The New Education.

Many writers have found something in Harvard's Elective System to engage their attention. Few, however, have written so complete a refutation of the charges made against election of college studies, as has Professor G. H. Palmer in his article on "The New Education," which appeared in the current Andover Review. Professor Palmer's words are especially persuasive as he is "that man who himself has been persuaded." His opinions are the result of experiences on a mind adversely prejudiced.

The new system is asserted to be a system. Students under it are still under bonds, "bonds more compulsive than the old, because fitted with nicer adjustment to each one's person. . . . It remains authoritative, . . . . it insists on that authority which reveals to a man his own better purposes, and makes them firmer and finer than they could have become if directed by himself alone." The substance of the elective system is given in a single sentence, fixed quantity and quality of study, variable topic." The great moral help to students under this new ideal lies in the fact that "it uplifts character as no other training can, and through influence on character, it ennobles all methods of teaching and discipline." The one thing demanded under a free choice of studies is that the student should "will to study something. . . . The will is honored as of prime consequence." Under the influence of a volition, a student works under no disguises, he is forced "to be conscious of what he is doing," to perceive "that gains and losses are immediately connected with a volitional attitude."

Professor Palmer deals with the objection to free choice on account of the immaturity of students as follows: "Many people seem to suppose that at some epoch in the life of a young man the capacity to choose starts up of itself, ready made. It is not so. Choice, like other human powers, needs practice for strength. Keep a boy from exercising his will during the formative period from eighteen to twenty-two, and you turn him into the world a child, when by years he should be a man. To permit choice is dangerous, but not to permit it is more dangerous. For building up a moral manhood, the very errors of choice are serviceable."

To show that he is not dealing merely with theory, Prof. Palmer shows by actual facts that "a manlier type of character actually appears as the elective pamphlet extends." The tone of what is proper at Harvard has changed during the past few years. A more elevated idea of gentlemanly conduct exists. "Hazing, window smashing, disturbing a lecture room, are things of the past." Desire for honors and ambition to gain good standing, have been quickened. The middleman in the freshman class in 1874-5, received an average mark of 59; the middle man of '84 gained 81.

The old claim which is continually advanced that the elective system encourages the election of soft courses is compared with cold statistics, which show that the higher courses, those requiring earnest original work, are the most popular.

The injustice of the prescribed system is contrasted with the waste of time through ill advised selections under the elective system. "Prescribed studies may be ill judged or ill adapted, ill timed, or ill taught, but none the less inexorably they fall on just and unjust. The wastes of choice affect the shiftless and the dull, - men who cannot be harmed much by being wasted. The wastes of prescription ravage the energetic, the clear-sighted, the original, the very classes which stand in the greatest need of protection."

Statistics of last year were cited to proof that the allowance of "cutting" is not abused. The average '85 man cut only sixteen per cent. of his recitations during his senior year. The average allowance at other colleges is ten per cent., and this allowance includes absences only of necessity.

One of the most ??? the elective system is on the teacher. "He is known by the ??? keeps." "In a vigorous ??? this criterion of his work is a constant stimulant to more renewed energy, more careful instruction.

Prof. Palmer in his conclusion voices the call of students and teachers, for more thought on the details of this "New Education, for more light on the examination and marking system.