The fluctuations which have occurred in the curricula of our leading schools has been referred to before, but is emphasized by a glance at the introduction of the elective courses. When the course of instruction became decidedly complex, requiring years for completion, and the multiplication of subjects made it impracticable for the majority of students to complete the course as outlined, there arose the privilege of option in the choice of the studies in many courses. This was also made necessary in the colleges by the organization of many technical schools throughout the land. “The early efforts to establish mechanics and manual-labor institutes are interesting as marking a reaction against the dominance of language and metaphysics, and an ingenious appeal for the large recognition of the physical sciences.” This has led in some cases to the substitution of German or some other modern language, and an increased amount of mathematics in place of the classics, the students being free to choose.
Freedom of Virginia University
This spirit of freedom, which has been almost wrenched, one might say, from many of the institutions of higher learning, is occasionally found to have swayed the hearts of earlier educators. One reads with keen relish the history of the founding of the University of Virginia, the moving spirit of which was Thomas Jefferson. The reader will be interested in a paragraph by Boone:—
“As early as 1779, while the ‘Old Dominion,’ with her sister States, was embroiled in a doubtful war; and again in 1814, after numerous defeats and constant opposition from the already-established William and Mary College, from the Protestant churches, and from most of the political leaders of the time, Mr. Jefferson and his friends sought to provide for the state, along with the general system of education, a university, in which should be taught in the highest degree, ‘every branch of knowledge, whether calculated to enrich, stimulate, and adorn the understanding, or to be useful in the arts and practical business of life.’ Five years later (1819) an act of the Assembly was obtained establishing the University of Virginia. When six years later it was opened, after a wide acquaintance and careful study of the most progressive institutions in the United States, it was found that in discipline and instruction, in constitution and means, it very materially differed from them all.”[168]
Freedom from other objectionable features
The far-reaching sight of the chief promoter of the enterprise is seen when we note wherein lay this very material difference. “There is one practice,” wrote Mr. Jefferson, “from which we shall certainly vary, although it has been copied by nearly every college and academy in the United States; that is, the holding of the students all to one prescribed course of reading, and disallowing exclusive application to those branches only which are to qualify them for the particular vocation to which they are destined. We shall, on the contrary, allow them uncontrolled choice in the lectures they shall choose to attend, and require elementary qualifications only, and sufficient age.”[169]
This was a wonderful step for the time in which it occurred, and indicates the direction given to minds of men by the Spirit of God. The greater freedom occasioned by the adoption of the elective system is felt throughout the educational centers of our land. Johns Hopkins University grants the degree of B.A. in four out of six of its courses without the classics. This leads us, however, to a consideration of the question suggested several pages back, What subjects can of right be taught in schools supported from the public funds?
Should the state support the school
Education, pure and simple, in the breadth of its meaning, is character development. The state, as such, can not judge of motives, hence it can not educate the inner man. The two phases of the Reformation were Protestantism and republicanism; the first deals with the spiritual nature, and through this reaches the entire man, making a symmetrical character; the governmental part deals only with the mental and physical—the outward manifestations. To the church was committed the charge of the spiritual man, and the commission to “teach all nations” given to the little company that watched the ascending Lord, was repeated to the church in the sixteenth century; and with especial weight was this burden laid upon the shoulders of American men and women. The state needs men to carry forward its pursuits; and for the purely secular training of such individuals, it has a perfect right, even a duty, to provide from the common fund. A purely mechanical, secular, or business course might therefore be offered in our state schools; but with such an education few parents are contented. The moral nature needs training; in order to be good citizens, it is argued, some part of the system of ethics which is based on the doctrines of Christ must be inculcated. Christian schools, and those only, can give a spiritual education. This is the dilemma in which the educational system found itself about the time of the Revolution, and the matter, instead of reaching a satisfactory solution, has grown steadily worse. The churches failed to provide for the Christian training; and the state felt that something must be done for the children. Public schools were established; but these, by right, can not teach morality or anything pertaining thereto. But they do. Hence, the church by her failure has forced the state into the attempt to do her work,—an impossible task. Again, the churches and the denominational schools, not willing to be outdone by state institutions, have extended their stakes and lengthened their cords until they offer, not those subjects which are character building, so much as those which will enable them to compete with state institutions. Here again is a departure from Christian education, and a mixture which would be hard to designate as other than papal.
Degrees a papal mark