Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 83.djvu/297

Rh which the state university has taken in the matter of their acceptance. The high school is not a trade school and ought not to be considered one. But the problem, which has been looked upon as one largely interfered with by the admission requirements of colleges, is after all a problem associated with primary, secondary and higher instruction rather than any one of its parts. The secondary school, therefore, should be given a large opportunity to work out its place in the scheme of education and to determine for itself, more than it has been able to do thus far, just what scope and methods of vocational training should be introduced in its course. The attitude of the state university in accepting numerous small credits in miscellaneous subjects of a scattered nature tends to retard rather than to hasten a closer investigation of the situation, while the granting of a certain amount of option and liberty to the high schools in the determination of the subjects to be offered in their courses will undoubtedly tend to reduce the number and to hold them in lines that will be more adapted to the needs of the community. Unquestionably, uniformity in the schools is desirable so far as it means uniformity in subjects, time, amount and speed of instruction, but if it means uniformity of instruction by the requiring of individuals the same subjects without regard to their actual needs, it is under all circumstances to be avoided. Looked at broadly, the state universities occupy a vantage ground, in the first instance, in that they have not moved to radical attitudes which upon closer investigation of the problems involved can not be held, and in the second instance that they are not so conservative as to stand in their own light. They are really in the position of modifying somewhat the average requirements for admission to meet the needs of the high schools as they stand to-day and to give them larger local option in the settling of their problems, if they are willing to give over the choice of a certain amount of their credits to the high schools rather than continue the policy of accepting credits in many small subjects. These universities are a part of the school system, and the adjustment which takes place will be from the bottom upwards rather than from the top downwards, but in this adjustment there is need of all the wisdom which the universities may have, as well as the cooperation of all the factors involved.