Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/20

10 have grown up. The only question is as to which plan will best serve the cause of culture. There is much to be said for all of these ideals, but it seems to me that the balance is indisputably in favor of the national plan. Already the American Society has extended its operations outward from Philadelphia as a center for upward of one hundred and fifty miles, and its purpose is to reach from ocean to ocean. A large step toward nationalization has been taken in the West. The extension work in Colorado, centering about the University of Denver, and perhaps the immense work planned for Chicago, will become branches of the American Society. It is also hoped that association may be brought about with the New York work. By bringing all these movements into one organization there will be greater administrative economy and greater system in the educational results.

What has been already accomplished by the National Society makes entirely reasonable the large plans which it has in mind for the future. The acting president of the organization is now Prof. E. J. James, who has associated with him educators of foremost rank from all sections of the country. It is proposed to utilize every feature which experience in England has shown to be helpful. The success of the American Society is indeed largely due to the fact that it has done little useless experimenting. The first season is always critical, but the movement had the large advantage of the constant service and counsel of Mr. Moulton. His many years' experience in the English work made him invaluable here. During nearly the entire season he lectured afternoon and evening in Philadelphia and its suburbs as well as in other American cities. He will be followed winter after next by the Rev. Hudson Shaw.

Now that university extension is well launched in America, it is hoped to offer more thoroughly systematized courses of study than was possible during the first season. A journal known as University Extension has been established, and issued its first number in July. Summer meetings will also be arranged, preferably at different university towns throughout the country. It is further proposed to introduce the plan of affiliating students to the universities, or even to go further than this, and finally to offer full courses leading to university degrees.

A most important and indeed an integral part of the work will be in the line of encouraging home study, and a well-thought-out plan has already been adopted. This provides a systematic course for that vast number of solitary students who can neither attend a university nor even form an extension center, but who are well worthy of the attention of a society committed to the cause of general culture. As at present arranged the courses cover four years of seven months each, or twenty-eight months