Extract from letter of Prof. Monroe, St. John’s College, Fordham, N.Y.
I rejoice that some one has taken hold of this subject at last. It needs only to be understood to be adopted; for I can not see from what quarter any opposition to it can arise. You rightly observe that “all the educational institutions of the several States” are interested in this mode of appointment. Great Britain, France, and many of the Continental States admit to their military schools the most competent young men who present themselves, and the method is found to be as economical as it is equitable. Long years of winnowing is saved to the Government; for the subjects who present themselves are, of course, the most capable. For several years I was a witness of the beneficial effects produced on youth in France by the stimulation of their energies in order to undergo an examination for admission into the military or naval schools. Our present mode of appointment appears to be an anomaly; for while monarchies find it expedient to adopt a less exclusive mode of sustaining their military organizations, we still cling to one founded on patronage and prerogative. Many of our young men in different colleges and educational institutions have a taste and vocation to the military profession, and have an equal right to compete for a place in the only fields where such a taste can be gratified—viz., in the army and navy. These careers should then be open to them. There is danger and want of policy in suppressing the legitimate aspirations of young men in a nation which is, say what we can, passionately fond of military glory.
Extract from the Report of the Board of Visitors of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point for 1864.
The main features of the Report of the Visitors for 1863 we most cordially approve, especially its recommendations of competitive examination, and raising the age and qualifications of candidates for admission. The only student who obtained his appointment through competitive examination (introduced into his district by the member of Congress upon whose recommendation he was appointed from the common schools[15] of New York) graduated at the head of his class this year.
The beneficial effect on schools, as regards both pupils and teachers, of throwing open appointments in civil, as well as in military and naval service, to competition, and giving them to the most meritorious candidates, on examination, is thus commented on in the Report of the Queen’s Commissioners on the Endowed Schools of Ireland:
This measure has received the unanimous approval of our body, who regard it as an effectual method of promoting intermediate education. The experience already obtained respecting the operation of public and competitive examinations, so far as they have hitherto been tried, leaves no doubt on our minds that the extension of this system would, under judicious management, produce very beneficial effects, both in raising the standard of instruction, and in stimulating the efforts of masters and of pupils. The educational tests adapted for examinations for the public service would be, in our opinion, of all others the most general in their character, and therefore, those best calculated to direct the efforts of teachers to that course of mental discipline and moral training, the attainment of which constitutes, in our opinion, the chief object of a liberal education. The experience of the civil service commission has shown the shortcomings of all classes in the most general and most elementary branches of a literary and scientific education.
These views are strongly corroborated by the testimony, appended to the Report, of prominent teachers and educators consulted on the subject:
Prof. Bullen, in the Queen’s College, Cork, remarks:—“No movement ever made will so materially advance education in this country as the throwing open public situations to meritorious candidates. It has given already a great impulse to schools and will give greater. The consequence of throwing the civil service open to the public is already beginning to tell—although only in operation a few months, it has told in a most satisfactory manner in this city; and, from what I can see, it will have the happiest results on education generally.”
Prof. King, Head Master of a Grammar School at Ennis, writes:—“These examinations have already caused improvements in my own school by inducing me to give instruction in branches which I had never taught before.”