Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/18

8 of higher university education, and it proceeds by a new method, the personal carrying of this teaching from the universities to the people. It is held to be more practical to take one man to a hundred students than to take a hundred students to one man. It is important to keep this object and this method free from any confusion with other organized work, for the usefulness of university extension lies in these lines, and not as a competitor with already established agencies of culture.

It is somewhat difficult to tell the story of university extension in America, for the idea sprang into action in a number of different localities. Without attempting to present the full history of the movement, it may be said that three distinct ideals have been advanced—the local plan, represented by Baltimore and Buffalo; the State plan, represented by New York; and the national plan, represented by Philadelphia.

The local plan is the oldest. Its first home seems to have been at Johns Hopkins University. Several years ago popular lecture courses were given by Dr. Adams and his colleagues at various centers in and around Baltimore, and as time went on the movement assumed more and more the form, and finally the name, of university extension. Several such courses were given during the winter and spring of 1888. The method was quite similar to that followed in England. The course consisted of twelve lectures, followed by the customary extension classes at their conclusion. The students were supplied with printed syllabi of each course. Dr. Adams also rendered a most important service to the movement by his interest in making it more generally known outside of his own city. Similar initiatory work was done by Dr. Bemis at Buffalo. In the fall of 1887 he gave a course of lectures on economics, which were quite in the extension spirit.

The State plan is, I believe, peculiar to New York. It would, indeed, be less possible elsewhere, since New York is the only State which has a department created and maintained by statute to "encourage and promote higher education." The movement has had the constant interest and support of the best element in both the city and State. The State Librarian, Mr. Melvil Dewey, has been particularly active in its promotion. According to this plan, the State assumes the direction of university extension, working by means of an established central office at Albany, and operating through existing institutions for higher education. The Legislature has recently granted an appropriation of ten thousand dollars for carrying on the enterprise. Already much good work has been done in the way of lecture courses and printed syllabi and text books.

The national plan has been a slower evolution. It is an