Physical exercise in these various forms has its immediate and valuable influence upon the health condition of the individual student, if taken in sufficient quantity. It has its lasting and very much more important influence in those cases in which physical exercise becomes a habit. It has, therefore, become the increasing concern of the college teacher of physical training to develop activities in physical exercise that the student may use after graduation. Teachers of physical training have become more and more impressed with the importance of interesting exercise, not only because interesting exercise is more likely to become habitual exercise, but also because exercise that is accompanied by the play spirit, by happiness and joy, is physiologically and therefore healthfully of very much more value to the individual. The relationship between cheerfulness and good health has become very firmly established through the scientific researches of the modern physiologist. We know that health habits which are associated with cheerfulness and happiness are bound to be more effective.
The teacher of physical training finds opportunity for incidental and yet very important instruction leading to the formation of fine qualities of character and fine standards of personal conduct. These opportunities arise constantly in the various general types of physical exercise found in the curriculum of the department of physical training. They are especially present in those activities in which competition occurs, as in play, games, and athletics. These activities do not in themselves produce excellent qualities of character or high standards of conduct, but the teacher—whether he be called a coach or a trainer or a professor of hygiene—who sets a good example and who insists that every game played, and every contest, whether it be in a handball court between college chums or on the football field between college teams, shall be clean and fair, is using in the right way one of the opportunities present in the entire college life of the student, for the formation of fine character.
In any given group of college students one will find a number of individuals in need of special or modified physical exercise. These students may be grouped commonly under the following heads: (1) undeveloped, (2) bad posture, (3) awkward, (4) originally weak, (5) deformed.
Some of these students suffer from defects that are remediable, Some of these defects are due to poor physical training in earlier years. Some are the results of disease. All of them call for modified exercise and recreation. The fact that a student may fall into one of these groups in no way justifies the assumption that he is therefore no longer subject to the laws of health or to the need for rational health habits. As a matter of fact, such cases generally call for greater care and attention in the formulation and operation of a rational policy of right living.
Every student physically able to go to college is physically able to exercise. No student in attendance on recitations anywhere can offer a rational plea for exemption from exercise, The individual whose physical condition contraindicates all forms of exercise needs careful medical advice and probably needs hospital or sanitarium treatment.
College Departments of Physical Training are planning for cases in need of special or modified exercise, through the organization of special classes and through individual attention. In the College of the City of New York we attempt to group the weak students in a given class, into squads of four such students with a squad leader, a student. The awkward students are grouped in the same manner. The exercise of the cripple and the student with serious organic weakness is individualized. These special individualized cases are under the direct supervision of a physician on the staff.
In this college, organized, directed physical exercise as outlined above is covered in the division of physical training, the division of recreation, and the division of athletics, all of which are subdivisions of the Department of Hygiene.
The enrollment in the required classes in the division of Physical Training varies from thirty in the smaller classes to over two hundred in the larger. The total enrollment has been approximately eleven hundred each term for several years. These courses are required of all students during the first four collegiate terms. Each of these four courses requires three hours a week, distributed over two or into three periods, and credits the student with one half point toward graduation. This time allowance is, however, inadequate.
The class organization in the division of the Department of Hygiene is based on a unit composed of five students. Each of these units or squads contains one student who is designated as the "leader" of that unit.
Persistent effort is made to assign students of like physical development and needs to the same squads. In this manner a single class of a hundred young men will have a graduation on the basis of proficiency which makes it possible for the teacher to come very near to the rational application of exercise for the individual student.
These units or squads are organized into divisions, each division being made up of four squads. Each division is under the supervision and instruction of a member of the departmental staff. In any given class, then, there is a regular instructor for each group of twenty students, and a student leader for each group of four students. The aim in this organization is to establish a relationship between the instructor and his twenty students that will secure for him an intimate knowledge of each young man, relating to his physical training needs, general and special.
A typical class period is made up of a short health talk, 10 minutes; a mass drill, 10 minutes; apparatus period, two changes, 20 minutes; and a play period, 15 minutes. If the health talk is not given the play period is lengthened.
The mass drills referred to above are made up of drill in marching and in gymnastics with and without hand apparatus. These drills are graded within the term and from term to term so that a desirable variety is secured. They are devised for disciplinary, postural, developmental, and health purposes. During the progress of the drill the instructors present inspect the posture and work of the students in their divisions.
The apparatus periods referred to include work on the conventional pieces of gymnastic apparatus, with the addition of chest weights, an indoor track, and a swimming pool. The squad organization for this work gives opportunity for the development of student leadership which is often of extraordinary educational value to the individual boy. These periods, because of this squad organization, may be utilized for such special exercise emphasis as may be decided upon for any given group of students. It is here that special conditioning may be given those young men who are planning for military training or who need selected exercise for neuro-muscular development.
The play period in the regular class program is devoted largely to looser games that contain a predominating element of big muscle activities. Competition is a fairly constant factor. Here, again, our squad unit permits us to assign selected groups of students to special types of games. It is feasible, in this organization, to satisfy a need for the training that is furnished by highly organized games, fighting games, and by games and out-of-door events that develop special groups of muscles and special coördinations.
A well-organized Collegiate Department of Physical Training could coöperate very effectively with a Collegiate Department of Military Training. The squad organization in apparatus periods and in play periods offers the best possible avenue for a successful emphasis of several of the very important phases of military physical training.
The division of recreation in the Department of Hygiene in the College of the City of New York, takes charge of all recreational and athletic space and all recreational and intramural athletic activities in those periods of the day in which regular class work does not take precedence. Students of all classes are admitted freely throughout their four collegiate years to these activities, and a studied effort is made to increase their attractiveness as well as to secure from them their full social and character-training values. Such values depend to a very large degree upon the experienced supervision and direction given these activities. It does not follow that the creation of play opportunity is bound to produce good citizenship. The quality of the product depends upon the quality of the man or men in charge of the enterprise.
The most important mission of the Recreational Division is its purpose to furnish the student lasting habits of play and recreation based upon the physical development he has secured in his earlier experiences in physical training. After all, one's physical training should begin at birth and continue throughout life.
The Division of Athletic Instruction is concerned with all plans for intercollegiate athletics, including organization, financing, training, coaching, and scheduling. All these activities are under the direction of members of the staff of the Department of Hygiene. There is no one employed in this relationship who is not a member of the staff. Constant attempts are made, in every reasonable way, to accomplish the athletic ideals that have been set up by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Clean play, honorable methods, and sportsmanly standards dominate the theory and practice of this athletic instruction and supervision.
The scope and content of physical training which I have attempted to present in these pages is brought out more clearly by the following announcement of the Department of Hygiene of the College of the City of New York:
The Department of Hygiene is made up of the divisions of Physical Training, Physiology, Bacteriology, Health Examination, Recreational Instruction, and Athletics.
Through these divisions the Department attempts to train young men for the exigencies of life through the establishment of enduring habits of health examination and repair, health information and individual and community protection against the agents that injure health and cause disease, and through the establishment of wise habits of daily life.
This organization gives opportunity for the development of neglected organic and neuromuscular growth, coördination and control; for the social, ethical, and moral training (character building influences) inherent in wisely supervised athletic and recreational experiences; and for the special conditioning that accompanies training for severe physical and physiological competition and other tests.
Finally, preparation may be secured for life work along certain lines of research, certain medical sciences, various phases of public health, physical training and social work.
In addition, this Department is concerned with all those influences within the College which affect the health of the student. Every reasonable effort is made to keep the institution safe and attractive to the clean, healthy individual.
1. Course One.
(a) Lectures. "Some of the common causes of disease."
(b) Physical Exercise.
i. Graded mass drills.
(a) Elementary drills are used in order to develop obedience, alertness, and ready response to command, accurate execution, good posture and carriage and facility of control.
(b) More advanced drills are given in which movements are made in response to commands. Strength, endurance, and coördination are brought into play.
ii. Apparatus work. Continuation of graded exercises for squads of five students each.
iii. Selected, graded, recreative indoor and outdoor games and play.
iv. Swimming. Each student is required to learn to swim with more than one variety of stroke.
Prescribed. Freshman, first term; three hours a week; counts ½.
2. Course Two.
(a) Lectures. "The carriers of disease."
(b) Physical Exercise.
i. Graded mass drills. Two-count movements. These drills are continuations of, but more advanced than those given in the preceding term.
ii. Apparatus work. Continuation of graded exercises for squads of five.
iii. Selected, graded, recreative indoor and outdoor games and play.
iv. Swimming. Each student is required to develop endurance in swimming.
Prerequisite: Hygiene 1.
Prescribed. Freshman, second term; three hours a week; counts ½.
3. Course Three.
(a) Lectures. "The contributory causes and carriers of disease."
(b) Physical Exercise.
i. Graded mass drills. Four-count movements. More advanced work.
ii. Apparatus work. Continuation of graded exercises for squads of five.
iii. Selected, graded, recreative indoor and outdoor games and play.
iv. Swimming. Diving, rescue and resuscitation of the drowning.
Prerequisite: Hygiene 2.
Prescribed. Sophomore, first term; three hours a week; counts ½.
4. Course Four.
(a) Lectures. "Defenses against poor health and disease."
(b) Physical Exercise.
i. Advanced graded mass drills. Eight-count movements.
ii. Advanced graded apparatus work. For squads of five.
iii. Selected, graded, recreative indoor and outdoor games and play.
iv. Swimming. Advanced continuation of requirements outlined for Courses 2 and 3.
Prerequisite: Hygiene 3.
Prescribed. Sophomore, second term; three hours a week; counts ½.
Modified Course.
In each of the above required courses provision is made for those students whose organic condition may permanently disqualify them for
the regular scheduled work. This special work is under the immediate direction of a medical member of the Staff.
5. Intermediate Physical Training.
This course is planned to supply the student with such organic development and efficiency as will enable him to demonstrate
successfully as a teacher various type exercises for classes in elementary and intermediate indoor and outdoor gymnastics, aquatics, games, play and athletics.
Prerequisite: Hygiene 4. Three hours a week; counts ½.
6. Advanced Physical Training.
This course is a continuation of Course 5, and is designed for the physical equipment of teachers of more advanced physical work.
Prerequisite: Hygiene 5. Three hours a week; counts ½.
7. Class Management.
This course supplies the practical instruction and experience needed for the training of special teachers in the management of elementary
and intermediate classes in various forms of physical exercise.
Prerequisite: Hygiene 6 and 32. Fall term, three hours a week; counts 1.
8. Class Management.
This course is a continuation of Course 7. It is planned to give a training in the management of more advanced classes.
Prerequisite: Hygiene 7. Spring term, three hours a week; counts 1.
9. Control of Emergencies and First Aid to the Injured.
This course supplies instruction concerning the management and protective care of common emergencies. The instruction is practical
and rational. It covers such emergencies as: sprains, fractures, dislocations, wounds, bruises, sudden pain, fainting, epileptic
attacks, unconsciousness, drowning, electric shock, and so on.
Prerequisite: Hygiene 32. Fall term, two hours a week; counts 1.
10. Theory and Practice of Individual Instruction in Hygiene and in Departmental Sanitation.
Students taking this subject will be given practical first hand experience of special use to teachers; (a) in connection with health
examination, inspection, conference, consultation, and follow up service carried on in the departmental examining room; and (b) in
connection with the sanitary supervision carried on by the department.
Prerequisites or Co-requisites: Hygiene 32, 41 and 48. Spring term, six hours a week in two periods of three hours each; counts 2.
32. Elements of Physiology.
This subject deals with the general concepts of the science of physiology, the chemical and physical conditions which underlie and
determine the action of the individual organs, and the integrative relationship of the parts of the body.
One lecture, one recitation and two laboratory hours a week; counts 3.
33. Special Physiology.
A study of the fundamental facts of physiology and methods of investigation. The aim is to give a complete study of certain topics:
the phenomena of contraction, conduction, sense perception and the various mechanisms of general metabolism. Laboratory work is arranged
to show the methods of physiologic experimentation and to emphasize the necessity of using care and accuracy in their application.
Spring term, two lectures and three laboratory hours a week; counts 3.
34. Physiology of Nutrition.
The aim of this subject is to study broadly the metabolism of the
human body. In the development of this plan the following topics will
be considered: the food requirements of man, the nutritive history of the physiologic ingredients, the principles of dietetics and their
application to daily living.
Fall term, two lectures and three laboratory hours a week; counts 3.
41. General Bacteriology.
Lectures, recitations and laboratory work introducing the student to the technique of bacteriology and to the more important facts about
the structure and function of bacteria. Special applications of bacteriology to agriculture and the industries are discussed, and
brief references are made to the activities of allied microbes, the yeasts and molds. The general relations of bacteria to disease and the
principles of immunity and its control are included.
One lecture, one recitation and four laboratory hours a week; counts 3.
42. Bacteriology of Foods.
This includes the bacteriologic examination of water, sewage, air, milk, the various food products together with the methods used in the
standardization of disinfectants, a detailed study of yeast and bacterial fermentation and their application to the industries.
Numerous trips to industrial plants will be made.
Prerequisite: Hygiene 41.
Fall term, one lecture and six laboratory hours a week; counts 3.
43. Bacteriology of Pathogenic Micro-organisms.
This subject is devoted to the laboratory methods of biology as applied in the state and municipal boards of health. Practice will be
given in the methods used for the diagnosis of diphtheria, tuberculosis, malaria, rabies, and other diseases caused by
micro-organisms, together with a detailed study of the groups to which they belong.
Prerequisite: Hygiene 41.
Spring term, one lecture and six laboratory hours a week; counts 3.
44. Potable and Industrial Water.
Very few industries are independent of a water supply. No one is independent of the source of his drinking water. Water varies in its usefulness for definite purposes.
This subject differentiates between various waters, takes them up from industrial and hygienic standpoints, considers softening, filtering, purifying and water analysis.
Work is divided into three groups.
| A. Industrial Water | } | } | given in the Chemistry Department. |
| B. Potable Water | } | ||
| C. Water Bacteriology (microscopy of water) | } | given in the Department of Hygiene. |
Municipal students may elect any or all of the three groups.
Prerequisite: Chemistry 4 and Hygiene 41. Chemistry 9 is desirable.
Spring term, seven hours a week; counts 3.
48. Municipal Sanitation.
Lectures, discussions and visits to public works of special importance. The principles which underlie a pure water supply and the
means by which the wastes of the city, its sewage and garbage may be successfully disposed of, and the problems of pure milk and pure food
supplies, the housing question with its special phase of ventilation and plumbing, and the methods by which a municipal board of health is
organized to fight tuberculosis and other specific diseases will be studied.
Fall term, two lectures and one field trip a week; counts 3.
49. Municipal Sanitary Inspection.
Professor B—— and Bureau of Foods and Drugs, New York City Department of Health.
The seminar work of this subject is done in the College and the field work in company with and under the direct supervision of an Inspector
of the Department of Health of the City. The subject is limited to six students each semester, and is intended for those planning to go into
this branch of the City's service. The qualifications will be based upon individuality, personality playing an important part.
Prerequisite: Hygiene 41 and 48 and Chemistry 19.
Spring term, two seminar hours, one recitation and one inspection tour a week; counts 3.
50. Research.
Seniors who have completed satisfactorily a sufficient amount of work in the Department may be assigned some topic to serve as a basis for a thesis which will be submitted as credit for the work at its completion. The student will receive the advice of the instructor in the subject in which the research falls, but as much independent work as possible will be insisted upon. The purpose is to introduce the student into research methods, and also to foster independence.
I. Individual Instruction in Hygiene.
This instruction is of a personal confidential character, and is given in the form of advice based upon medical history supplied by the individual, and upon medical and hygienic examinations and inspections of the individual.
(a) Medical and hygienic history and examination.
In this relationship with the student the Department attempts to secure such information concerning environmental and habit
influences in the life of the student as may be used as a basis for supplying him with helpful advice concerning the organization
of his policy of personal health control. The medical examinations are utilized for the purpose of finding remediable physical
defects whose proper treatment may be added to the physiological efficiency and therefore to the health possibilities of the student.
Prescribed: freshman, sophomore, junior, senior and special students. Once each term. No credits.
(b) Hygiene inspections.
These inspections are applied in the mutual interest of personal, departmental and institutional hygiene.
Prescribed: freshman and sophomore.
(c) Conferences.
All students who have been given personal hygienic or medical advice are required to report in conference by appointment in order that the advice may be followed up.
All individuals found with communicable diseases are debarred from all classes until it is shown in conference that they are receiving proper medical treatment, and that they may return to class attendance with safety to their comrades.
All individuals found with remediable physical or hygienic defects are required to report in conference with evidence that the abnormal condition has been brought to the serious attention of the parent, guardian or family medical or hygienic adviser. Students failing to report as directed may be denied admission to all classes.
II. Medical and Sanitary Supervision.
(a) Sanitary supervision.
An "Advisory Committee on Hygiene and Sanitation" with the Professor of Hygiene as Chairman, has been appointed by the President. This committee has been instructed to "inquire from time to time into all our institutional influences which are likely to affect the health of the student and instructor, and to make such reports with recommendations to the President as may seem wise and expedient."
(b) A medical examination is required of all applicants for admission to the College. Approval of the Medical Examiner must be secured before registration is permitted.
(c) Medical consultation.
Open to all students. (Optional.)
(d) Medical examination of Athletes.
Required of all students before admission to athletic training and repeated at intervals during the training season.
(e) Treatment.
Emergency treatment is the only treatment attempted by the Department. Such treatment will be applied only for the purpose of protecting the individual until he can secure the services he selects for that purpose.
(f) Conferences.
(See "c" under I.)
(g) Laboratory: The Department Laboratories are equipped for bacteriological and other analyses. The water in the swimming pool is examined daily. The laboratory service is utilized to identify disease carriers, and in every other reasonable way to assist in the protection of student health.
Liberal provision is made by the College for voluntary recreational activities indoors and outdoors during six days of the week and throughout vacation periods. Emphasis is laid on recreation as a health habit and a means of social training.
(1) Athletic Supervision.
Three organizations are concerned:
(a) The Faculty Athletic Committee, which has to do with all athletic activities that involve academic relationships.
(b) The Athletic Council, a committee of the Department of Hygiene, charged with the supervision of all business activities connected with student athletic enterprises.
(c) The Athletic Association of the Student Body.
(2) Athletic Instruction.
The Department utilizes various intramural and extramural athletic activities for the purpose of securing a further influence on the promotion of health habits, the development of physical power, and the establishment and maintenance of high standards of sportsmanly conduct on part of the individual and the group.
At present the schedule includes the following sports: baseball, basket ball, track and field, swimming and water polo, tennis, soccer foot ball, and hand ball.
Thomas Andrew Storey, M.D.
College of the City of New York
[It was hoped that it would be possible to include with Professor Storey's chapter a number of forms and photographs calculated to serve as aids in the organization and conduct of a College Department of Hygiene. As Professor Storey's work is very distinctive, other institutions which are striving to organize effective departments of physical education would have found his experiences as graphically depicted in these photographs and summed up in these charts extremely helpful. Unfortunately it has proved impossible to print them here on account of limitations of space, but all who are interested in securing further information can obtain these valuable guides in the introductory stages of the inauguration of a Department of Hygiene by applying to the College of the City of New York. Editor.]
Footnotes:
[12] The construction of this chapter on the teaching of physical training is based very largely upon the experiences and organization of the Department of Hygiene in the College of the City of New York.
[13] This precollegiate instruction is, unfortunately, uniformly poor in so far as it relates to health.
[14] The present enrollment in these classes, February, 1919, is approximately 1500.
| The Social Sciences | |
| CHAPTER | |
| X | The Teaching of Economics Frank A. Fetter |
| XI | The Teaching of Sociology A. J. Todd |
| XII | The Teaching of History |
| A. American History H. W. Elson | |
| B. Modern European History Edward Krehbiel | |
| XIII | The Teaching of Political Science Charles Grove Haines |
| XIV | The Teaching of Philosophy Frank Thilly |
| XV | The Teaching of Ethics Henry Neumann |
| XVI | The Teaching of Psychology Robert S. Woodworth |
| XVII | The Teaching of Education |
| A. Teaching the History of Education Herman H. Horne | |
| B. Teaching Educational Theory Frederick E. Bolton | |
Even though economics be so defined as to exclude a large part of the field of the social sciences, its scope is still very broad. Economics is less homogeneous in its content, is far less clearly defined, than is any one of the natural sciences. A very general definition of economics is: The study of men engaged in making a living. More fully expressed, economics is a study of men exercising their own powers and making use of their environment for the purposes of existence, of welfare, and of enjoyment. Within such a broad definition of economics is found room for various narrower conceptions. To mention only the more important of these we may distinguish individual economics, domestic economics, business economics, governmental economics (public finance), and political (or national) economics. Any one of these subjects may be approached and treated primarily either with regard to its more immediate financial, material, acquisitive aspects, or to its more far-reaching social, psychical, and welfare aspects. These various ideas appear and reappear most confusingly in economic literature.
The aims that different students and teachers have in the pursuit of economics are as varied as are the conceptions of its nature. The teaching aims are, indeed, largely determined by those conceptions. Moreover, the teaching aims are modified by still other conditions, such as the environment of the college and its constituency, and such as the temperament, business experience, and scholarly training of the teacher. We may distinguish broadly three aims: the vocational, the civic, and the cultural.
The vocational aim is the most elementary and most usual. Xenophon's treatise on domestic "economy" was the nucleus from which have grown all the systematic formulations of economic principles. Vocational economics is the economics of the craftsman and of the shop. Every practical craft and art has its economic aspect, which concerns the right and best use of labor and valuable materials to attain a certain artistic, mechanical, or other technical end in its particular field. Economics is not mere technology, which has to do with the mastery of materials and forces to attain any material end. Vocational economics, however, modifies and determines technical practice, which, in the last analysis, is subject to the economic rule. The economic engineer should construct not the best bridge that is possible, mechanically considered, but the best possible or advisable for the purpose and with the means at hand. The economic agriculturist should not produce the largest crop possible, but the crop that gives the largest additional value. The rapidly growing recognition of the importance, in all technical training, of cultivating the ability to take the economic view has led to the development of household economics in connection with the teaching of cooking, sewing, decorating, etc.; of the economics of farm management to supplement the older technical courses in natural science, crops, and animal husbandry; of the economics of factory management in connection with mechanical engineering; of the economics of railway location in connection with certain phases of civil engineering; and many more such special groupings and formulations of economic principles with reference to particular vocations and industries.
The ancient and the medieval crafts and mysteries undoubtedly had embodied in their maxims, proverbs, traditional methods, and teachings, many economic principles suitable to their comparatively simple and unchanging conditions. The rapid changes that have occurred, especially in the last half century, in the natural sciences and in the practical arts have rendered useless much of this wisdom of the fathers. Recently there has been a belated and sudden awakening to the need of studying, consciously and systematically, the economic aspects of the new dynamic forces and industrial conditions. Hence the almost dramatic appearance of vocational, or technical, economics under such names as "scientific management" and the "economics of engineering." Viewed in this perspective such a development appears to be commendable and valuable in its main purpose. Unfortunately, some, if not all, of the adherents of this new cult of "economy" and "efficiency" fail to appreciate how very restricted and special it is, compared with the whole broad economic field.
The civic aim in teaching economics is to fit the student to perform the duties of a citizen. We need not attempt to prove here that a large proportion of public questions are economic in nature, and that in a democracy a wise decision on these questions ultimately depends on an intelligent public opinion and not merely on the knowledge possessed by a small group of specialists.
The civic conception of economics, seen from one point of view, shows little in common with the vocational conception. Yet from another point of view it may be looked upon as the vocational conception "writ large" and is the art of training men to be citizens in a republic. Good citizenship involves an attitude of interest, a capacity to form judgments on public economic issues, and, if need be, to perform efficiently public functions of a legislative, executive or judicial nature. The state-supported colleges usually now recognize very directly their obligation to provide economic training with the civic aim, and, in some cases, even to require it as a part of the work for a college degree. Often also is found the thought that it is the duty of the student while obtaining an education at public expense, to take a minimum of economics with the civic aim even if he regards it as in no way to his individual advantage or if it has in his case no direct vocational bearings. In the privately endowed institutions this policy may be less clearly formulated, but it is hardly less actively practiced. Indeed, the privately endowed institutions have been recognizing more and more fully their fiduciary and public nature. Their public character is involved in their charters, in their endowments, in their exemption from taxation, and in their essential educational functions. The proudest pages in their history are those recording their services to the state.[15]
The cultural aim in economics is to enable the student to comprehend the industrial world about him. It aims to liberate the mind from ignorance and prejudice, giving him insight into, and appreciation of, the industrial world in which he lives. In this aspect it is a liberal study. Economics produces in some measure this cultural result, even when it is studied primarily with the vocational or with the civic aim. But in vocational economics the choice of materials and the mode of treatment are deliberately restricted by the immediate utilitarian purposes; and in economic teaching with a civic purpose there is the continual temptation to arouse the sympathies for an immediate social program and to take a view limited by the contemporary popular interest in specific proposals for reform. Economics at its highest level is the search for truth. It has its place in any system of higher education as has pure natural science, apart from any immediate or so far as we may know, any possible, utilitarian application. It is a disinterested philosophy of the industrial world. Though it may not demonstrably be a means to other useful things, it is itself a worthy end. It helps to enrich the community with the immaterial goods of the spirit, and it yields the psychic income of dignity and joy in the individual and national life. And as a final appeal to any doubting Philistine it may be said that just as the cult of pure science is necessary to the continual and most effective progress in the practical arts, so the study of economics on the philosophical plane surely is necessary to the highest and most lasting results in the application of economics to the arts and to civic life.
The differences in aims set forth in this paragraph result in much of the futile discussion in recent years regarding methods of teaching. Enthusiastic innovators have debated at cross purposes about teaching methods as if they were to be measured by some absolute standard of pedagogic values, not recognizing that the chief differences of views as to teaching methods were rooted in the differing aims. This truth will reappear at many points in the following discussion. "What will you have," quoth the Gods, "pay the price and take it."
The place assigned to economics in the college curriculum in respect
to the year in which the student is admitted to its study is very
different in various colleges. In the last investigation of the
subject it appeared that the first economics course might be taken
first
in the freshman year in 14 per cent of cases,
in the sophomore year in 31 per cent of cases,
in the junior year in 42 per cent of cases,
in the senior year in 13 per cent of cases.[16]
Among those institutions giving an economic course in the freshman
year are some small and some large institutions (some of the latter
being Stanford, New York University, Pennsylvania, Bryn Mawr, and the
state universities of California, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota,
Colorado, Utah). Frequently the elementary course given to freshmen is
in matter and method historical and descriptive, rather than
theoretical, and is planned to precede a more rigid course in the
principles.[17]
The plan of beginning economics in the sophomore year is the mode among the state universities and larger colleges, including nearly all of the larger institutions that do not begin the subject in the freshman year. This group includes Yale, Hopkins, Chicago, Northwestern, Mount Holyoke, Wellesley, Vassar, and (after 1919) Princeton.
The group of institutions beginning economics in the junior year is the largest, but consists mostly of small colleges having some advanced economics courses, but no more than can be given in the senior year. It contains, besides, a few colleges of arts which maintain a more strictly prescribed curriculum for underclassmen (freshmen and sophomores), such as Dartmouth, Columbia, Smith, and Simmons. It should be observed also that in a great many institutions, where economics may be taken by some students in the first two years, it is in fact scheduled as late as junior or senior year in the prescribed courses of students in special departments such as agriculture, engineering, and law. This statement applies doubtless to many thousands of technical students.[18]
In view of these divergencies in practice we must hesitate to declare that the subject should be begun at precisely this or that point in the college course. These differences, to be sure, are in many cases the result of accidental factors in the college curriculum, and often have been determined by illogical departmental rivalries within the faculty rather than by wise and disinterested educators studying the merits of the case. But in large part these differences are the expression of different purposes and practical needs in planning a college curriculum, and are neither quite indefensible nor necessarily contradictory in pedagogic theory. In the small college with a nearly uniform curriculum and with limited means, a general course is perhaps best planned for the senior year, or in the junior year if there is an opportunity given to the student to do some more advanced work the year following. At the other extreme are some larger institutions in which the pressure of new subjects within the arts curriculum has shattered the fixed curriculum into fragments. This has made possible specialization along any one of a number of lines. Where this idea is carried out to the full, every general group of subjects eventually must make good its claim to a place in the freshman year for its fundamental course. But inasmuch as, in most institutions, the freshman year is still withheld from this free elective plan by the requirement of a small group of general subjects, economics is first open to students in the sophomore year. The license of the elective system is of course much moderated by the requirement to elect a department, usually at the beginning either of the sophomore or of the junior year, and within each department both a more or less definite sequence of courses and a group of collateral requirements are usually enforced. Where resources are very limited it is probably best to give the economics course in the last two years, but where several more specialized courses in economics are given, it should be introduced as early as the sophomore year. If a freshman course in the subject is given it should be historical, descriptive, or methodical (e.g., statistical methods, graphics, etc.) rather than theoretical. The experience (or lack of experience) and knowledge of the industrial world, past and present, possessed by the average American college student is such that courses of that kind meet a great need.[19]