this purpose consciously before us, it will give point to all of our instruction. It will help, if not compel, the university to focus. Specifically it will demand that some effort shall be made to correlate the courses offered. In some way the student will be given such guidance that he will see the relationship of his courses to one another, to knowledge as a whole, and to life in its most practical relationships. Quietly but inevitably he will begin to have convictions. He will see, if he is a self-respecting man, that he must begin to live for America, just as his colleagues died for her. It will awaken him to new responsibilities. He will see that this is a real place, vitally connected with the mightiest proposal the world has ever known. He will in stinctively understand that Democracy, just as much as military life, requires backbone. He will develop moral fibre. He will banish slouchiness of every form. Laziness, mediocrity, and smattering will give way to work, quality, and a thorough mastery of a few vital things. Such results are just as possible as the present realities of student life. In fact, to the college man of this generation they are more nearly possible. 2. The curricula of our various schools and colleges within the university must be definitely directed toward community needs. In fact, this tendency is already in full tide. The College of Literature, Science, and Arts is accepting its obligations to society. It recognizes that it must serve the state through the professional training of the high-school teacher, Upon this campus are those subject-matter departments which, properly correlated with professional training courses, can render an inestimable service to Michigan life and meet a long deferred and earnest desire of the schoolmen of the state. A similar tendency is manifested in the courses in business administration. The College of Engineering law is conscious of the necessity of broadening and liberalizing its training. It has seen that more emphasis must be placed upon problems of management, upon the economic side of production, and upon all those phases of engineering which make for community improvement. The present emphasis upon highway construction. and transportation is a very pertinent illustration. The School of Law recognizes its obligations in adjusting the law to the changing social order. Real leadership in this highly important field simply must emerge from Our schools. Our schools of medicine have long since shifted the emphasis to preventive medicine. They see the vital importance of public health service, and more and more are thinking in terms of group and community medicine. Dentistry is no longer concerned chiefly about the training of the "tooth carpenter," but sees its responsibilities to the general health of the individual and its bearings upon public hygiene. These statements represent marvelous shiftings of emphasis. They indicate clearly that by giving this direction to our various curricula we are attempting to assume our responsibilities to American life. 3. The university must utilize definitely its equipment and personnel for research work in solving the problems of the state. In fact, the university should be the research center of the state. Questions of all kinds and descriptions immediately related to the welfare of the people must be answered. The actual organization here of an industrial research laboratory in co-operation with the Michigan Manufacturers Association is an illustration of the application of this principle. All results of research work will be published. By these plans the university relates itself directly to the industrial welfare of the state without in any sense violating its obligations to any group. Just so in every realm, the university should serve the people. With every problem of government, economics, sociology, art, and education, the university should concern itself. In a word, it should become the thinking, investigating, philosophizing center of the commonwealth. No one need interpose here that this violates the cardinal principle of learning for learning's sake. Research activities of the kind described will only stimulate investigation of every type. We must never lose sight of the fact that the quality of civilization waits upon discovery, invention, and research. A true university, as distinguished from a college, must function mightily in this respect, or it fails utterly. To aim at genuine service to the people through the solution of all types of problems can only give vitality and power to our graduate work. 4. Finally, the university must permeate the state with knowledge. The people of today as never before understand the power which accrues to anyone who has the facts and the proper train campus instruction. This university must come into closer contact with all of the schools of the state. They are making the citizens of tomorrow. We must be of vital service in recruiting the teaching profession. Groups of progressive business men throughout the state need and desire various business courses. We should attempt the training of social service workers, including field work and co-operation with the various departments of county, municipal, and state governments. There are limitless possibilities of wise and valuable co-operation with all kinds of private enterprises. Our Extension Division has done and is doing much. It deserves high approbation. It now needs adequate support and recognition. These aims may call for a clearer demarcation between university work. and the duties of executive departments of our government. They may even suggest the necessity of new units in our educational system. But, in the meantime, if we consciously aim to assume our share of the responsiiblity for the new America, we must remember that In a word, we pretend to believe that men must be free. They are only free understand how to govern themselves when they know how to live wisely and justly and efficiently. In our appraisal of America we said that her greatest tyrant was ignorance. If now we are to serve her, we must give her knowledge. ing. The people are literally hungry for knowledge is the property of every man. knowledge. The British Labor Party showed statesmanship when it affirmed that we must aim to "bring effectively within the reach, not only of every boy and girl, but also of every adult citizen, all the training, physical, mental, and moral, literary, technical, and scientific, of which he is capable." Such an ideal is democracy applied to education. For the university it takes the form of extension service. Such a division requires very little in the way of its own teaching staff. In fact, its instructional work should be done by those who are regular members of the university faculties. Knowledge is one. We cannot tolerate one type for the campus and another for the state. The mutual benefits are not to be ignored. To become a successful extension teacher would vitalize a man's Here, then, are four suggestive possibilities of the specific type of service which the university can and must render to the state if it is to be worthy of its history, its opportunities, and its ideals. CONCLUSION I am quite conscious that the main proposals of this address have far-reaching ramifications. I am equally aware that I have left many questions untouched and some of our most serious problems unsolved. A man cannot remake the universe or even the educational world with words in a short half-hour. A wise ad ministrator must often use an inaugural address to conceal, not to reveal, all of his education fads, frills, and fancies! I appreciate the fact that some things at which I have hinted today, if carried out, would involve radical changes in our educational system. The necessity of economy of time in education is very pressing. Two or three years for every one of our millions of youth might be saved. The startling problem of growth may call for new units in our educational machinery. Junior colleges may make a temporary reduction of enrollment in the first twoyears, but they will only accentuate the problem in its ultimate form. Co-operation with all kinds of enterprises may assist materially in reducing the expenses of education, and contribute mightily to the more thorough unification of the state. In conclusion, it is quite useless to observe as usual that we must acquire a new sense of individual responsibility, unless we actually point our finger at the individual. With considerable audacity and abandon, I desire to express the belief that the professor is the man who can turn this trick. He is at the center of the stage. Sometimes we maintain the illusion that regents, presidents, deans, alumni, or students are primarily to blame for existing conditions. If we forget the question of praise and blame, and face the future with its luring possibilities, we must crown the teaching professor today. As one of his own group, Professor Hudson has said so wisely: "Our ultimate hope is in the college professor himself." Alluding to necessary changes in education he affirms that "no such reform is likely to be permanently effective, unless it emerges directly from the aggressive convictions of the college professor himself." Here, then, is our message today: The function of the state university is to serve the state, and through the state to serve America and the world. I like to re-read Henry Van Dyke's poem entitled "Home Thoughts from Europe." When he wrote it he had a proper perspective of America. With all his appreciation of Europe he could not smother his native American instincts, and so he exclaimed: "But life is in the present, and the future must be free; We love our land for what she is, and what she is to be." DETROIT'S INTERMEDIATE-SCHOOL PROGRAM* IN CHAS. L. SPAIN 'N September, 1919, the authorities in control of the Detroit school system adopted an educational policy which contemplates the ultimate segregation of the first six grades of the elementary schools in platoon schools, and the training of all pupils of the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades in large intermediate schools specifically organized to meet the educational needs of pupils of adolescent years. While the complete realization of this policy must await the passing of years, the progress made toward this end during the past year has been very noteworthy. The development of a new elementary organization has gone rapidly forward, and buildings and additions planned to house a modernized school have been started and are well on the way to completion. In the intermediate school field, while the actual showing in concrete results has not been as evident, the progress, nevertheless, has been almost as marked. To formulate a new educational policy; to "sell" this policy to those upon whom its success must depend; to set up educational objectives; to develop a curriculum to realize these objectives, and to plan buildings in which the curriculum can find adequate expression, is a tremendous undertaking, but it has been almost accomplished within a year, and the actual construction of five intermediate school buildings for which funds are now available, only awaits the completion of the working drawings. This far-reaching educational program, which is well on its way to realization, was inaugurated only after the most exhaustive consideration and study on the part of those responsible for education*Copyright, 1920, by Chas. L. Spain. al leadership in the Detroit school system. It rests, we believe, on a sound educational philosophy. It embodies, in a concrete way, the results of the best experience and thought of the past, combined with the results of the latest studies and research in the fields of psychology, sociology, and school administration. The ideals which underlie this program are social rather than academic. It is conceived that education should be of that type which will best achieve the pur poses of a democracy. This program is based upon the theory that "the purpose of democracy is so to organize society that each member may devetop his personality primarily through activities designed for the well-being of his fellow members, and of society as a whole. "Consequently, education in a democracy, both within and without the school, should develop in each individual the knowledge, interests, ideals, habits, and powers, whereby he will find his place. and use that place to shape both himself and society toward ever nobler ends." The platoon schools which are rapidly being developed in Detroit are intended to minister in the largest way possible to the physical, intellectual, moral, and social needs of each individual child, and at the same time so to organize and relate his knowledge, interests, and habits to the life outside of school that he may fit readily and effectively into a place in society. The intermediate school is an expression of the same educational philosophy, applied to the needs of children of adolescent years. Among the many reasons why a separate school for adolescents is desirable, there are some which are worthy of special emphasis: 1. Pupils between the ages of 12 and 16 are passing through a critical period, during which the influence of the school may "make" or "break" the pupil's career. It is, therefore, important that this fact be recognized, and that special consideration be given to such pupils. 2. While it is important to provide for individual differences in the training of all children, it is doubly so during the adolescent period when these differences are more marked than they have been in the earlier years. A large intermediate school can provide for these differences by a varied curriculum, and by giving pupils some freedom to select types of work which they prefer. The segregation of large numbers of pupils of the same grade in one school makes possible the organization of classes of like ability, and permits the more capable pupils to advance rapidly. 3. This is a period during which vocational interests begin to appear. At this time the study of books and the routine of the grammar school become irksome to many pupils. It is highly desirable that such pupils have opportunities to test their aptitudes and abilities in various kinds of vocational work. The school must also explore for pupils the vocations. into which they are likely to find their way, and give them information as to possibilities for employment, wages, advancement, and leisure time. Pupils of this age also need guidance and counsel, especially with respect to employment and the choice of a career. The inter mediate school can provide for all of these things. In general, it is expected that the intermediate school will successfully train a group of pupils who have never been adequately provided for, either by the grammar school or the high school. The seventh, eighth, and ninth grades of the Detroit schools, during 1919-1920, enrolled 35 per cent of the twelve-year olds, 58 per cent of the thirteen-yearolds, 66 per cent of the fourteen-yearolds, 52 per cent of the fifteen-year-olds, and 36 per cent of the sixteen-year-olds. This is the group of children for which the intermediate school is being organized. The period from the end of the sixth grade to the beginning of the tenth is one of exceedingly great school mortality. A comparison of the enrollment of 8,212 pupils in the sixth grade with 3,420 in the tenth is convincing proof of the failure of pupils to remain in school at this period. Undoubtedly economic pressure and the desire to earn and possess money, and the independence that goes therewith, are accountable for a great part of the loss. There is much evidence, however, to indicate that the educational prolonged if the school were able to meet life of a great many who leave might be the requirements of this class. The curriculum of the intermediate school has been framed with this thought very clearly in mind. It aims: 1. To prolong the educational life of those who are so placed that they may remain in school for an indefinite period. 2. To prolong, if possible, the educational life of those whose future is un certain, by counsel, guidance, and the inducements of a more attractive and varied curriculum. 3. To study and analyze the cases of those who must leave school early, and to provide for them the kind of vocational experience and guidance that will help them to find their places in life. THE CURRICULUM Behind the curriculum of the intermediate school lie the great social objectives, I. To provide for the health of the pupil. II. To continue the training in the fundamental processes, which was begun in the elementary school. |