WISCONSIN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION. VOL. IV. JULY, 1874. No. VII. The Michigan State University and the High any direct practical relations as possible Schools. BY PROF. EWD. OLNEY. between the public schools and the University, that branches of the latter were actually established in different parts of the State, to do preparatory or academic work. The High School of to-day, as the necessary development of the common school, and the connecting link between it and the University, was not dreamed of. Nor were the possibilities of our High Schools, in this direction, fully realized until they were actually grown into and doing the work of preparatory schools. In the first place, it should be under stood that there is no organic relation existing between our High Schools and University. In the schemes of certain wise and far-seeing men, even back in our territorial days, there were plans for a State University, which comprehended all education, literary, scientific, and practical, and from the lowest to the highest grade. But these plans for a Catholepistemiad, in which every person could find It is true that the first President of the the opportunity to learn all that is neces- University, Rev. H. P. Tappan, LL. D., sary to be known, from plain sewing to was accustomed to think and speak of international law, were never anything our school system as a unit; but I am but vagaries in the brains of these sagac- not aware that even he, broad and farious and philanthropic, though eccentric, reaching as was his vision, clearly fore men. Our common school system was saw the High Schools of the State as developed entirely on its own basis, and gymnasia, standing in immediate connecwithout any direct reference to making tion with the University on the one hand it a part of a system which should culmi- and the primary schools on the other. nate in a University. So distinct were Certain it is that the bond of sympathy the schemes, that while the State held was of slow growth. In former years itself sacredly bound, from the first, to our denominational colleges, which make all needful provision for the public | largely influenced local sentiment, looked schools, it acted only as trustee of the funds of the University, which arose from the sale of lands given by the general government. No direct aid was given by the State to the University until five years ago. Again, when the University was first organized, our educators and our legislators were so far from conceiving with jealousy upon the University, if they did not take the ground of open hostility. For some years it appeared as if we were to have an internecine educational war between the friends of denominational colleges and those of the University, and not a few skirmishes actually occurred. Nevertheless, under the able management of Doctor Tappan, the Uni- | the New England sense, as a thorough versity steadily grew to an acknowledged preparatory school, we had not one. pre-eminence among the colleges of the Nevertheless, our University, with no State, and to a respectable standing preparatory department of its own, was among the higher institutions of our receiving Freshmen to the number of country. Its alumni multiplied, and be- 104, 112, 139, 168, annually, and this notgan to be found in our legislative halls, withstanding our requisitions for admisand in charge of our higher public sion were fully equal to those of our best schools. It began to be apparent that New England colleges, and were as rigthe University was gradually, but surely, idly enforced. A large amount of prelifting the whole State on to a higher paratory work was being done somewhere; plane of educational thinking and acting. nor was there any doubt as to where it Through its influence all the interests of was done; for, although our denominahigher education were kindling into new tional colleges had each its preparatory life, and higher ambitions were being department, comparatively few students begotten in the minds of all in reference | prepared in these found their way to the to liberal culture. Our denominational University. The truth was apparent to schools were not slow to see that this was all, that the natural course of events had a great good—and a good in which they developed not a few of our High Schools were becoming sharers. The hostility into excellent preparatory schools. passed away; and now those institutions are among the foremost to acknowledge and rejoice in the work which the University is doing. Thus has the University come to be recognized as the head of our entire educational system. In this I have not spoken of our excellent Normal School, and of our Agricultural College, since, though they have no organic connection with the University, they are but co-ordinate with it in the State work of higher instruction. It was at this point that the Academic Faculty of the University began seriously to consider whether some closer relation between our High Schools and University was not practicable. It is true that sev eral of these schools had already arranged their preparatory course either in consultation with us or in reference to our requirements; and what through personal influence and intercourse between members of our Faculty and Superintendents and Principals, and the fact that many While this development was going for- of the latter were our alumni, quite intiward, our Public and High Schools were mate relations had already come to exist. by no means stationary. Our common These things began to open our eyes to school laws were brought to a high state the possibilities of the situation, and in of perfection, and under the leadership the autumn of 1870 the matter began to of a succession of excellent State super-receive the formal attention of the Acaintendents, prominent among whom was Dr. Gregory, now Regent of the Illinois Industrial University, and by the efficient working of our Normal School, under such men as President A. S. Welch, our primary schools advanced with equal pace with the University. The graded school system was adopted in all our cities and larger villages, and High Schools became as numerous as such corporations. We had no academies in the State, or at least none whose name and influence were known beyond their immediate locality, and there only as good "select schools." An academy in demic Faculty. With some hesitation and questioning on the part of some of our number, the following resolution was finally passed, and after a somewhat reluctant assent had been given by the Board of Regents, it was printed in our catalogue for 1870-71, as a SPECIAL NOTICE TO PREPARATORY SCHOOLS. "Whenever the Faculty shall be satisfied that the preparatory course in any school is conducted by a sufficient number of competent instructors, and has been brought fully up to the foregoing requirements, the diploma of such school, certifying that the holder has completed | the preparatory course and sustained the examination in the same, shall entitle the candidate to be admitted to the University without further examination." "The privilege of admission on diploma is limited to public schools in Michigan, and their School Boards must make the applications annually." The arguments by which this action In connection with this announcement, was supported were, that the University a circular was sent to the leading High must take such material as the High Schools of the State, announcing the Schools prepared, and hence that it was plan more in detail. Each school desir- desirable that we should be brought into ing to come into such relations, was re- as close relations and as intimate acquaintquired to make application to us, through ance with them as possible;-that there its Board and Superintendent, to send us ought to be some supervision of this sort its course of study, stating in full what contemplated; that by throwing the provisions were made for such prepara- whole responsibility of saying whether tory teaching, and invite us to visit them the student was prepared upon the school by committee for the purpose of examin- sending him, we should make the officers ing into the actual condition and working of each school more scrupulous about of the school. When this visit had been the qualifications of those whom they made and the committee's observations sent;-that it would give dignity and imand opinions reported to the Faculty, ac-portance to these schools and to their tion was taken upon the request, and the examinations, and make their pupils feel school notified of the result. In the last two editions of our calendar this notice has been somewhat elaborated, and now stands thus: SPECIAL NOTICE TO PREPARATORY "A committee of the Faculty will visit, once every year, any Public High School, on request of its School Board, and report its condition to the Faculty. "If the Faculty shall be satisfied from such report that the Preparatory Courses of Study in the School thus visited embrace all the subjects required for admission to the University, and are taught by competent instructors, then the graduates from such preparatory courses will be admitted to the Freshman Class of the University without examination. that they must merit the approval of their Of course objections were urged. Chief among these were the two that it would "They must present to the President, discriminate against schools in the smallwithin three months after their gradua-er places which could not afford the extion, the diplomas of their School Board, | pense of such courses, and that it would certifying that they have sustained their burden our Freshman class with numbers examinations in all the studies prescribed for admission to one of the three courses, Classical, Scentific, and Engineering, or Latin and Scientific. They will also be required to appear at once in their classes, otherwise they can be admitted only after examination. *The traveling expenses of this committee are paid by the school inviting them. of unqualified students. To the first or these it was answered, that it was not just either to the local patrons of High Schools in our smaller villages, or to the students seeking preparation in them, that they should attempt to do preparatory work, and that we ought to say so distinctly. To the latter objection there could, of course, be no answer given which would be entirely conclusive, except that which sense of isolation, our sense of depend should be furnished by the experiment itself. THE RESULT. ence upon them and their work, and the living interest it keeps up between us and the most secluded rural classes of the State, are not a whit less needful for us. There is nothing in which we in this country need to guard against more sedulously than a divorce of fellowship between learning and common, practical, everyday life. There is a hauteur of the schools that is not a whit less despicable and injurious than the jealousy of ignorance, and I rejoice to know that our Michigan system is equally well calcu lated to eradicate or prevent both. During the three years in which we have received students on these diplomas, we have taken in upon them 157 Freshmen. A careful watch has been kept upon the record of such students, and as yet no discrimination can be made against them as compared with students admitted upon our examination. Such being the result while we are organizing the system, and the schools are getting in working condition under it, I think we have every reason to expect that, within a comparatively short time, it will be found that in uniformity, in thoroughness, and in extent of preparation, this class of students will excel.-The Common School, Davenport. Such was the scheme, and such were some of the anticipated fruits. It is yet too soon to pronounce decisively whether or not it is to meet the expectations of its originators, as this is but the fourth year since its inception. In all, ten or twelve schools have been admitted to the relation. Several have been rejected, and one that was admitted has been discontinued; i. e., the application was granted one year and refused the next, in view of the condition in which the school was found. As a means of awakening an interest in higher education on the part of the High Schools and the communities in which they are situated, the plan is doing all that its most sanguine friends anticipated. Some of our best Superintendents and High School Principals who were at first doubt ful as to the expediency of the measure, now testify that it works admirably in its influence upon their schools, and on the public sentiment with reference to liberal culture. I know of no prominent High School man in the State who is now opposed to the measure, though there may be such. The annual meetings of our State Teachers' Association exhibit a marked advance in community of feeling and interest between the Public Schools and the University. The feeling seems to be well nigh universal that we are, as teachers, all working in the same line, [Address before the Boston Society of Natural from the humblest mistress of a rural district school to the President of the University. There are, doubtless, those whose dignity would be shocked at such a thought, but to me it is a consummation devoutly to be desired, and equally desirable for its influence upon those at both ends of the line. While the inspiration given to our public school teachers by the assurance of a common sympathy and interest running through the whole fraternity, and the consciousness that they are working in a system so grand and far-reaching, must be exceedingly .helpful to them in bearing up cheerfully under their daily burdens of toil and What we owe to Louis Agassiz, as a Teacher. (Concluded.) BY GEORGE B. EMERSON. History, Jan. 7, 1874.] Agassiz took a large, comprehensive view of the whole field of natural history; his thorough education and intimate acquaintance with the works of the highest men in several walks, Von Martius, Cuvier, Humboldt, and others, made it possible for him to do it, and he then fixed on certain departments, and, for the time, he gave himself entirely to one. As a future inhabitant of America, it was fortunate for him to have been born, and to have grown up, in one of the free cantons of Switzerland. He was thus accustomed to treat men as equals; and thus his perfect familiarity and his freedom from all assumption were as natural to him as they were graceful and winning. He looked down upon none, but felt a sympathy with every thing best in every heart. The reality of these great human qualities gave a natural dignity which his hearty and ready laugh could never diminish. Every one was drawn toward him by what was best in himself. With the greatest gentleness he united a strong will, and with a resolute carnestness, untiring patience. His great object was truth, and, as he never had any doubt that it was truth, he may have been impatient, but he never felt really angry with those who opposed it. Mr. Agassiz had, for several years, the great advantage and privilege of being an assistant, in the description and delineation of fishes from Brazil, to Von Martius, the genial and eloquent old man of Munich. In him he had the example of a man, who, with great resources as a naturalist, had, for many years, given himself, in a foreign country, to the study of a single department of Botany, without, however, shutting his eyes to any thing that was new and remarkable in any page of Natural History. To one who was a good listener and never forgot what he heard, what a preparation must this have been for his own expedition, many years after, to the sources of the Amazon, to which he was invited by the Emperor of Brazil, in which he was assisted by the princely aid of his own friends, and from which he brought home a greater number of new species of fresh water fishes than were ever before discovered by one individual, thus carrying forward that work upon the fishes of Brazil, his first work, which he had published when he was twenty-two years old. He spent the leisure of several years in examining the reefs and dredging in the waters of the coast of Florida and other parts, always bringing home stores of new species and genera, and completing the history of innumerable known ones. What a preprration were these years for the great Hasler expedition, in which the depths of the ocean were very fully explored, and innumerable objects, new and old, were brought up, showing that the bottom of the ocean is any thing but barren, and throwing new light upon the geology of recent and of ancient times. Whenever Mr. Agassiz undertook a special work, he prepared himself for it by a careful study of whatever had been done in that particular line by all others. He had seen, everywhere, indications of the action of ice. He determined to investigate. He began by reading all he could find upon the subject, and then set himself to observe, patiently and carefully, what was taking place in the glaciers themselves. He gave the leisure of several years to this examination, and then felt himself ready to observe the effects of similar action in former ages and distant regions. The opinions of such an observer, after such a preparation, cannot be without authority and value; and it is not surprising that he should not himself have been willing to yield them to those of others who had never given the same study to the subject. When he wrote his wonderfully complete work upon the American Testudinata, he began by studying whatever had been written in regard to that family of animals, and he furnished himself, by the liberal aid of many friends, with immense numbers of specimens, so that he had ample means of satisfying himself in regard to almost every question that could be asked, as to structure or habits.** Such a work will not need to be done over again for many years. It can never be entirely superseded except by a work showing greater diligence, greater fidelity and better powers of nice observation and faithful description. Let no one who has not carefully exam ined this, and his other papers in the "Contributions to the Natural History of the United States," venture to speak of his incompleteness. His example as a teacher has been of inestimable value, as showing the import * In speaking of the thorough execution of the works in the four volumes, we ought not to forget the aid he received from the exquisite skill in drawing and engraving of Sonrel, who wore out his eyes in the work, and of Burckhardt and Clark. |