AN INTERESTING POINT OF VIEW

An innovation at the University of Washington has been called to our attention, which is of double interest. It is a course on methods of study. As a course in a field that has not been treated in this way before, it is an interesting experiment. It is interesting also because of the problem before this University of teaching men with good brains to know how to use them. In the first part of the year, this course gives a description of every career to which college learning can lead, with an account of preparatory academic courses and an outline of the types of temperament fitted for each career. In the second part of the year, instruction is given in some of the simple laws of attention, memory, association of ideas, and habit, which are dealt with from the point of view of their practical value. Whether such instruction should find its place in a college, or in a school, we do not know. Certainly it tackles a problem which is real, and which must be tackled. As a recognition of this problem as a fit object of regular instruction, this course presents a novel point of view. For this reason, it is something worth noticing, worth thinking about, and worth watching.