Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/19

Rh of the local society at Philadelphia. The history of this organization is sufficiently typical to warrant its statement in some detail, the more so as its aims are now national. The idea of university extension was not known to the city at large until the winter and spring of 1890. It aroused so much interest, however, that the public discussion of the question led to the formation of a society on the 1st of June. Dr. Pepper, the Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, became its first president, and Mr. George Henderson was chosen secretary. The society at once went to work in a most practical and business-like way. It was recognized that two things were wanted—more definite information in regard to what was being done in England, and also the interest and co-operation of educators connected with neighboring teaching bodies. Accordingly, the secretary was sent to Europe, and in the fall presented a report of what had been accomplished there. Further, a circular letter addressed to the available teachers of the locality assured the society of a sufficient staff of lecturers. These ends gained, the work of the society began last fall in earnest. The first local center was at Roxborough and was organized in connection with St. Timothy's Working-men's Club and Institute, which was already provided with an excellent hall and well-selected library. The subject chosen was chemistry, the first lecture being given on November 3d. The formation of centers and the announcement of courses soon became epidemic. By spring it was a rare thing to find any one among the more thoughtful classes who had not attended at least one extension lecture.

In the one season forty-two courses were given, numbering about two hundred and fifty lectures. The total attendance was about 55,500, a result unparalleled even in England.

Numbers alone are a very bad standard for an educational movement, but figures such as these indicate at least a wealth of teachable material. The success has indeed been beyond the most sanguine expectation. The idea is, I believe, due to Dr. Pepper that so vast a movement as this should properly be a national interest, and without local bounds. In December, therefore, the society changed both its name and its purpose, and became the American Society for the Extension of University Teaching.

The work in England, it will be remembered, is divided among four organizations, and there are advocates of this separation as well as of unification. Here in America the movement is just beginning, and we are called upon to choose. It must not be understood that the three plans mentioned are in any way antagonistic or are meant to compete with one another. They are the natural products of the different conditions under which they