degree; though he may be unable to
solve a simple equation in Algebra; unable to trans-
late into correct English an ordinary sentence of Latin
or Greek ; unable to read the very diploma which de¬
clares his proficiency. Yet he goes forth into the world,
stamped with the broad seal of the college, as an edu¬
cated person. This system does not encourage and re¬
quire thoroughness. It stamps the clever student, the
thorough scholar, and the superficial smatterer, with
the same seal.
But, we do not desire to be understood as asserting,
.that ripe scholars have not been made in our Southern
Colleges. Many are the names that reflect credit on
their foster-mothers. But this matured scholarship was
the result, not of the system, but in spite of it. So
also we have honored names of those who never enjoy¬
ed the advantages of a collegiate education who were
indebted for their advancement alone to their own en¬
ergy and their powers of self development.
(6.) The system does not admit of expansiveness.
This appears in the limited time that is allotted to each
subject. Though a Professor may earnestly desire to
continue the subject farther, it is not in his power to do
so. The time allotted to him will not admit of any ad¬
dition to his course.
(7.) It places the elevation of the standard of scho¬
larship on the schools and academies.
Not being able to expand its own course in the "fixed
time, it endeavors, by increasing.the amount of knowl-
B
10
IMPROVEMENTS REQUIRED
edge required for admission, to begin at a more advan¬
ced poiut. If the requisite High Schools and Acade¬
mies are not in existence, this disciplinary course can¬
not be complied with. Therefore the College conduc¬
ted on 'the close system,' desirous of elevating the
standard of scholarship, must remain on its high pinna¬
cle without students, until the lliorh Schools and A cade-
7 O
mies have been so multiplied in the land as to perform
the requisite amount of disciplinary work.
Consequently, according to this system, until the
good schools increase, the scholarship of the colleges
must remain stationary. But how can the good schools
increase, without good teachers ? And how can our
teachers be made better with a stationary college
course, which both lacks expansiveness, pnd fails to ex¬
act thoroughness, yet looks to the schools to elevate its
standard ? Are we not here in the " vicious circle ?"
And does not this furnish a satisfactory reason for our
very slow progress in the department of education ?
We recapitulate, therefore, the following objections
to which the restrictive system is liable :
1st. The time devoted to each department of study
is too limited.
2nd. It subjects all minds to the same iron-bed sys¬
tem.
3rd. It effectually places the examination at the be¬
ginning, instead of the close of the course.
4th. It prevents a uniform high standard of scholar¬
ship.
5th. It renders a diploma of doubtful significance.
6th. It is neither expansive nor progressive.
7th. It relies mainly for elevation of scholarship, on
the schools and academies.
8th. It degrades the degree of Master of Arts to an
IN SOUTHEBN COLLEGES.
11
award of ignorance, inasmuch as three years of forget-
fulness are required for its bestowal.
In contrast with this restrictive course, we hay;e the
open or elective system, known very generally in the
South as that of the University of Virginia. For the
better comprehending of our argument, we state its
distinguishing features.
The subjects in the departments of Science and Lit¬
erature are made distinct and separate. The separate
departments, or ' schools,' as they are called, with their
Professors and Assistants, may represent so many dis¬
tinct colleges. A student can enter any one of these
distinct schools without examination, and will receive a
diploma with the title of graduate, when he has passed
a satisfactory examination, and not until then.
Time, in no respect, enters as an element of gradua¬
tion, but qualification alone is the test. He may gradu¬
ate in a school in one year, in five years, or he may ne¬
ver be able to graduate. When he has graduated in a
certain number of schools, he receives the degree of
Bachelor of Arts, and when he has graduated in all the
departments, he receives the highest honor in the gift
of the University, the degree of Master of Arts.
Some of the advantages of this elective system, are
of the following character :
(1.) Its elective character especially adapts it to the
necessities of the- youth of the South, and at no time
more eminently, than in their present condition of limi¬
ted resources.
A student, whose means will not permit him to remain
time sufficient to acquire a complete and liberal educa¬
tion by mastering all those subjects universally recog¬
nized as essential to complete development, can devote
himself especially to those-subjects which bear more
12
IMPROVEMENTS REQUIRED
directly upon Lis proposed profession or business. And
thus in a limited time may acquire considerable profi¬
ciency in some speciality, that may be immediately ap¬
plied to practical life. It may be supposed that this
will encourage a one-sided development, and discour¬
age genuine liberal scholarship, as produced by the
long cherished method of the established curriculum.
Such a result does not necessarily follow.
Admit if you please, that it would be desirable to
give every youth in the land a complete education in
all the departments of Science and Literature;—an ad¬
mission which we, by no means make—would it not be
under any circumstances impossible to accomplish the
result ? We must look at things as they are, and not
maintain a false position, if our reasoning so demon¬
strates it. Very few young men now have the means
to justify the completion of what is called a liberal
course of education. This course was originally de¬
signed for those who expected to adopt one of the so-
called learned professions, viz: Law, Medicine, or Di¬
vinity ; or whose means enabled them to spend a life of
leisure.
Our Southern Colleges in former days were filled
generally, with young men of large expectations, who
by the prevailing spirit had been taught to despise
work and energy, and industry, and to honor wealth.
They were sent to college, because it was usual for
gentlemen's sons to go, and because they there acquired
a certain degree of refinement.
Their object was not work at college; nor their ex¬
pectation work in after life.
Now a change has taken place. Our colleges are
filled with young men who come to work, -who desire
solid improvement; who wish to be best prepared not
IN SOUTHERN COLLEGES.
13
simply for the enjoy men t of the life of a gentleman;
not for one of the professions; but for all the walks of
life; especially for the useful arts that can be immedi¬
ately made available in furnishinc; the means of living;.
O ©
Therefore we infer that the restrictive system always
limited in its adaptation to a fixed class of students, is
now wholly unsuited to the enlarged wants of our
young men. It is too narrow, too contracted.
(2.) The great problem that presses itself upon edu¬
cators for solution, is how to reconcile the conflicting
views of those who advocate a purely scientific training,
and those who insist that the large amount of time that
is now devoted to the study of the Ancient Languages,
is essential to a complete education.
It cannot be expected that uniformity of opinion on
the subject of education will obtain.
The advocates of a scientific training have very pro¬
perly urged that the close system so totally ignored their
views, as not to afford the opportunity of testing them,
and have now in many instances compelled the forma¬
tion of a second prescribed scientific course, formed for
the purpose of supplying a felt necessity. Some In¬
stitutions hnve adopted the French system of bifurca¬
tion, which presents at a certain part of the course, the
choice of either a classical or scientific training.
This has only partially met the difficulty. Instead of
confining all to one course, it gives the choice of two;
and compels provision still, for a class of students who
do not desire to conform to either prescribed curriculum.
The elective system is therefore adapted equally to
all classes. It furnishes a solution, so far as collegiate
education is concerned, of that important problem; not,
it is true, by deciding whether the mental training re¬
ceived through the study of the Ancient Languages can
14
IMPROVEMENTS REQUIRED
be advantageously superseded by the rigorous discipline
of the sciences, but by affording equal opportunities to
all to test the merits of their peculiar views. It permits
a student to make a speciality of Science, to the exclu¬
sion of Ancient Languages ; or to devote his whole time,
if he prefers, to the study of the Classics.
That the old college routine of studies is no -longer
suited to the demands of the age, is apparent, by the ef¬
fort that many of our colleges are making to still retain
the old cherished system, and grafting on thereto a spe¬
cial scientific course.
(3.) It is a broad flexible, expansive, and progressive
system. Its breadth and flexibility are apparent in it6
adaptation to the prejudices and necessities of all classes
of students; to the rich and the poor; to those who are
able to spend many years at college, as well as to those
whose limited means will only allow of one year; to
those who desire to become accomplished scholars, as
well as to those whose necessities demand a more prac¬
tical education. Its expansive and progressive nature
appears in the facility with which new departments are
organized- under new Professors, without conflicting
in any manner with those already in existence. This
arises from the independent nature, of the several de¬
partments, acting as so many distinct colleges, under a
common government constituting a University.
(4.) But it is urged against this system, that it is only
adapted for well disciplined minds; and hence not suited
to our wants where we have comparatively untaught
pupils to deal with.
It is true, in our lamentable deficiency of High
Schools, our Universities and Colleges are compelled to
do tutorial work. But the adoption of the elective sys¬
tem does not prevent the performance of the Work
IN SOUTHERN COLLEGES.
15
which should have been done at schools, if the class of
pupils is such as requires this preliminary discipline, to
adapt them to a more thorough and higher University
course. With the aid of assistants, such preliminary
classes can be formed as may be necessary, and the stu¬
dents subjected to rigorous mental training immediately
under the eye -of the Professor. A guarantee would
thus be secured that the teaching would be well done.
It does not follow that a preparatory school would
have to be established by each Professor. Some stu¬
dents, for example, might be able to attend advanta¬
geously the lectures of the Professor in the department
of Ancient Languages, but would derive great, advan¬
tage from the training given by the daily searching
questions of an assistant in the department of Mathe¬
matics.
In this, the system offers great advantages over the
prescribed curriculum. The student is classified in each
department according to his proficiency, or soon classi¬
fies himself. Assistant Instructors would be required
for the tutorial work according to the number and quali¬
fications of the students.
As these views are designed to be practical in their
character, we will be excused for particularizing, and
attending to the working of special institutions.
Washington College in Yirginia, over which Gen.
Lee presides, is organized upon the elective system. It
has enjoyed in the past few years, unparalleled prosperi¬
ty. Many students are there, who would not be admit¬
ted in our colleges organized upon the close curriculum.
And, on the contrary, it may be, many students are
permitted to leave our colleges awarded with a diploma,
honored with the title of graduate, who would require
16
IMPROVEMENTS REQUIRED
several years of study to receive a similar honor at the
Institution alluded to.
The system thus exacts thorough scholarship as the
requisite for a diploma, while it is adapted to do the
disciplinary work designed properly for High Schools.
It includes both tutorial and professorial labors, and for
that reason is most eminently and specially adapted to
our immediate wants. It thus can be made to supply
the existing deficiency of which all our colleges so just¬
ly complain ; that their lower classes are filled with un¬
disciplined and untrained students. No where else is
the expansiveness of the system more apparent. It se¬
cures improvable material, descends to tutorial work,
and dignifies with a diploma only those who exhibit
high attainments, tested as they are, by means not of a
formal oral examination, but by written examinations
that are rigorous and searching.
The system demands labor ; earnest, enthusiastic
work on the part of both Student and Professor. It
begets life, activity, and energy. A drone cannot live
in the atmosphere it generates. And sometimes, unfor¬
tunately for the cause of education, it must be confessed,
drones are found in college chairs.
It enables the" Professor to exact a higher standard of
attainment than he is permitted to do in a prescribed
curriculum, for the reason that in a prescribed course
the institution is pledged to graduate on the completion
of a certain definite amount of each subject; and defi¬
ciency in some departments is atoned for in the general
average by success in others.
But in the elective system the distinctiveness of each
department, and the plan of separate diplomas, render
each Professor absolute in his own sphere, and leave
SOUTHERN COLLEGES.
17
him untrammelled in his decisions by the success or fail¬
ure of the student in other departments.
The system, therefore, of giving special diplomas
in each department, does not degrade scholarship but
felevates it. This fact is easily demonstrated, by re¬
marking the very great disproportion existing between
the number of students, and the number of graduates
in attendance at those institutions where the elective
system is adopted, in comparison with the number of
graduates and students at those which adhere to the
restrictive system. This disproportion demonstrates
the high standard necessary to be attained to receive a
diploma, and not that there is more study done under
the restrictive system.
Because not a single student was declared a gradu¬
ate in a well known College, from a body of nearly
four hundred young men; and because, of two hun¬
dred students in Mathematics, at another institution
using the elective system, only twelve were declared
graduates, it would be great injustice to the teachers
and students of those institutions to infer that a small
amount of study was done, that the system "encour¬
aged literary triflers," as a distinguished President
of one of our Southern Colleges once declared. It
only demonstrates the high standard of scholarship
required for graduation. The probabilities are that
one-fourth of the number who failed to graduate had
prosecuted successfully a more extended course of
study than is accomplished by the average grade of
graduates of the Colleges adhering to the close system.
A high standard of scholarship is maintained by
rigorous examinations at the close of the Collegiate
Course, and not by. formal ones at the beginning.
In the close course there is a formal difficulty to get
c
18
IMPROVEMENTS REQUIRED
in, but still less to get out, while in the elective sys¬
tem it is not the admission, but the passing out with
a diploma that is attended with difficulty. This di¬
ploma is the reward of merit, of proficiency, as attes¬
ted by examinations of the strictest scrutiny, and is
not a mere certificate of so many years' residence at
College.
(6.) The high energizing reactive influence which
this demand upon the student's mental powers exerts
upon the Professor, brings about a degree of mental
activity among students and professors rarely equal¬
led or approximated to in the dull routine of the cur¬
riculum. Its influence is also soon recognized in the
improvement of the schools. The high standard of
attainments required of its graduates, causes them
to become most skillful and exact teachers. They
thus undertake to perform the tutorial work in the
Academies, and thereby soon relieve the College of
this necessity. Experience soon demonstrates that
the more thoroughly a student is prepared in the
Academies, the more certain he is of success. The
consequence is that in the Academies which undertake
to prepare students for this elective system, they often
complete a .more extensive course in the classics and
in the mathematics than is required for graduation in
many of our Colleges *
*rt is not an uncommon thing for pupils of those High Schools conducted
by graduates of the University of Virginia, to complete at the school the
usual Latin and Greek course taught at Colleges, including several plays of
Euripides or Sophocles—to write largely of Latin and Greek Prose ; in
Mathematics, to complete Descriptive Geometry, a full course of Analyti¬
cal Geometry, including Geometry of Three Dimensions, a course of Cal¬
culus, as Courtenay's; in French, to translate several of the plays of
Moliere and Racine; and in German, to translate Schiller's Tell, or its
equivalent. The writer's former connection with schools of the class
alluded to, enables him to speak definitely and accurately.
IN SOUTHERN COLLEGES.
19
The argument therefore is, that it is impossible to
elevate the standard of scholarship to any great degree
so long as we are unprovided with good disciplinary
Schools and Academies, and that the mental training of
the Academy depends on the attainments of the teacher,
that are demanded by the college for his graduation,
and not on the requirements the college makes for the
admission of students to the lower classes. The col¬
lege is thus debarred from exacting high attainments,
and produces no reactive influence on academies. It is
compelled by its own prescribed course to conform itself
year after year to the same standard. Whereas in the
elective system the growth is perceptible from year to
year. The Academies improve, the students go to the
college better prepared, and the Professor is enabled to
pretermit the tutorial work in a great degree, and to go
As an example, there is submitted the following examination in Analyti¬
cal Geometry, which was given in one of these Preparatory Schools :
I. Prove that the general equation of the second degree between two varia¬
bles, will always represent one of the conic sections.
II. Find the equation of the conchoid and construct the curve.
III. Prote that the cosine of the angle included between two lines is equal
to the product of the cosines of the angles which the lines in space form
with the co-ordinate axes.
IV. Determine graphically the roots of the equation
a;4 ■+■ 8a;3 ■+■ 23x2 ■+■ 32x + 16 = 0.
V. Find the general equation of a plane
VI. Prove that every equation of the first degree between three variables is
the equation of a plane.
VII. Find the value of the perpendicular drawn from the point (a/ y' ze) to
the plane 8a; 9y — z + 2 = 0.
VIII. Find the value of the angle included between the two planes repre¬
sented by the equations—
5x — 1y ■+■ 3z ■+•1 — 0.
2x ■+• y — 3s = 0.
IX. Find the equation of a right cone with an elliptical base.
X. Discuss the equation Mz1 +Ny* +Lx* +P = 0, and determine the
surface represented. •
XI. Determine the general equation of th6 tangent plane to surfaces which
have a centre.
20
IMPROVEMENTS REQUIRED
forward and render his course each year more extensive
and more thorough.
(7.) The elective system is the greater , and includes
the lesser. It does all that the prescribed course does
and more also. It is capable of descending lower and
ascending higher. It can both supply the deficiency
of academies and offer a post-graduate course. The
Professor can exact certain generally attainable acquire¬
ments for ordinary graduation ; and besides can organ¬
ize for the more clever students, and for those who de¬
sire to perfect themselves more thoroughly in certain
departments, a post-graduate course, which will in no
manner conflict writh the general arrangement, but will
be a co-ordinate part of the system.
We sum up the arguments we have presented in fa¬
vor of the elective system, as follows :
1st. Its character especially adapts ii to the varying
wants of the young men of the South : and particularly
to those whose limited means will not admit of a com¬
plete course, hence, its especial adaptation to our pre¬
sent necessities.
2nd. It is equally adapted to those who desire a
practical and scientific training, and to those who pre¬
fer to become disciplined in those habits of thought
superinduced by a study of the Ancient Languages.
3d. It is broad, flexible, expansive and progres¬
sive. It includes the prescribed curriculutti and
more, and is ready to introduce without change, any
subject that time may prove essential to the well-be¬
ing of society.
4th. It supplies the deficiency of academies, per¬
forming when necessary tutorial work.
5th. It elevates scholarship to a far higher rank
than is attainable in the restrictive system.
IN SOUTHERN COLLEGES. 21
^ 6th. It excites an unusual amount of mental ac¬
tivity among Students and Professors, and reacts to
the improvement of academies.
7th. It admits without change of plan a post-gradu¬
ate course.* , •
These general arguments are conclusive in favor
of the elective system. But we must be understood,
we do not pretend that it will do all that is claimed
for it without the proper men. JSTo system can make
a clever man of one constitutionally duM, and none
can make a good Professor of a naturally stupid
man.
Yet, we are convinced that the system that places a
Professor upon his own merits and requires him to
desert text books, and lecture regularly, will incite
cleverness, and serve as an antidote to what other¬
wise would be natural dullness. It compels work,
*The Educational Reform exciting at present so much interest in Eng¬
land, ceases to be a subject of controversy with the adoption of the Elective
system, for equal opportunities are here presented to the advocates of a
literary or a scientific culture. But we are inclined to regard the capacity of
this system to elevate scholarship and exact thoroughness as one of its chief
merits. Says Mr. J. M. Wilson—1' I hold that a boy is best educated by
learning something of many things, and much of something." In the pre¬
scribed course, when the time for each subject is limited, does the boy learn
, much of something,m the sense here used ? Says Prof. A. De Morgan, {in
a Lecture delivered at University College, London,)—" When the student
has occupied his time in learning a moderate portion of many different
•things, what has he acquired—extensive knowledge or useful habits? Even
if he can be said to have varied learning, it will not be long true of him, for
nothing flies so quickly-as half digested knowledge ; and when this is gone
there remains but a slender portion of useful power. A small quantity of
learning quickly evaporates from a mind which never held any learning, ex¬
cept in small quantities'; .... men who have given deep attention to one
or more liberal studies can learn to the end of their lives ; and are able.to
retain and apply very small quantities of other kinds of knowledge; while
those who have never learned much of any one thing,' seldom acquire new
knowledge after they attain to years of maturity, and frequently lose the
greater part of that which they once possessed."
22
IMPROVEMENTS REQUIRED
earnest work, on the part of both Professor and Stu¬
dent. We speak advisedly when we say we have
knoAvn Professors, under this elective system to do
more real work in the preparation of their lectures,
and to perform more of the real drudgery of teaching,
in one month, than we have seen some perform," in
the course of the whole collegiate year, under the pre¬
scribed system. We remember having once heard a
Professor in perfect naivete remark, that in a certain
well known text book, his course consisted of eighteen
lectures, and that as he had committed them perfect¬
ly to memory, and could repeat them word for word,
therefore, he had nothing more to do!
Such a system, as would tolerate such a Professor, has
been an obstacle to progress, a positive injury to the
youth, who under the guise of being educated, of hav¬
ing their mental faculties unfolded, educed, disciplined,
have often had them dwarfed, and in some instances
ruined, by the fatal mistake of regarding the filling the
mind as a vast store-house, with an undigested collection
of facts, as the object of collegiate education. Strange
it is found so hard to induce some teachers to leave off
their mental swaddling clothes. Useful formation and
not useful information should constitute the chief ob¬
ject of Collegiate Education.
The system whose peculiar features we have en¬
deavored to explain, was established in this country,,
through the infliience of Mr. Jefferson, and found its
full development in the University of Virginia. Estab¬
lished in "1825, it met the concurrent opposition of
all the religious denominations, and under the obloquy
of infidelity to the christian religion, struggled with few
students and with frequent and serious riots, until its
high standard of scholarship, and the christian character
IN SOUTHERN COLLEGES. 23
of its Professors established its reputation and secured
its success. • It has been the means of totally reform¬
ing the system of teaching in the academies and schools
in the State of Virginia, and in very many of those
in the other Southern States.
The superiority of scholarship attained at the Insti¬
tution where this system- was first introduced, was
clearly attested during the late war. When it became
necessary to reorganize the Ordnance Department of the
Confederate States, the Secretary of War ordered the
examination of all candidates for appointment. Under
this order, examinations were held at the several Head-
Quarters of all the armies then in the service of the
Confederate States. The result, was that four-fifths of
those recommended by the Board of Examiners were
graduates in some form of the University of Virginia.*
Its success in elevating scholarship and in extending
its healthful influence to High Schools, has attracted
deserved attention, and we find that three important
Colleges in Virginia, the University of South Carolina,
and the Kentucky University, have abolished the old
curriculum for the more expansive elective system.
Their success will only be secured by maintaining a
high standard of scholarship.f
After a sufficient number of good schools have been,
established throughout the South to do the requisite
* The writer was appointed by the Secretary of War to prepare the ex¬
aminations, and to conduct the same at the several Head-Quarters of the
armies The examinations were all conducted in writing. This was an un¬
expected, but no doubt, deserved compliment.
f Since this Report was read, we learn that the Trustees of the TJniversity
of North Carolina propose to reorganize that Institution upon a plan better
adapted to meet the wants pf the age ; in the main, adopting the plan whose
advantages it has been the object of this Report to present—that is, the elec¬
tive system of independent schools.
24
IMPROVEMENTS REQUIRED
elementary training, it may remain a question for dis¬
cussion whether it will then be advisable to continue
the elective system in those colleges that depend on lo¬
cal patronage, the majority, of whose students are con¬
tent with a limited education. Such colleges should
correspond to the gymnasia of Germany, and by .be¬
coming thorough training schools, confining themselves
to the permanent studies, they would greatly-advance
the cause of sound learning.
But for an institution that aspires to be a University,
not in name alone; that aspires to be universal in its
character, adapted to all classes; that undertakes to
teach the " Permanent Studies that link us to the p#»st,
and the Progressive Studies that connect us with the pre¬
sent? ajid future that professes both' to educate, and to
fit by instruction in special schools for practical life—
the elective system is that best adapted to enable it to
fully perform its functions under all circumstances.
The people require this universal system adapted to
all classes, a system adapted to the rich as well as to
the poor, a system equally adapted for liberal culture
or special instruction. Its adoption would winnow the
chaff from the wheat, substitute sense for sound, knowl¬
edge for the symbol of knowledge, and render a di¬
ploma a mark of real attainments.
But objections of this kind have been'urged, by
some, against this elective system. " Before they ( the
boys,] are properly prepared," it has been said, "they
present themselves for admission into College, and,are
allowed to make their own selection of studies. Are
they qualified to reach a wise conclusion in a subject of
such importance and difficulty ? Do they not generally
select those subjects which require the least effort?
IN SOUTHERN COLLEGES. 25
Unquestionably this lias been the result where the
elective system has been adopted."*
Let us see if such has been the result. Examine the
Catalogue of the University of Virginia, the only insti¬
tution in America where the elective system has been
in successful operation for more than forty years, and
where it existed a quarter of a century before Dr.
Wayland attempted to introduce it in Brown Univer¬
sity. How do^the number of students in the more dif¬
ficult and less difficult subjects compare ? We find
from an accurate table of the number of students in at¬
tendance in each class from 1825 to 1867, the follow¬
ing to be the result:
In the Department of Mathematics, 4672 Students
11 " " !t Latin and Greek, 4117 "
'• " u Modern Languages, 3720 -1
" " , l< Natural Philosophy, 3215 •'
" " " u Moral Philosophy, 2967
" " "■ Chemistry, 2122
We see therefore, that an experience of forty-two
years, proves that just the opposite, t*o what objectors
have urged, is true. The more difficult subjects as Ma¬
thematics and Ancient Languages, which constitute the
basis of all thorough education, are more frequently
elected than the less difficult ones of Moral Philosophy
and Chemistry.
The practical working of the system is, that the elec
tion is made for the young student by his parent or
teacher long before he enters college, or by his Profes¬
sor for him when he enters.
What studies shall he take the first year, and what
the second year, constitute a subject of anxious inquiry
*A. new scheme of organization, instruction and government for the Uni¬
versity of Alabama, by James T. Murfee, Achitect and late Commandant
Cadets, Tuskaloosa, Alabama—1867.
D
26
IMPROVEMENTS REQUIRED
on the part of the parent, teacher and student, and the
conclusion is only reached after much consultation with
friends capable of advising, when all the circumstances
applicable to the particular case are considered, inclu¬
ding proficiency, aptness to acquire, studious habits,
probable profession or business, and the number of
years he may be able to attend college.
The untutored boy therefore, in fact, does not elect
his own studies, but those do, who best know his capa¬
city, and know what training is best suited for his pe¬
culiar development. The boy is neither left to himself
nor to a fixed prescribed course.
We regard this system as eminently adapted to our
present necessities, and therefore, so far, provisional in
its character. A complete system of Educational In¬
stitutions would require the Common School, the Gram¬
mar School,, the High School, the College and the Uni¬
versity, each performing its own peculiar functions
without trenching on the other; all co-ordinated to¬
gether and forming one graduated and complete sys¬
tem. The University should rank superior to the Col¬
lege by affording opportunities for special instruction
in the various professions of life, and by a more extend¬
ed course in Science and Literature than is adapted to
collegiate education. The great cost of the machinery
of education for scientific professional life, • where it is
necessary to furnish expensive apparatus and models,
demonstrates the economy of concentration. Hence it
is neither economical nor wise to attempt to multiply
Universities. A University organized on this sys¬
tem should properly be designed only for those who
have already received a fair collegiate training; but, as
previously remarked, in the absence of those good
schools necessary to give the requisite training, by this
IN SOTJTHEKN COLLEGES.
27
system, the required disciplinary work can he per¬
formed.
We do not desire to be understood as advocating
practical knowledge, only; yet, wliile we adopt Kant's
definition that "the duty of education is to reveal to our
consciousness—to evolve—the inherent ideal of divinity
in man," we must say with Herbert Spencer, the im¬
portant question for us is, " how to live." " In what
way to treat the body," says he " in what way to treat
the mind ; in what way to bring up a family; in what
way to behave as a citizen; in what way to utilize all
those sources of happiness which nature supplies; how
to use all our faculties to the greatest advantage of our¬
selves and others, constitute the great thing needful for
us to learn, and by consequence, is the great thing
which education has to teach."
We cannot hope to do everything at once. We ac¬
knowledge the high and noble ultimate aim of educa¬
tion to develop the "inherent divinity" within us, but we
must be content now to lay the basis, the ground-work
of that noble superstructure. There can be no devel¬
opment, no high culture without leisure. There can be
no leisure without wealth. Hence the necessity that is
upon us, the people of the South to do what our fore¬
fathers did; to do the work that is essential in a fron¬
tier civilization, in order to establish the basis of a
higher culture; and hence the necessity of an educa¬
tion adapted to that end, and of a system, provisional,
it may be for colleges, that admits of special instruc¬
tion ; that undertakes both to supply the present defi¬
ciency of schools, and to elevate the standard of scho¬
larship ; that is equally adapted to those whose means
will admit of a liberal education, as well as to those
who are. compelled to be content with that partial edu¬
cation which necessity has imposed upon them.
28 IMPROVEMENTS REQUIRED
Is it not a proof of the failure of our system of col¬
legiate education, and of its non-adaptation to the wants
of the people, that so many of our colleges are losing
patronage as to be incapable of self-support ? Are not
our colleges losing the confidence of the people by
their failure to furnish the men needed by the times ?
Are they doing the work needed ? These are grave
questions worthy of careful consideration.
The successful establishment of the Scientific Schools
of Harvard, Yale, and Columbia Colleges as indepen¬
dent departments, and the . recent establishment of
the Institute of Technology in Boston; all- indicate
the requirements of the times, as well as the attempt to
introduce a scientific course in very many of onr South¬
ern Colleges. But in many of the colleges alluded to,
the attempt has been made to " tack on" a scientific
course as a mere appendage to the old traditional sys¬
tem. By consequence, we will thus have two totally
different educations •" incongruous in aim and alien in
spirit," which will not only fail to strengthen and
support each other, but may exert mutually an inju¬
rious influence. By the elective system this antag¬
onism is destroyed, and a certain repression of classical
studies can be effected by those who desire it, and the
time spent in the* prosecution of those s.ubjects which
hardly existed in name a quarter of a century ago,
the development of which so eminently distinguish
the age in which we live. No other proof need be of¬
fered to demonstrate the necessity of a radical change
in our system of collegiate education, and its lack of
adaptation to our present necessities, than the fact,
that since the present curriculum was introduced, new
sciences have been discovered with which men are
now compelled to be familiar, otherwise, they are not
IN SOUTHERN COLLEGES.
29
educated for the age in which they live; otherwise,
they cannot hope to furnish living illustrations of Mil¬
ton's noble definition of a 'complete and generous edu¬
cation,' as " that which fits a man to perform justly,
skillfully, and magnanimously all the offices both private
and public, of peace and war."