Requirements for the bachelor's degree in southern colleges;

Requirements for the
Bachelor's Degree «s

BY

CHARLES W. DABNEY, Ph.D., LL.D.,

President of the University of Tennessee

^

REQUIREMENTS FOR

THE BACHELOR'S DEGREE

IN SOUTHERN COLLEGES

A REPORT PREPARED FOR THE ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGES AND PREPARATORY SCHOOLS

IN THE SOUTHERN STATES, READ AT THE MEETING AT ATHENS,

GEORGIA, NOVEMBER 3, iSgS

BY
CHARLES W. QABNEY, PH.D., LL.D.,

PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE, AND PRESIDENT OF THE
ASSOCIATION, iSgg

Reprinted from the School Review, No, 3, Vol. VII,
at the University of Chicago Press.

.'£3 14 i505
D-ofD,

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE BACHELOR'S DEGREE

Having probably accomplished all that can be accomplished at
the present time in elevating the standard of admission to the fresh-
man class, it is believed that the association should next direct its
attention to the requirements for academic degrees. It was doubtless
with this view that our secretary has asked me to prepare a report upon
the requirements for bachelor degrees in the colleges and universities
in the territory covered by this association. It was proposed at first to
investigate all the degrees given by southern institutions, but the field
was so large and the time allowed so short, that I have confined this
investigation to the B.A. and B.S. degrees.

First, let us get clearly in mind the object of all colleges and all
college courses.

The end of college education is culture, the only preparation for
worthy life, the life of the ordinary man, as the end of the university
education is the training to think and investigate, the only preparation
for the worthiest life, the life of leadership in the world of thought
and of action. This idea of the liberal education is as old as civiliza-
tion, and has been the purpose of all true schools and the hope of all
good teachers since the world began. " Wisdom is the principal thing,
therefore get wisdom ; and with all thy getting get understanding.
Exalt her and she shall promote thee : she shall bring thee to honor,"
said Solomon. Aristotle taught that "there is a certain education
which our sons should receive, not as being practical and useful, not
as indispensable, but a^ liberal and noble. The endeavor of nature is,
not only that men may be able to engage in business rightly, but also
to spend their leisure nobly. The right conduct of business and the
noble employment of leisure are both requisite." The ancients
believed as we do that a liberal education is good for all races and
orders of men, in all times and places, and under all conditions. This
idea Cicero has expanded in the oft-quoted passage: "Nam ceterae,
neque temporum sunt, nequc astatum omnium neque locorum ; at haec
studia adolescentiam alunt, senectutem oblectant, secundas res ornant,
adversis perfugium ac solacium praebent, delectant domi, non impediunt
foris, pernoctant nobiscum, peregrinantur, rusticantur."

We may differ as to the methods of giving the child a liberal edu-

154

155 REQUIKEMENTS FOR THE BACHELOR'S DEGREE

cation — we have undoubtedly improved those methods and enlarged
the scope of the liberal education since the days of Solomon, Aristotle,
and Cicero — but scholars have never differed as to the objects aimed
at as the foundation of a worthy life. The chief elements of the
Greek system of education were aesthetic and physical culture, the
cultivation of literary expression, and training in the rules of argumen-
tation. Roman education emphasized the study of institutions .and
law. With the introduction of Christianity, this system was modified
and improved in the direction of literary and religious culture. The
Middle Ages witnessed a change in favor of the study of languages,
literature, and a largely fictitious history ; and for several centuries
men gave themselves to a slavish study of manuscripts which contained,
as they thought, all the wisdom of the world. It is only in modern
times that we have learned to appreciate the book of nature and study
it as the Creator intended we should. Few will now deny that a liberal
education may be obtained by other methods than the study of Latin
and Greek texts. Thus both the material and the methods of educa-
tion change, but the ideal continues the same throughout all the ages.
That ideal is today, as it always has been and always will be, a liberal
education, the only preparation for the worthy life.

Men appreciated the value of the liberal education, and understood
its methods, in part, at least, long before they had the slightest concep-
tion of its rationale. It was impossible for them to grasp this until
that grand conception of modern science, the theory of evolution,
came to illumine all our problems and direct all our methods. The
doctrine of infancy in the human species has thrown a flood of light upon
the rationale of education, and has explained both the necessity for
and a value of, that course of training which we have tried to give our
youth ever since the time of Solomon. "The doctrine of evolution
teaches us to look upon the world around us — our art, our science,
our literature, our institutions, and our religious life — as an integral
part, indeed, as the essential part, of our environment ; and it teaches
us to look upon education as the plastic period of adapting and adjust-
ing our self-acting organism to this vast series of hereditary acquisi-
tions. So that while the child's first right and first duty is to adjust
hiinself physiologically to his environment, to learn to walk, to use his
hands, and to feed himself, to be physically independent, there still
remains the great outer circle of education or culture, without contact
with which no human being is really either man or woman. The child
receives first, and in a short series of vears, his animal inheritance; it

rUE SCHOOL . RE VIE W 1 5 6

then remains for us in the period of education to see to it that he

comes into his human inheritance This period of adjustment

constitutes, then, the period of education ; and this period of adjust-
ment must, as it seems to me, give us the basis for all educational
theory and all educational practice, and it must at the same time pro-
vide us with our ideals." — Butler.

It is the object of this investigation to ascertain what our southern
colleges are doing to impart this liberal culture, as distinguished from
the technical or professional education, or the special training for
research, which it is the duty of the university to give. Let us first
fix our attention closely upon the objects aimed at, and see how our
methods measure up to these ideals. Perhaps the noblest and com-
pletest description of the liberal education in modern literature is con^
tained in this paragraph from that great master of evolution and edu-
cation both, Huxley : "That man, I think, has had a liberal education
whose body has been so trained in youth that it is the ready servant of
his will, and does with ease and pleasure all that as a mechanism it is
capable of; whose intellect is a clear, cold, logic engine, with all its
parts of equal strength and in smooth running order, ready, like a
steam engine, to be turned to any kind of work and to spin the gossa-
mers, as well as forge the anchors, of the mind ; whose mind is stored
with the knowledge of the great fundamental truths of nature and of
the laws of her operations ; one who, no stunted ascetic, is full of life
and fire, but whose passions have been trained to come to heel by a
vigorous will, the servant of a tender conscience ; one who has learned
to love all beauty, whether of nature or of art, to hate all vileness and
to esteem others as himself."

This noble statement gives us the starting point for an analysis of
the elements of the liberal education. First, the youth must have a
body "so trained that it is the ready servant of his will, and does with
ease and pleasure all that as a mechanism it is capable of." We know
now that a knowledge of his physical nature, its structure, its organi-
zation, the laws of its development and health, and especially of those
laws which control the working of the brain and the nervous system,
is the most valuable knowledge the man can have. This implies also
a knowledge of the effects of bodily habits upon mental states ; of the
laws of exercise, diet, and sleep, and of the right use of all those things
that tend to produce that healthy body which the best support of the
intellectual life. The Greeks gave a proper place to physical training
in their system of education, but from their time to our own the physi-

157 REQUIREMENTS FOR THE BACHELOR'S DEGREE

cal education has been too much neglected. One of the most impor-
tant questions we have to ask of our colleges is, What are you doing to
build human "bodies which shall ever be the ready servant of the will
and do with ease and pleasure all that as a mechanism they are capa-
ble of?" We regret to say that we have received a very unsatisfactory
answer to this important question — so unsatisfactory an answer that
we may as well say that very little is systematically done outside of a
half dozen institutions — and drop the matter here.

Secondly, the making of the intellect, the building of the "clear,
cold, logic engine, with all its parts of equal strength and in smooth
running order." We give the youth this training chiefly by the study of
mathematics and the physical sciences, and by training in logic and
philosophy. How are we doing this ?

Thirdly, we must give the youth a knowledge of his own tongue,
its history, its laws, its idoms, and its capabilities. In these days it is
necessary that he also have a knowledge of the tongues of several
other peoples. In order to avail himself of the literature and art of
the past and to make his own contribution to the thought of the future,
he must, in fact, know all the methods of embodying thought and feel-
ing. Language, the vehicle of thought, is absolutely essential, espe-
cially a mastery of the mother tongue. It is the crystal vial that
contains all the potentiality of the living present, as literature is the
sculptured urn that holds all the ashes of the dead past. These are
not mere accomplishments ; rightly viewed and used, they are an inspi-
ration, a lesson, and a guide. Aside from their direct, or first uses,
the languages are the most perfect educational polishing machines.
In the gymnasium of the Latin and Greek, the mind, stripped like the
athlete, brings many an intellectual muscle into play. Properly used,
these studies exercise many faculties — observation, comparison, and
analysis, as well as memory, imagination, and taste. Through them
the youthful mind grows to robust manhood, so that he who was but a
stripling of a freshman finds himself an intellectual Hercules when a
senior.

Fourthly, we must store the mind with the knowledge of nature
and her laws, while we fill the heart with the love of her. It is a trite
saying that the Creator has given us two books to study — the book of
Revelation and the book of Nature. But we cannot express it better.
The book of Nature is laid out open before the child everywhere for
the purpose of developing his senses and teaching him law and beauty.
Nature study is the joy and inspiration of the young, the comfort and

THE SCHOOL REVIEW IS^

recreation of the old ; it brings us some of the most useful knowledge
we ever get, trains the perceptive powers to habits of accurate and dis-
criminating observation, and develops the reason and the judgment.

Fifthly, the liberally educated man must have a knowledge of the
experiences and opinions of his ancestors as expressed in their institu-
tions and laws. He must know all the sad and wearisome steps by
which man has marched from savagery to civilization, from the dark-
ness toward the light. So we come to sociology, the science of sciences,
in the light of whose teachings, we optimists believe, man is to march
through the deserts and the wildernesses into the promised land, which
hope has ever held before our race, and which is the object of all our
striving. For this Heaven the whole race is being educated ; for races
have their periods of infancy, youth, manhood, and old age, as well as
individual men ; and this world was made to be the home, the school,
and the training ground of our human kind, so that, at least, we might
all enter into this estate of perfect knowledge, perfect peace, and per-
fect joy.

Sixthly, and, finally, the moral and religious nature must be devel-
oped— "the passion trained to come to heel by a vigorous will, the
servant of a tender conscience." Better not educate the man at all
than sharpen all his powers and then leave him without a conscience
to direct him. Conscience is the guardian of the man, and righteous-
ness is the teacher of conscience. Righteousness is the finishing touch
to the picture, the final tempering of the tool, the governor of the
engine, the compass of the ship. What is man worth without a " ten-
der conscience ? " What is education worth without righteousness ?
Just as much as the picture without the finishing touch, the tool with-
out temper, the engine without governor, the ship without compass.

Let us see, now, how our southern colleges are planning to give
their students this sixfold training which we call the liberal education.
In order to conform to the language of the catalogues, we will group
the various subjects of instruction together under the following heads :

First, the English language — the mother tongue — and its litera-
ture.

Second, other languages and their literatures, especially the glori-
ous Latin and Greek, and the French and the German — and, must we
not now say, Spanish ?

Third, the mathematics.

Fourth, the natural sciences; divided into the experimental sciences,
physics, and chemistry, and the descriptive sciences, botany, and biology.

159 REQUIREMENTS FOR THE BACHELORS DEGREE

Fifth, history and political science.

Sixth, philosophy.

Seventh, physical culture and all that contributes thereto.

Eighth, moral and righteous training. Moral training must, of
course, be given with and through all of these. It is too spiritual to
be described and measured as we describe and measure the others, and
must, therefore, be left to be understood.

The courses of study presented in the catalogues of some fifty col-
leges and universities in our territor}' have been examined and ana-
lyzed, and the results classified and measured in accordance with the
plan used in our best institutions ; that is, the work required in the
different subjects has been reduced to the number of hours of recita-
tions and lectures in the annual session. The number of written exer-
cises, themes, or reports, required to be prepared outside recitation
hours were noted wherever possible. The amount of parallel reading
required was also noted. The minimum amount of laboratory work
required was ascertained, each unit representing two hours. In the
accompanying tables, the first figures under each head represent the
number of hours of recitations or lectures. W. stands for regular
written exercises, themes, or reports, and the figures following express
the number of them required. P. stands for parallel reading, and the
figures following mean the number of pages. L. stands for laboratory
work, and the figures represent the number of two-hour periods.
Where sciences are taught in the laboratory (as they should be), this
laboratory work is included with the recitations and lectures, two hours
being reckoned as one. Where the instruction is in part by lectures
and in part by recitation, the amount of laboratory work required is
given in parenthesis. The work in languages and literature is given
under three heads : the English language and literature, the ancient
languages and their literature, the modern languages and their litera-
ture ; and the total of 'these is given in the next column. Pure math-
ematics has a column to itself. Experimental sciences and descriptive
sciences are given in separate columns, and the total work bestowed
upon mathematics and sciences is given in the next column. History
and political science are given in one column, philosophy in another,
and these two added together in a third. A column is devoted to
physical culture, including military drill and similar exercises.
Another column gives the total number of hours required in the
entire cou,i-se for B.A. or B.S. The first figures in this case express
the total number of hours required in the course ; the second figure

THE SCHOOL REVIEW l6o

the number of hours of prescribed studies ; and the third the number
of hours of elective studies. The word "thesis" in this column means
that an original thesis or dissertation is required in addition to the
foregoing work. The last column gives the average number of hours
per week of recitation, lecture, and laboratory work for the entire
course (two laboratory equal to one of recitation). Accompanying
this paper is only one of the large tables. This gives in one group
the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in the eight
colleges and universities belonging to the Association of Colleges and
Preparatory Schools in the Southern States. For the purpose of
comparison we have added at the bottom of this table the work
required for the B.x\. at Yale. The second group in the table gives
the requirements for the degree of B.A. in twelve of the best colleges
and universities in the territory having nearly the same entrance and
graduation requirements as the colleges belonging to this association.
It has not been possible, in the case of some of the institutions having
the " Group system," to distribute the work required into all of the
columns ; but the distribution has been carried as far as possible, and
the "Group" distribution is given wherever it was impossible to carry
it further.

The figures without initials before them represent the total number
of hours in the annual session. For example, if a study is scheduled
for three hours a week for a term of twelve weeks, the gross number of
thirty-six hours is included. If a subject is scheduled for three hours
a week for forty weeks, 120 hours are put down. No effort has been
made to eliminate the holidays or periods devoted to examinations.
It is believed that the deduction for holidays and examinations would
be approximately equal for all institutions.

The announcements or catalogues give in most cases fairly definite
statements with regard to the subjects taught and the number of hours
devoted to recitations and lectures. The majority of them are very
indefinite, however, with regard to the number of written exercises,
themes, or reports, and the amount of parallel reading required. Very
few state exactly how much laboratory work is required, though the
majority mention it in connection with the sciences. Statements with
regard to the work in history and philosophy are less definite than
those with regard to the work i)i mathematics and languages. The
work required in physical culture is rarely defined at all, even in insti-
tutions known to have good equipment. We would urge all institu-
tions to be more definite in their statements of all these matters.

i6i

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE BACHELOR'S DEGREE

In some institutions, where the rule is to give perfect freedom of
election, it has been impossible to ascertain what the requirements for
B.A. are. To illustrate, one institution merely requires that the stu-
dent shall have finished twenty units, one unit being a three-hour
course running through the session of forty weeks, or the equivalent
made up from shorter courses, making a total of 2400 hours for the
degree. Only a few studies amounting to two or three units are
prescribed. Such an institution has no course whatever for the B.A.
degree. The elective system is one thing ; to give absolute freedom of
election without system is a very different thing. The majority of our
institutions give the student some freedom of election within "groups,"
and prescribe a certain order of studies. Such requirements are
logical and have been included. To give the kind of undergraduates
we get in the South the privilege to elect all their studies without
regard to " group" or order of study, is contrary to every principle of
education. In such extreme cases no B.A. requirements could be stated.

Examining the first group in the table (institutions in the Southern
College Association), we find that they all require from one to three
years' work in English, from two to four years' work in ancient lan-
guage, and one to three years' work in pure mathematics. They all
require some science, but the requirements in sciences and philosophy
vary more widely. The following table, giving the number of hours
positively prescribed in the different subjects, and the average total
number of hours, and hours per week for the eight colleges in this
association, shows how the requirements vary in the different institu-
tions :

WORK PRESCRIBED BY COLLEGES IN SOUTHERN ASSOCIATION FOR

B.A. DEGREE

On English and literature,

On ancient languages and lit-
erature, - - - -

On the total of prescribed
languages and literature, -

rlighest, hours

Lowest, hours]

Average for

these colleges

hours

Univ. So.

Wash. & Lee.

Course A.

380

120

260

Univ. So.

Univ. Tenn.

Course A.

880

280

563

Vanderbilt and Wash. & Lee.
Univ. Miss.

1120 620

1090

o
u

-J
o
u

O
U.

«/)
Z

u

c

u
(^

D

a
u

s 2

V

a .t:

tn

UI

e M

H

«

a

J'.

= 9

>

W

II "^

/<

" .s

a

o
P

s c

O u

u
o

(0

3-S

(/J

T1 2

W

^ o

3 -C

ii s

P Oh

o
w

1-1

o

fto a

#

u

II -^

Pi
w

H

B -^

t^ "

t)

^ _g

9. A

o

"o "

S •-■

ii

^ .

tXD .2

.5 !n

w

H

S tai

■u u

K a

o r

CAI

u^^

5 2

/,

^ <^

O

-s s.

^ ^

H

.Si .9

F^

F S

H

I x>

O CiO

I S

/C

B Pti PH

8 w

Q X (^ c£

o

X

ID

m

■o

•2

;c

-d

t^

^

^

t^

1

IT

z
* a 3c' «
S S < p;

i- £ u «

0
"'Co

Oh

h

aw

Value, 42 =

Prescribed 1660

2iSo

Thesis

Elec. value, 24=

Elective, 520 hrs.

0

0

&H

0

^W

Oh

n.
0

2

Oh

p.

Jo

2a
P-.

T3

i± 0

il

0-0

>

8

8

00

s.

Q
U

u
y,

u

u o

O Ah
dl

OS

8

o

0

3 SfeOn
0

c5^-

I

I,S:-Ah-

1

0 ^ .

%

-1-

a

o

So:

o, • .

Group III, Value 10
Historj', Political Sci-
ences and Philosophy
elective

8^-

>

s

0

0

>"o:

^

tn

&

a o u

Sii^

0. • .

2?= Oh

8

8>

i^-

0*0

^

1

u
w
D
t/)

0

P

.,;

M

!>

0

1

;: oj M 0 (N

Pi

-0

y
a.

3

g^

n 0

0 J;
•- n

g^-

s

360 or 440

(L. 120 or L. 200)

Prescribed in Fr. and

Soph. In Jr. and Sr.

800 must be elected.

CL d

W S

g^

D.

3
0

y

: 3-

^j

8^
*d

1^"^

(0

"d

CT

*

.a
n

0

0

3'o

;w 0
• ■a 2

c

a

S

S

^

I

N

1

s;

U

K

1

U
H
>J
Q
V,
<

0

<
o
<

l&cC

0

>

0 "

0

0

■* .

"?:0h'

l^

i

e

o

I^'cu

y^

3T3

2

0

d.

>

3

> 0

0

240 280 240
W. 80 W. 80 W. 80

P. p. p. 120

are prescribed in Fr. and Soph. In
Jr. and Sr., 720 hrs. elected

0

1

0^.

i^'o:

l^'cC

l|^-

1

S^'

^

^

l^'"^

0.

3h-i 0^- .

2S2^A,

0

Oh"

p

l^

1

^

<:

vs

o

to

"•£ *

C
>

0

u

O Ji

!i

> —

'c

<

5-
\

: S

1!
-

<

3

a

3 Ii

C

D

0 ?i
1'

c-s:

3 y

< *

.00

•a

.1

s
0.

"!"

sj-5
aS

>

<

Yale College,
(presc'd in P'r. and Soph,
all elective in Jr. and Si.)

- O

^ o

o t/^

o u
o o-

2 ^

"^f

"5:1SS

-I

aa

u fe"

2a

u ^ n

•-; 3 —

1^

1-3 §

"si

0^

|1i

«-1

cs^

1^

8^-

i^-

tjj

JR

■2 ►J

1 S.S
"5 2 0

= o S

'*■ ►§ =

•73 W .2
3 v_ .-
" ° S

-•^ S
tn .3 S

•3 W H

s ■=• a

I F.I

o o a

W 3 H

a

IS 1^0;

i =

I 5

s>%

-2>*.

■^^-^

V 2.

it

3 o

■r-U

>

e

t3

•a

"0 M

Cj^

}i

■^^

« f

rf>

a 0

^

<

< "1

i'i

8 S

rt o- - 3

gl |o

,2 C 8 ■§
BJ.9

Ii a 13

e ^ S
o v —

i!

^ tU)

THE SCHOOL REVIEW

Highest, hours

Lowest, hours

Average for

these colleges

hours

On pure mathematics, -

Univ. So.

Vanderbilt.

360

160

282

On experimental sciences, -

Univ. Miss.

Univ. So.

400

60

229

On descriptive sciences.

Univ. Tenn.

Several

440

none

226

On total in mathematics and

sciences, - - - -

Univ. Tenn.

Vanderbilt.

On history and political

1240

360

626

science and philosophy, -

Trinity.

Vanderbilt.

600

200

364

Total required for degree, -

Univ. Tenn.

Wash. & Lee

2970

2180

261I

Total positively prescribed,

Univ. Miss.

Univ. N. C.

2160 out of 2800

1600 out of 256(

D

Average per week for whole

course,

Univ. Tenn.

Wash. & Lee

18K

^VA

I6>^

The requirements of the second group of institutions do not differ
greatly from the above, with the exception of the University of Vir-
ginia, which requires a total of only 1380 hours, 11 40 of which are
prescribed and 240 elective, against a total of 2478 for all the institu-
tions of this group. The methods of the University of Virginia are
so different from those of other institutions, that they can hardly be
compared. No order of studies is prescribed. It requires at the pres-
ent time, however, a definite amount of work in each one of the seven
groups which have been inserted in the table.

We have also tabulated the courses offered by some thirty other
institutions, denominational colleges, agricultural and mechanical col-
leges, and miscellaneous institutions. There is not space to present
the results. The important points learned from them will be noticed
below.

Further discussion of the data contained in the tables is unneces-
sary. They will repay careful study, and each reader will draw his own
conclusions.

Some of the institutions giving great freedom of election object
to this plan of measuring the work done in hours of lectures, recita-
tions, laboratory work, etc., on the ground that time is not an impor-
tant factor in their requirements. With them the student is given

1 63 REQUIREMENTS FOR THE BACHELOR'S DEGREE

his degree whenever he can pass the required examinations, whether
he has attended one year or ten, and taken 600 hours, or even 6000,
of recitation and laboratory work in the institution. If we cannot
measure our 'requirements in hours of lectures, recitations, and labora-
tory work, and in numbers of written reports and pages of parallel
reading, how shall we measure them at all ? Their plan is opposed
alike to the best experience of the oldest schools and the surest teach-
ings of modern science. Carried out to its conclusion, it means that
neither time nor environment, residence in a community of scholars,
daily contact with learned professors, or regular work in libraries and
laboratories, count for anything in education. These things may be
stimuli or helps, but they are not necessary. Do these institutions
mean to tell their students that these things are really not necessary,
and that they might as well take their books and apparatus home and
do their work there and come up to the university for examinations ?
It is universally agreed, now, that examinations are no adequate test of
culture, even if they are a test of information acquired. As time is a
great, if not the most essential, factor of evolution, so it is the most
important factor in education, and the most essential part of the envi-
ronment of culture is the people we meet, the books we read, and the
things we see and work with. To deny that we can measure our
requirements in time or estimate the educational value of our institutions
by taking an inventory of their professors, libraries, laboratories, etc.,
is to remove the foundations of our system of education.

We have also prepared a similar table showing the requirements for
the B.S. degrees in our colleges. The effort was carried far enough to
show very clearly that nothing more could be learned from the inves-
tigation beyond the fact that our colleges have extremely indefinite,
and widely varying views with regard to the meaning of the B.S.
degrees. In the best institutions the B.S. course is one in which the
sciences and modern languages have the leading place. In the major-
ity, however, the course for B.S. is a hotchpotch of whatever the col-
lege has to offer outside of the ancient languages. For this reason,
we will not burden this paper with this table or any discussion of it.

RECOMMENDATIONS

It is with great hesitation that I submit some general conclusions
and recommendations for the consideration of this association. Believ-
ing that a set of propositions is necessary in order to start the discus-
sion, which, it is hoped, will lead to the adoption of certain fixed

THE SCHOOL REVIEH' 164

principles regulating the requirements for academic degrees in the
institutions belonging to this association, I make the following sug-
gestions :

It is impossible for me to give in detail all the reasons for these
conclusions and recommendations, though they are drawn from the
study I have made and are based upon the facts ascertained." I can-
not present all the data used in any number of tables, although I
have with me some fifty sheets, representing the courses in as many
different institutions, which I hope members will examine and criticise.

I believe that the conditions existing in the southern colleges whose
published catalogues and reports have been studied justify me in pro-
posing that this association consider definite action upon the following
points :

First. Abolish all academic degrees excepting the B.A. and pos-
sibly the B.S. The first thing that impresses one in looking over the
lists of degrees given by these institutions, is the fertility of the imag-
ination and the inventive powers of their faculties as displayed in the
multiplication of degrees and courses of study. As a rule, the smaller
the colleges and the more limited their faculties, the more numerous
are the courses of study and the degrees offered. Among bachelors
degrees we find Bachelor of Arts, of sciences, of philosophy, of letters,
of pedagogics, and of literature; not to speak of Bachelors of Agricul-
ture, scientific agriculture, civil, mining, and electrical engineering, of
mechanic arts ; of veterinary science, and even of domestic science —
whatever that is — which probably do not belong to our field. Confin-
ing ourselves to the degrees supposed to represent the liberal education,
we should give only those which have some real significance. Under
this rule, we should certainly eliminate the degree of Bachelor of Phi-
losophy, which students usually consider the "consolation prize," in
horse-racing parlance, to be awarded to him who cannot get anything
better. So I fail to see that the degree of Bachelor of Letters or of
Bachelor of Literature has any significance in these colleges different
from that of Bachelor of Arts.

Second. The association should denounce in unmeasured terms the
practice of some colleges of giving honorary academic degrees. It is
bad enough to give hononary A.M.'s and Ph.D.'s, which should be earned
graduate university degrees, awarded only for the highest attainments in
certain special studies and upon evidence of ability to conduct inde-
pendent research, and tested by a course of several years, based upon a
liberal education. But it is an intolerable outrage to give honorary

165 REQUIREMENTS FOR THE BACHELOR'S DEGREE

bachelor degrees, because this practice strikes at the very foundation
of the liberal education. No self-respecting man will have a B.A. or
B.S. degree if we give them away for nothing.

Third. Let us agree upon certain general requirements for the
bachelor degrees that we do give, and make them signify something.
Basing my suggestions upon the average requirements of our more
reputable institutions and seeking to make them what they can do best,
1 would suggest for the B.A. degree the following program :

A course pf study, based upon the present requirements of this asso-
ciation for admission to the freshrnan class, covering not less than three
years for the best prepared and brightest students, but requiring four
years of the averge student, aggregating a total of at least 2400 hours
of recitations, lectures, and laboratory work (counting two hours of
laboratory work for each one of lecture or recitation), distributed
among the four great groups of studies in approximately the following
proportions :

\. Languages and literature, about 960 hours, including 240 hours
of the English language and literature, 240 hours in one ancient lan-
guage, at least, with weekly written work and parallel reading in both ;
the remainder to be made up from the other ancient and modern lan-
guages.

2. Pure mathematics, at least 240 hours, covering advanced alge-
bra, plane and solid geometry, and plane trigonometry.

3. The natural sciences, at least 480 hours, divided between one
experimental science and one descriptive science, with regular labora-
tory work. Our southern preparatory schools do little in the natural
sciences, and this makes it necessary to give considerable time to their
study in the college course. This has always been the weakest place
in our southern colleges, and in many of them the sciences are still
wretchedly taught.

4. History, political science, and philosophy, 240 hours, two years'
study in some department of history, or one year each in history and
philosophy, with written reports and parallel reading.

This leaves 480 hours to be elected. I would recommend that the
studies for the first two years be prescribed for the most part, and their
order fixed; in other words, that the electives be confined chiefly to the
last two years of the course. We should insist upon a logical order of
studies during the entire course. The so-called elective system, as 1
have suggested above, has done as much as anything else to degrade
the bachelor degrees in our colleges. It is absurd to talk about a

THE SCHOOL REVIEW i66

seventeen-year-old boy electing for himself a course of liberal educa-
tion, and it is even more absurd to permit him to take the course he
elects in any order he may choose. An a la carte dinner is a suffi-
ciently dangerous thing for the infant when eaten in proper order and
manner; we would think it a crime to let the child eat his ice and
soup, his cheese and his roast, his salad and his entrees all at the same
time or in any order that might strike his fancy. This is exactly what
happens in a good many of our so-called southern universities with
elective courses. We should allow no elections on the part of students
which prevent a proper distribution of work among the four great
groups of subjects named above, and should see to it that the work is
undertaken in proper order and done in a proper manner. At present
I fear that it is true of us, as a recent writer has said, that "a B.A. is
as meaningless an abbreviation as one can find." The B.A. used to
be considered a license to teach the common, literary branches. If it
has lost this significance, is it not the fault of our institutions ? How
shall we make it mean something again ? Only by agreeing among
ourselves what it shall stand for, and then enforcing that standard by
every fair means possible. We can restore the Bachelor of Arts to his
profession as teacher only by making the degree represent a definite
amount of discipline and culture, as proposed above. In order to be
sure of this, it will be absolutely requisite in addition that the candi-
date should pursue these studies in proper order and in a systematic
way, in a public institution, under competent teachers, for a definite
and fixed length of time, and finally be promoted upon examinations
whose results should be recorded and certified by a diploma. This
means that we must agree among ourselves what institutions are worthy
of recognition, and then cultivate among graduates the habit of attach-
ing the name of their institution to their degree.

Fourth. We should distinguish sharply between technical and pro-
fessional degrees in the B.A., and especially between these degrees and
the B.S. If we adopt the above course for the B.A. degree, then the
B.S. degree should make mathematics and experimental and descrip-
tive sciences the chief things ; allowing, say, 360 hours for pure mathe-
matics and 840 hours for the sciences, including a proper amount of
laboratory work. We should require in addition at least 240 hours of
English language and literature ; 240 hours of a modern language ;
and 240 hours of history and philosophy, leaving about 480 hours to
be elected. Again, the work of the first two years should be largely
prescribed, and the order of studies laid down, and elective work

1 67 REQUIREMENTS FOR THE BACHELOR'S DEGREE

reserved for the last two years. In addition to the 2400 hours required
for the B.A. and the B.S. degree, there should in all cases be required
a systematic course in physical culture, including instruction in regard
to diet, clothing, sleep, and the methods of preserving the health and
keeping one's self in condition for the highest intellectual life. Our
experience teaches us that no subjects are of greater importance to
the success of the student, and that none are more sadly neglected,
indeed, both in the homes and in the schools.

In conclusion, it must be apparent that our association can render
no better service than by making the bachelor degrees of our colleges
signify something definite in the way of discipline and culture. Our
stronger institutions need to have their work straightened out and
leveled up, and the weaker ones need our assistance. Will not the
institutions of this association set an example by adoping a definite
plan of work leading to bachelor degrees, and by adopting definite
rules with regard to the requirements for these degrees, which will
make them mean something, and then go to work to enforce these rules
with all the strength they have ? The medical colleges have organ-
ized associations, whose objects are, the establishment of fixed require-
ments for the degree of doctor of medicine. Has not the time come
for an association of academic institutions which shall fix the require-
ments for our ordinary college degrees, and thus put a liberal education

upon a sound basis ?

Charles William Dabnev
University of Tennessee,
Knoxville, Tenn.

LIBRARY OF

CONGRESS

0 020 975 472 1