consult with the professor of that subject as to the preliminary studies that might be necessary, and to follow his advice. Even this is very far from being an elective system. The professor makes practically a fixed course; just as in the case of graduation in a professional department the faculty lay down a fixed course, and where the choice of the student comes in after selecting his subject of graduation is not very clear. No practical method can be devised of making the individual studies in a professional course elective if the degree is to be worth anything, and the speaker did not think that the term "elective system" ought to be used where this is not done. PROFESSOR WADSWORTH stated that there had not been the slightest lowering in the work, but instead of that a very decided raising. The professors of to-day demand of their students in the Michigan Mining School, that which not one of them would have dared to demand the year before, simply because the burden then was too great; the men could not stand the strain of so many subjects as those demanded by the required courses. In his own classes he had done work that he was ashamed to do, simply because he must do it or the men could not by any possibility get along. The burden was beyond that of human endurance. The student now takes fewer subjects in the same time, but does higher and better work. If modern languages, together with everything else that has been asked for from time to time, are made a part of the engineering courses, what opportunity is there for sufficient, or even for any, real engineering training? If engineering studies are necessary for a man, it will not do for him, in his engineering course, to spend most of his time on modern languages and on a variety of unprofessional studies that might be interpolated in an elective course. These studies should be preparatory. The elective system does require of a man that he shall take a definite amount of work in order to graduate; he must take the same amount that is required of him to graduate in a prescribed course, and it must be strictly in the line of professional studies. The idea that, in an elective system, a man can graduate if he has spread himself over any given number of studies without regard to their relations, is a thing that exists in no elective system outside of a kindergarten. It cannot exist. No man can study calculus until he has studied algebra. The sequence of studies must be followed, and the moment this is done, the student finds himself forced, practically, into a proper course of study. The elective system is a natural and logical system and it reaches the ends that every one has been hoping to obtain in the required courses. It removes from each student's selected course the special studies in which he cannot naturally succeed. PROFESSOR GALBRAITH suggested that in that case the course agrees with ordinary practice, but contains only what are considered necessary subjects. PROFESSOR WADSWORTH agreed to this, saying that for each student his selected course became for him a fixed course-fixed by his natural tastes and abilities, and not fixed by a faculty who knew and could know nothing about him. If He continued by explaining further the operation of the system described. When the professor of hydraulics demands of a student a certain amount of study, he does not say that the student should have everything in the curriculum, but he says that the student who comes to him shall take calculus, shall take analytical mechanics, shall take physics, shall take chemistry, or whatever studies he wishes. The student, when he enters upon his course, knows that if he is to take hydraulics, he must prepare himself accordingly. he wants metallurgy, the professor has laid down the ground previously which he must cover to take metallurgy. He cannot graduate under one professor and follow only one professor's course, for no three professors even can teach enough subjects to give a man his degree. The student can, if he wishes to do so, on one hand devote his time more particularly to metallurgy, chemistry, and geology as applied to mining; or, on the other hand, to the civil engineering or mining engineering sides. Or again, he can give most of his time to mechanical engineering or electrical engineering as applied to mining, and give less to the metallurgical and chemical sides. In this way he can follow his bent of mind and tastes; for as the individuality of the student varies, so he can modify his course; but he cannot graduate with an inferior training. The training is deeper and more thorough than it is in the required courses. The student may not take as many studies, but he does better and more thorough work. There seems to be an inclination to make the criticism that it is impossible for a student to choose his course wisely for simply one year, and yet he is ordinarily required to choose his life work for four years; that excites no comment; that is considered perfectly proper. If a man can enter a school before he has ever had a year's experience in any professional training, and select his course for four years, is he incompetent to choose it for only one year? That does not seem logical. With a knowledge of the sequence of studies, and under the guidance of professors, the speaker believed him capable of choosing and choosing well. There is a difficulty, and a very serious difficulty, in the elective systems in many of the literary colleges; and that difficulty will arise in the engineering colleges unless there is a controlling supervision. That difficulty is the introduction of "soft" courses. The faculty must be under such authority that the moment any member undertakes to bid for students by giving "soft" courses, there will be a certainty of his going out of the institution. This is absolutely essential. No good system of any kind, required or elective, is possible unless incompetent professors are quickly dispensed with. The president, or whoever is in charge of an institution, must have backbone and authority enough to say that such men must go. This is particularly true with the elective, and ought to be made true of every system. PROFESSOR H. S. JACOBY desired to ask a question as to whether there had been in the writer's experience an indication of a disposition on the part of any student to choose too one-sided a series of subjects. PROFESSOR WADSWORTH replied that there had been none so far, perhaps because the system is guarded so that a student can not very well do this. PROFESSOR JACOBY said he had a great deal of confidence in the ability of young America to choose very many more things for himself than he is often given credit for, and therefore had not much fear in that direction, and he felt very anxious to ask the question to more authoritatively learn the writer's ideas upon it. PROFESSOR STORM BULL expressed, as his understanding of Professor Wadsworth's practice, that he allows the student to say whether he wants to study English or anything of that kind. PROFESSOR WADSWORTH explained that, in the elective system described, the studies are limited to professional studies. English and similar studies are preparatory. These are not in the engineering curriculum. With free opportunity for the student to choose from modern languages and many other non-professional studies, in connection with his engineering work, nothing can be done with an elective system and obtain a high grade engineering course. The student will not be properly an engineering student. He will become a classical or a literary student, as that is the line of least resistance. The system of electives commences in the Michigan Mining School at the beginning, i. e., with the freshman, immediately upon his entrance. PROFESSOR BULL asked what was required for admission, whether either English or foreign languages? PROFESSOR WADSWORTH answered that the requirements for entrance with the former rigid courses had been somewhat peculiar. What had been then required, and what is required now under the elective system, are somewhat different things. The State |