Thoughts on the present collegiate system in the United States

Preface

The following pages are submitted to the public with great diffidence because they propose changes ; and the author has lived too long to be a passionate admirer of innovation. Let it however be remembered that he merely suggests the points to ^e aimed at where alterations are to be made ; leaving the time and manner and degree of alteration to the decision of those whose duty it is to judge of the circumstances in each particular case. Should he have done no more than direct attention to the questions here discussed, the labor which he has bestowed will not have been wholly mis-spent. These pages have been written amidst frequent interruptions arising from pressing Collegiate engagements, as well as from unusual public anxiety. They have been printed at so great a distance from home, that the author has been unable to revise the proofs with all the care that he could wish. With all their imperfections, he offers them as" an humble contribution to the cause of Collegiate Education.

Brown University ^ August 1, 1842.

CHAPTER I. IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT; ATTEMPTS TO IMPROVE OUR COLLEGIATE SYSTEM i

CHAPTER H.

THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF COLLEGIATE INSTRUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES 18

i. Of the Visit orial Power .... 22

2. Of the Executive Officers .... 25

3. Of the Responsibility Assumed ... 28

4. Of the Course of Study .... 32

CHAPTER HI.

OF THE DEFECTS OF THE SYSTEM OF COLLEGIATE EDUCA- TION IN THE UNITED STATES, AND THE MEANS BY WHICH IT MAY BE IMPROVED 43

Sect. 1. Of the Visitorial Power .... 43

Sect. 2. Of the Faculty, or Officers of Instruction 62

Sect. 3. Of Collegiate Education ... 76

Sect. 4. Of College Discipline . . . .112

VI

CHAPTER. IV.

OF SOME PREVALENT ERRORS IN REGARD TO COLLEGIATE EDUCATION 132

CHAPTER V.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

i. Corporations or Boards of Visitors

2. Of the Organization of our Colleges

3. Of the Officers of Colleges

4. Of the Discipline of our Colleges

5. Of Premiums

150 151 153 156 157 159

THOUGHTS

ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF

COLLEGIATE EDUCATION.

CHAPTER I.

IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT; ATTEMPTS TO IMPROVE OUR COLLEGIATE SYSTEM.

The opinions at present entertained on the subject of education afford us a decisive proof that the movement of civilization is onward. Throughout all protestant nations, the obligation of the community at large to make provision for the instruction of the young, is very commonly admitted. Nor is this conviction confined to those forms of social organization which more closely resemble our own. On the contrary the almost unlimited monarchy of Prussia has been foremost in this good work. France is laboring with zeal and efficiency in the same cause. Great Britain has already made a good beginning and will doubtless before long do something worthy of the rank which it holds among civilized nations ; while, In our own country, the constitu- 1 tion of our General Government is founded upon the presumption that every man is possessed of some degree of education ; and every State in the Union acknowledges its obligation to provide the means by which every citizen shall be taught the rudiments of knowledge, at least so far as to reveal to him the treasures of science in his own language, and place in his hands the power of indefinitely improving himself.

I have remarked that this fact denotes the progress of our race in the career of civilization. It teaches us that the principles of benevolence are becoming better known, and that the obligations of benevolence are also more widely acknowledged. He who is willing to spend his property for the purpose of elevating the intellectual character of his remotest fellow citizen is surely a better man than he who cares for the improvement of no being beyond the circle of his own family. The nation which has risen from the low level of individual aggrandizement to the high ground of universal philanthropy has presented a new claim to our grateful veneration. It shows that every man has come to entertain a more heartfelt respect and a profounder love for his brother, that the fountain of good-will has gushed up from a deeper recess in his bosom, and that the stream is fresher, purer and more abundant. Charity is always lovely ; but when it penetrates the very substance of a whole society, and becomes an essential element of national character, without losing aught of its beauty, it partakes largely of the sublime.

The increasing attention to the general diffusion of the means of education shows us also that mankind are growing wiser as well as better. It is a convincing proof that the views which once were peculiar to far sighted and meditative men have now become common to the whole community ; that, instead of contending with evils as they throng upon us on every side, we are resolved to dry up the sources from which they emanate ; that, extending our views beyond the narrow limits of the present, we are seeking to learn lessons from the past and are reaching forward to wield for purposes of good the destinies of the future. It is thus alone that we can lay deep and broad the foundations of the social fabric and render certain the progress of men in virtue and intelligence. It is thus that goodness becomes so nearly allied to wisdom, and this alliance is the more closely cemented, as wisdom is more profound and goodness more intense and more universal.

It may I suppose be taken for granted that the settled policy of the United States is to furnish the means for obtaining a common English education to every citizen, and to improve that education from time to time without any assignable limit. It may then be hoped that within a short time every American citizen will be able to read, write, and keep accounts, and that at no very distant period he will also be familiar with all the more important branches of elementary knowledge. Our resources must be strangely misapplied, and our efforts cursed with suicidal blindness, if these anticipations be not to a considerable degree realized within the experience of the present generation.

It is too obvious to require extended remark that the universal diffusion of the means of common education cannot be accomplished without creating a great demand for education of a higher grade. If a population of five millions of children and young persons are to be taught, we shall need more than an hundred thousand teachers to instruct them. Our common schools will also be almost worthless unless they be well taught. If teachers are ignorant, the office of teacher will soon sink into contempt. Our schools instead of being filled with pupils from every class of society, as they ought to be, will contain only the children of vagiants and mendicants. They will lose all favor with the yeomanry of the country, who will soon tire of supporting an institution from which their children can derive no benefit. Thus the common school system would prove a failure and all our efforts to promote its success become abortive. It is manifest then, that if a system of general education be adopted, it can only be sustained by providing a competent supply of well instructed teachers. And if it be asked how high should be the standard of attainment for persons of this profession, I answer the same as that for persons of every other profession. There can be no reason assigned why the instructor of a neighborhood, he to whom is committed the office of forming the minds of our children, should not be as well educated and intelligent a man as our Lawyer, our Physician or our Clergyman.

I by no means suppose the whole duty of a teacher to be fulfilled by the performance of the labors of the school room. If a suitable person be engaged for this office, and if the station be rendered permanent and sufficiently attractive by the social consideration which properly belongs to it, a multitude of indirect benefits will naturally follow. Such an instructor would be the friend and companion of his pupils after the relation of master and scholar had terminated. He would encourage and direct the studies of those who wished to pursue their investigations by themselves. He would cultivate science and stimulate his neighbors to literary acquisition by the delivery of lectures, the formation of libraries and every other means of popular improvement. In this manner a class of professional men would be raised up among us whose influence would be felt most benignly over every class of society, and of whose labors the benefit would be incalculable. Such a system therefore, in order to be in any eminent degree successful, involves the necessity of a class of higher seminaries, seminaries capable of teaching teachers, in other words institutions for professional education.

Besides, I suppose it self evident that no nation can derive the benefit which God intended from the intellect which he has conferred upon it, unless all that intellect, of what sort soever it be, have the means of full and adequate development. The rare and more precious gifts of God are surely not the only ones that are to be thrown away as useless. The gigantic and far searching mind which can discover and apply the laws of nature, is at least as important to society as the more common mind which can only make use of the law after it has been discovered. I have a strong conviction of the importance to a nation of the labors of its ship builders and machinists ; but I ask would they have clothed the civilized world with garments, and subjected the ocean to steam, and peopled the valley of the Mississippi with nations without the directing genius of Arkwright, and Watt, and Whitney, and Fulton. The army of Italy which annihilated in rapid succession legion after legion of the veterans of Austria, was lying in its encampments, ill-fed, cowering, despairing and almost disbanded, until it was roused into energy by the unrivalled genius of the Emperor Napoleon. I honor the yeomanry of my country. I would confide in their integrity and good sense in preference to those of any men upon earth, but of what avail would be the trial by jury had there been no Washingtons and Franklins and Madisons to frame our constitution, and no Jays and Marshalls and Storys to unfold the principles of eternal justice, and hold steadily before the eyes of men the light of universal law. And thus must it be always. Whatever be the form of government, the very existence of society supposes that offices must exist, demanding the highest order of intellect, cultivated by thorough discipline, and enlarged and ripened by profound acquaintance with whatever of truth the history of past ages has revealed for the instruction of man.

Nor is this necessity for elevated talent rendered less imperative by the general diffusion of knowledge. By this you may enable men the better to understand the principles by which they are to be governed, and the laws, by obedience to which, their condition may be improved ; but something more than this is requisite in order to enable men to discover or to unfold those hidden truths, that lie at the foundation of national prosperity. Nay more ; in every condition of society there will always be produced native talent, vast power of influencing mankind, united with restless, aspiring and insatiate ambition. And this talent will be unfolded in greater proportion as common education is more generally diffused. The question then, is not whether such talent shall or shall not exist. The only practical question is, whether these rare endowments shall be cultivated and disciplined and cautioned and directed by the lessons of past wisdom, or whether they shall be allowed to grow up in reckless and headstrong arrogance, and wear out the energies of society by perpetual agitation of all the baser passions of mankind. It is merely a question whether the extraordinary talent bestowed upon society by our Creator, shall be a blessing or a curse to us and to our children.

I feel however, that this part of the discussion need not be protracted to any greater extent. The importance of liberal education is fully admitted by every American citizen. Most of the older States have from the earliest period of their history devoted special attention to the establishment of Colleges and Academies. In many of them, institutions of this kind have been liberally if not munificently endowed. Many of our most distinguished private citizens have contributed largely of their property to the same object. In all the new States magnificent foundations have been laid for the endowment of Colleges and Universities. The American Almanac for this year, (1842,) contains a list of the Cofleges in this country, amounting to one hundred and one in number. To these, additions will for some time to come, be annually made. The same work gives us a list of thirty-nine Theological Seminaries, ten Law Schools, and thirtyone Medical Schools. It may then safely be taken for granted that the people of this country are already deeply impressed with the importance of collegiate and professional education.

Taking this part for granted, I need offer no apology for the following remarks. If so much of the intellect and the wealth of this nation is most laudably devoted to the promotion of this branch of education ; if it be the settled policy of the country to appropriate to it whatever its true necessities may require, if the stream of private munificence flows more readily in this channel than in almost any other, It is of the utmost importance that all this expenditure of wealth and talent should be wisely directed. And yet more. Our institutions in this country are, to a considerable degree, in a state of formation. They are not yet hedged about by precedents which can never be abolished, nor bound up by statutes which can never be amended. With every year, however, change will become more and more difficult. A college must, of necessity, be in some sort a legally established foundation, and precedents and usages grow up more rapidly, and sink their roots deeper in this soil than in any other. And this is more particularly the case where a number of institutions are united together to accomplish a similar object. If formed on the same model, they create a necessity, to a considerable degree, of similarity of action. It is practically difficult for any one to deviate from the others, and hence a course which each one allows to be unwise, will frequently be persevered in by all, because no one is willing to incur the disadvantage of being the first to separate from the rest. Under these circumstances it cannot be out of place to enter upon a brief examination of the principles on which this part of our educational system has thus far proceeded.

The present system of collegiate instruction is very much the same throughout the United States. With but very few exceptions it consists of a four years course, terminating in graduation, all the students pursuing the same studies, the same labor being required from all, and the same time being allotted to each. I merely allude in these fewwords to the character of the system, as I shall have occasion to explain its nature more fully in the following chapter. I here wish only to observe the universality with which this model has been copied. The older institutions have in no important respect ever ventured to deviate from it, and the new ones have considered their own organization perfect in just so far as they have been able to approximate to it.

In connexion with this fact it is proper to remark that for a very considerable period, a very general opinion has prevailed that something in the system required material modification.

At one time an attempt was made to supply what was believed to be a deficiency in the system of collegiate education by the establishment of Gymnasia or High Schools. In several instances gentlemen of ripe and varied learning, with much knowledge of the systems of European education, were induced to connect themselves with seminaries of this character. Teachers in abundance and of high reputation were secured, and pupils in great numbers resorted to them for instruction. But in a few years these experiments totally failed. Parents were, I believe, more dissatisfied with them than with the colleges which it was at one time supposed they would supplant. Next followed Military High Schools, or seminaries for instruction in the higher branches of learning, formed after the model of the U. S. Military

Academy at West Point. These very rapidly followed the course of the Gymnasia ; their buildings were deserted, and I believe that in a iew years the establishments themselves generally came under the hammer.

These seminaries were commonly very expensive, and their advantages were of course confined exclusively to the children of the wealthy. This was considered by many persons as the cause of their failure. The next experiment was varied in this respect, and Manual Labor Schools were established. The benevolent were called upon to invest a large amount of property in buildings and land, with the expectation that students would be able by their own labor to support themselves, while acquiring a liberal education. These institutions also flourished, until the investments had all been consumed, and they then shared the fate of their predecessors. No one of them, I believe ever produced at the best more than two or three per cent, on the principal, so that it would have been far more economical to have placed the original capital at ordinary interest, and have bestowed the proceeds upon persons deserving of the charity. The money thus squandered has not however been wholly thrown away. It has taught good men to examine somewhat more carefully into the rationale of schemes of benevolence, and has served to demonstrate that no man can devote the time necessary for acquiring a professional education without the expenditure of money. If he do not pay for it himself he must by some means or other induce his neighbors to make the payment for him.

'IMiL'se various modifications in the form of institutions for education in the higher branches of education having failed to answer the expectations of the pubhc, nothing remained but to attempt to improve the colleges themselves. The forms in which this attempt has been made are various, and they have been attended with various degrees of success. Some few of them are deserving of a passing notice.

It has been said that the course of study in our colleges was formed in a remote age, and that it is adapted only to a state of society very different from our own. Specially has it been urged that the study of the classics is at best but useless, that it has no relation to our present duties and every day engagements, and that the time devoted to it had much better be employed upon the study of the Modern Languages. Besides, it has been said that our collegiate course should extend its benefits to merchants, manufacturers, and every class of citizens. These persons desire the honors of a degree as much as others. They do not however wish to waste their time in the study of the classics, and therefore the studies required of the candidate for a degree should be accommodated so as to meet these their reasonable wishes. It was predicted that as soon as this change should be made, our colleges would be crowded with those who were anxious to avail themselves of these advantages and to obtain the honor of a degree.

In obedience with these suggestions a change was made some years since in the studies of some of our colleges. Both a classical and scientific course were estabhshed, the first requiring the study of the Learned and the other substituting in their room the Modern languages. Teachers were engaged, classes were divided, each student had his option, and all who wished were invited to become candidates for a degree upon these modified conditions. But what was the result ? No one came to accept of what was thus freely offered. The system dragged for a few years, and then perished from mere inanition.

Very much the same course has been pursued in regard to the higher mathematics. The same objections were made to this branch of a liberal education, and it has been proposed to substitute in their place the study of history or of natural science. To a considerable degree this experiment has been combined with the other, and with very much the same result. The colleges so far as I know, which have obeyed the suggestions of the public, have failed to find themselves sustained by the public. The means which it was supposed would increase the number of students in fact diminished it, and thus things gradually after every variety of trial have generally tended to their original constitution. So much easier is it to discover faults than to amend them ; to point out evils than to remove them. And thus have we been taught that the public does not always know what it wants, and that it is not always wise to take it at its word.

But as the number of students in most of our colleges was commonly much less than could be desired, and as colleges have steadily continued to multiply, it was next supposed that the reason why they were not more numerously attended was the high price of tuition. The price of a collegiate education, however, it may be remarked in passing, has always been exceedingly low in this country. It is, and has long been much less than that of private tuition ; and the officers of colleges are always remunerated at a much lower rate than other professional men. Still it was believed that collegiate education would be in a more prosperous condition if tuition could be much more nearly given away. When the number of students in a college began to diminish so that the pittance granted to instructors could no more be doled out, an effort was next made to raise additional funds for the support of instructors. This fund has sometimes been used for the endowment of professorships, and sometimes for the general reduction of tuition or for the support of indigent students. Very large sums have been from time to time appropriated to this purpose. This of course will partly remedy the evil. When a valuable consideration is to be given away, it is not generally difficult to find persons willing to accept of it.

In this manner there is no doubt that a college may be supported. If after buildings have been erected, and a considerable amount of funds invested, and the teachers remunerated at the lowest possible rate, pupils cannot be attracted in sufficient numbers to support the establishment, we may yet be allowed to draw upon the charities of the public to make up the deficiency, the system may doubdess be sustained. And this is I believe at present the very general condition of colleges among us. I doubt whether any one could attract a respectable number of pupils, however large its endowments and however great its advantages, did it charge for tuition the fees which would be requisite to remunerate its officers at the rate ordinarily received by other professional men. In some of our colleges education is given away to every person who enters the plea of indigence. Others are in possession of funds appropriated to a considerable amount to this purpose. In most of them, candidates for the ministry are educated gratuitously or at a great reduction from the ordinary charge for tuition. In this manner collegiate education has come to be considered to a very great extent a matter of charity ; and the founding of a college consists not so much in providing means for higher education and thus elevating the general standard of intellectual attainment, as the collecting of funds for eleemosynary distribution, by which those who desire to pursue the course which we have marked out may be enabled to do so at the least possible cost.

Now I cannot but look at this as an unnatural state of things. Let a man reflect upon the wages of labor in this country, at the ease with which industrious men in every occupation arrive at competence, let him pass through our streets and enter our houses and inspect our modes of living and he will surely say that a very large portion of our people are able to meet the expenses of bestowing upon their children as good an education as they can receive with advantage. There does not appear from our outward circumstances any reason why a man should not pay a fair price for the education of his son just as he pays a fair price for the education of his daughter ; or for the furniture, the carpets, the pianos, the mirrors of his parlor, or the implements, the stock, and the acres of his farm. Nor can it be said that as a people we are unaware of the advantages of knowledge. In all our cities and towns, the private instructor is liberally paid. There are certainly all the elements in existence out of which must arise a strong desire for the intellectual improvement of our offspring. And yet while this is the fact we find all around us very large investments made for the purposes of public education, the interest of their investments is bestowed upon the public, and yet we cannot induce men to pursue a collegiate course unless we offer it vastly below its cost, if we do not give it away altogether.

From the preceding facts I think we are warranted in coming to the following conclusions. First, that there is in this country a very general willingness both in the public and on the part of individuals to furnish all the necessary means for the improvement of collegiate education. Second, that the present system of collegiate edution does not meet the wants of the public. The evidence of this is seen in the fact that change after change has been suggested in the system without however any decided result, and still more from the fact that although this kind of education is afforded at a lower price than any other, we cannot support our present institutions without giving a large portion of our education away. Third, that this state of things is neither owing to the poverty of our people nor to their indifference to the subject of education. Our citizens seem really more willing to educate other men's sons than their own, to provide the means of education rather than to avail themselves of them after they have been provided. Now, do not these facts indicate the necessity of some change in our educational system. A liberal education is certainly a valuable consideration. Can it not be made to recommend hself ; so that he who wishes to obtain it shall also be willing to pay for it ^ Cannot this general impression in favor of education be turned to some practical account, so that the system may be able to take care of itself.^ Or at any rate, if after all that has been done we remain without having effected any material change, may it not be well to examine the whole system and see whether its parts may not admit of some better adjustment and work out a more perfect result. To pursue such an inquiry is the object of the following pages.

Chapter II. The Present System Of Collegiate Instruction In The United States

In any combination whatever for the accomplishment of a specific purpose, there must of necessity be some arrangement of parts co-operating together so as to bring about the intended result. There must have been an original conception comprehending all the parts and the manner of their working. Thus when we speak of a system of government we refer to the general conception of its executive, judicial, and legislative functions, their powers and limitations, and the modes in which they accomplish their purpose. And it is evident that we can never judge correctly of the value of such a system, unless we are enabled to form a clear conception of its several parts and to observe their adaptation to the end for which they were designed.

The arrangements for public professional education, from the nature of the case, comprize a system in the manner above specified. They involve several varieties of official station, having difterent and dissimilar functions, and each responsible to a different authority. Thus, for instance, a college is an endowed or eleemosynary institution, this endowment is vested in corporators who are under obligation to see that it is appropriated according to the will of the donor. The college has the power of conferring degrees, a power with which it is intrusted by the public and it is the business of these corporators in behalf of the public to inquire into the manner in which this power is exercised. There is, again, the faculty or executive officers of the college whose duty it is to instruct according to the statutes, and who are appointed by, and are responsible to, the corporators, or those officers who are intrusted with the visitorial power. Suppose all these powers to have been defined, and the system ready to go into effect, it may then be inquired what is it that is intended to be done, how is it to be done, and what are the means for carrying it into effect. In examining any collegiate system all these subjects of inquiry will naturally arise. They are manifestly of importance, and they may be treated of with the greater freedom because they have nothing whatever to do wiih individuals. They are abstract questions having simply to do with a system, and that system may be considered good or bad, wise or unwise, perfect or imperfect, without calling in question in the slightest degree the wisdom or the learning or the ability of those by whom the system is carried into effect. The question is not whether one man or another is or is not able and judicious, and praiseworthy, but, granting him to be all these, whether or not he might under another system accomplish more successfully the objects to the advancement of which he has devoted his talents.