Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/174

 146 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO they may thus be able to give their entire time to the work of investigation. Promotion of younger men in the departments will depend more largely upon the results of their work as investigators than upon the efficiency of their teaching, although the latter will by no means be overlooked. In other words, it is proposed in this institution to make the work of investigation primary, the work of giving instruction secondary. Such was the educational plan of the University of Chicago as matured prior to the day of opening, October i, 1892. Many details found in the six Official Bulletins have necessarily been omitted. But in broad outline the foregoing were the essential features of the scheme. President Harper's confidence in the soundness of the plan was so great that he did not hesitate to lay it before the most eminent educators in the country and ask their criticisms. Some hundreds of copies of Official Bulletin No. i were thus sent, accompanied by requests for candid criticism and helpful suggestions. It was a remarkable tribute to the soundness of the plan in general that there was almost no criticism of its funda- mental, distinguishing features. The suggestions received by the President, so far as the writer has been able to discover from a considerable mass of correspondence, related to unimportant details, mere incidents, unconnected with the essence of the scheme. There were questions about required chapel attendance, the grant- ing of honorary degrees, how early in the course the study of history should begin, the number of hours per week an instructor should teach, doubts about the feasibility of arranging students' and professors' vacations, and whether a teacher of Latin should also teach Roman history. On the other hand there was much unqualified commenda- tion. A few quotations will indicate the general approval with which the plan was received: I have given careful attention to your educational plan for Chicago University and I must express to you my unqualified satisfaction with it. My college days were in great measure, as I now see, wasted for want of just such a wise, philosophic, and flexible method of university instruction as that pro- posed by you. There need be no doubt in the mind of any man of its prac- ticability and assured success. It not only meets the demands of the age, but what is vastly more important, it meets the universal demands of the human intellect in this or any other age.