THE FIVE YEAR PLAN

The initiators of the Experimental College at Winconsin have recently issued a report of that institution's progress during the five years of its existence. They have sincerely and thoroughly tried their work and found much of it wanting. But in this analysis is included another plan as grandiose in scope as the original experiment.

Fundamentally the two theories of instruction are the same for they both rest upon the proposition that "education is a training in the art of living." That this is the aim of all education will doubtless be admitted by most men connected with the profession. The difference in this suggested system lies not in the aim but in the application.

In an effort to turn out good citizens the last two years of college will be devoted to a view of "life in its wholeness." Such a system is impossible. The art of living can not be acquired through contemplation of present problems in their relation to the aspects of an older civilization. Men cannot through study erect a formula for the satisfactory life any more than he can add a cubit's length to his height by taking thought. Education, if it is to mean anything, must equip the student with a foundation upon which he can build the edifice of his life. This can only be accomplished by a sound, careful study of a few facts, an analysis of certain principles. It cannot be gained by a journey, which must perforce be cursory, through the byways of a whole civilization. The difference between the formal education which the report eschews and the "liberal education" which it offers is that while one attempts to furnish a few tools with which to build, the other tries to construct a complete philosophy of life that will enable the owner to solve his individual problems, a philosophy that is more the result of actual experience than contemplation and research.