MEIKLEJOHN AND GOODNOW ATTACK COLLEGE METHODS

Dr. Alexander Meiklejohn, former President of Amherst College, speaking Saturday night at the intercollegiate parley on education in session at Wesleyan University, advocated the total abolition of the lecture system in colleges. Colleges in America, he said, have developed under difficult external conditions, but he believed that perceptible progress had been made. He asserted that the lecture system forces all the work on the teacher and enslaves the minds of both teacher and student. Under the lecture system, the college is not teaching; it is merely instructing. Again speaking of the colleges he said, "They treat students as children. A young man should really come to college to learn for himself. This life of ours needs to be thought about and each of us must have some responsibility of his own."

Dr. Meiklejohn further expresses the opinion that the entire system of scholarship in the United States would be benefited if the Guild of American Scholarships was allowed the entire charge of scholarships and was given the right to decide what subjects should be studied.

Dr. Frank Goodnow, President of John Hopkins University also addressed the meeting Saturday and described the transition of the American college from an institution for imparting culture to a "preparatory school for the professions."

Dr. Goodnow also spoke on the duplication of effort which is the inevitable result of the tendency of preparatory schools to emphasize cultural subjects and the necessity that the college is still under, to teach elementary subjects.

"A university cannot successfully devote itself at the same time to secondary and advanced instruction," he said. "Under the present system the use of secondary: methods is unduly prolonged and the use of methods best suited to advanced; work is unduly postponed."