Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/171

 THE EDUCATIONAL PLAN 143 takes hold of a subject, gives that amount of time and attention to it which will enable him to grasp it and to become acquainted with it in its details. When the end of the course has been reached he has acquired an interest in the subject, a knowledge of the subject, and, what is of still more value, he has learned how to take hold of a subject in the way in which, during his entire future life, he will be able to take hold of things which from time to time present themselves It is proposed that the plan shall be less rigid in higher work than in lower work. It has been the practice to give the student in his younger years the largest possible number of subjects, gradually reducing the number until, when he has become strong in mind and mature in age, he is allowed to devote his entire attention to work in a single department. The particular age which needed most protection has received least. It is proposed, therefore, to adopt the plan rigidly in the academies of the University and likewise in the Academic College; but in the University College and graduate work, where students already begin to specialize and to concentrate every effort without restriction or requirement, and where different courses may be taken in the same depart- ment, to require a less rigid application of the plan. No courses, however, of one hour a week or even two hours a week, will be counted in the amount of work required of a student for a degree. The one-hour lecture course has been and is a curse of institutions of learning. It answers admirably for amusement and entertainment, but for solid work, unless to be sure the number of such lectures is very few and the student is given opportunity to follow out the work privately and in great detail, it is of little value It has been a source of great encouragement that the idea has appealed so strongly to the leading educators in this country and in Europe. Without a doubt modifications of the plan will be found necessary with further experi- ence, but no one can deny the correctness of the fundamental principles which underlie it. In such arrangements as are indicated by the terms " Double Minor," "Triple Minor," "Double Major," "Half-Major," and "Half-Minor," it is capable of as much flexibility as the requirements of any department may suggest. In the nomenclature of the University the term has come to be used as a unit of measure, and, as such, is a term of the greatest convenience. A man enters college, for example, so many majors ahead or conditioned on so many majors. With each completed subject a major or a minor is subtracted from the total number required for the completion of the course, and thus, in many ways, the term enters into common parlance with the student and the professor. The plan may be a radical one. It is one, however, which has been tested in a hundred ways, in every case standing the test. Such was President Harper's conception of continuous sessions, the Summer Quarter, and the classification of courses as majors and minors.