done through literary societies, or were making it a part of the English work.

The final paper of the session was on the subject of "Physical Geography in the Program of Studies," and was by Principal L. H. Wood, of Owosso. It was a very complete presentation of the claims of Physical Geography to a place in the high school, with suggestions as to methods of teaching and a discussion of the topics that should be included in the study of the subject, and their order of treatment.

The subject was further discussed by Professor Israel C. Russell, of the University, and others.

At the business session it was moved and carried that a committee o appointed to consider the advisability of holding but one session of the Club a year. This committee is to report at the Spring meeting.

The committee appointed to prepare a memorial on the death of Professor Burke A. Hinsdale reported the following:

The Schoolmasters' Club has heard with a feeling of sadness which it cannot express the news of the death of Professor Burke A. Hinsdale, who, since his connection with the University, has been one of its most active members. His incisive and vigorous utterance, his wise counsel, we shall hear no more. The Club directs that this tribute to the memory of our friend and colleague, this recognition on our part of his wide learning, hist vigorous intellect and his tireless labor for the cause of education alike in the class room and in his writings, be spread upon the minutes of the Club and communicated to Professor Hinsdale's family.

R. HUDSON,

E. A. LYMAN,
H. M. SLAUSON,

Committee.

The Club thereupon adjourned to meet in the Spring of 1901.

PAPERS.

REQUIREMENTS FOR ADMISSION TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN.

A PAPER READ BEFORE THE MICHIGAN SCHOOL MASTERS' CLUB, NOVEMBER 30, 1900, BY PROFESSOR RICHARD HUDSON, OF THE UNIVERSITY

OF MICHIGAN.

The object of the changes recently made in the requirements for admission was to secure greater flexibility. This result has been gained in three ways. Of these by far the most important is the abandonment of the group system. Henceforward the choice is to be between subjects, not between groups of subjects. In other words, the grouping is to be done by the candidate for admission or by the school that prepares him, not by the University. The inconvenience of the group system was that a subject which might be counted in one group was not allowed to be counted in others. Neither English History nor English Literature, for example, might be offered instead of Chemistry in Group 3, although they both had a place in Group 4. Absurd as this rigidity now seems, it did not appear absurd at a time when the course taken in the High School was regarded as the necessary preparation for the course which the student intended to take in the University. A student who found that he had missed his calling might indeed be switched over to another track, but he was required in that case to make up the entrance requirements of the course to which he was transferred. We no longer think that a student should be labelled at the beginning of his High School course for some particular University degree and then carried through in bond. With the sole exception that Latin and Greek must be begun in the High School, if they are to be elected in the University, a student, once that he is admitted, may move freely in the direction of any one of our four degrees. In accounting for the persistence of the group system, it is also to be remembered that certain subjects were very late in gaining recognition, and that they might be counted fortunate in being allowed to serve a modest probation among the B. L. requirements.

The second method of gaining flexibility was to reduce the number of required subjects. Under the new system, English, Mathematics, and Physics are the only subjects absolutely required, History and Botany having been made elective. Two units of foreign language work are indeed required from all, but here a choice is given between Latin, French, and

German. The question may be raised whether the Faculty, in reducing the number of required subjects, might not have gone a step or two further. There are many who think that Solid Geometry ought not to be required. The mathematicians, however, insist that Geometry is one subject and that the study of Geometry is entirely inadequate and incomplete if it does not include Solid Geometry. There are indications that this view is going to carry the day. The state universities have generally followed the example of the University of Michigan in requiring the whole of Geometry. The University of Wisconsin and the University of Minnesota, for example, require Solid Geometry. Columbia University, which last year gave its requirements for admission a thoroughgoing revision, requires the whole. of Geometry. In the old Harvard requirements, which are still in force side by side with the new, the requirement in Mathematics was Algebra and Plane Geometry. The new requirements, however, allow the candidate for admission to present either Geometry or Plane Geometry, the former counting as three and the latter as two points. The requirement in Geometry is stated and described in such a way as to raise the question whether the alternative requirement of Plane Geometry is not destined to disappear. With the Western colleges following our example and the Eastern colleges showing a tendency to fall into line, there is certainly good reason for hesitating to make any change in the requirement in Geometry. In behalf of Physics, it may be urged that an education that does not include the study of Science is antiquated, and that the study of Science ought to begin with Physics. The requirement of Physics on the part of the University has had the effect of directing the attention of the schools to a subject which they ought to teach in their own interest. Indeed, so popular has the study become that it would no doubt continue to be generally taught even if it were no longer required.

In addition to these two ways of gaining flexibility, the substitution of alternative entrance subjects for alternative groups and the reduction of the number of required subjects, a third method remains to be mentioned. The new entrance requirements take a modest step in the direction of the recognition of new subjects. Zoology takes its place by the side of Botany as an entrance elective. Students who present neither Botany nor Zoology may, if they desire, present a year's work made up in part of Botany and in part of Zoology. Physiography has also been placed on the list of subjects. which may be counted for admission. The work that must be done in these subjects, if they are to be counted for entrance, is described in a leaflet published by the University. The question is sometimes asked whether the work in Physiology now done by the schools may be presented instead of Botany. To the question in this form the answer must be in the negative. It is, however, another question whether a course could be mapped out that should include the Physiology and Hygiene which the schools are compelled

to teach and which should at the same time be so scientific in character as to entitle it to recognition as an entrance elective. Perhaps a solution of the problem may yet be found. Those among us whose opinion is most worthy of attention think the thing is not feasible. Harvard, however, in its new requirements recognizes a year's work in what it calls Anatomy, Physiology and Hygiene.

In making the changes that have been described, it was not the intention of the Faculty to increase the requirements for admission. Inasmuch as Botany was made an elective, it was clearly necessary to increase the requirement in that subject from a semester to a year in order that it might have equal value with the subjects with which it was made interchangeable. The time assigned to Mathematics, three units of four periods a week, is slightly less than the time now generally given to the subject, five periods a week for two and a half years. It was not easy to decide how many units to assign to English. In fixing the number at three, the Faculty was guided by the consideration that the stronger schools were already giving to the subject an amount of time equal to two years and a half at five periods a week, or three years at four periods a week, and that if any change was incidentally made it should be in the direction of increasing rather than of decreasing the English requirement. In defining a unit as a subject pursued for four periods a week throughout a school year, the Faculty merely sought to indicate the amount of time that must be given to a subject if it is to be counted for admission. There was, of course, no thought of bringing a pressure to bear on the schools to induce them to adopt the four period system, but rather a recognition by the University of a tendency in that direction on the part of the schools. The three units of English required may be spread over four years of three periods a week, just as the requirement of three units in Mathematics may be met in two years and a half if five periods a week are given to the subject. The definition of a unit as four periods a week more than counterbalances any increase in the requirements in Botany and English. The amount of work required in Latin is, for example, reduced as a result of this definition by three books of Virgil.

Attention may be called in this connection to a peculiar feature of the requirement in English. It is indeed a requirement both in Composition and in Literature, as the description of the work required plainly shows. These two subjects ought to be studied in parallel lines from the beginning to the end of the course. If this is done, however, where is the line to be drawn between the three units of English required from all students and the year's work in English literature that may be offered as an entrance elective? It is clearly unsatisfactory to say that the study of a brief sketch of the history of English Literature constitutes the difference, for such a study may form part of the three units. Or is the question whether the credit is to be three or four units to depend on the amount of time given to the sub

ject? To make credit depend mainly on time is far from an ideal arrangement. Some answer must be found to this question if candidates for admission are to be allowed to count English Literature as an elective unit over and above the three units of English that all students are required to pre

sent.

The conservative character of the changes described in this paper may best be brought out by calling attention to the fact that with the sole exception of the increased requirement in Botany, and possibly in English, the old groups fit into the new system. They are but a few out of the large number of combinations that are now possible. The decisive fact is that the schools, in preparing students for the University, are no longer limited to these particular combinations, but may freely choose from a fairly large list of subjects, provided only they meet a few fundamental requirements. The group system was a standing temptation to the schools to scatter their energies by preparing for as many courses or groups as possible. There is no reason why every school should teach all the entrance subjects or why every school program should be the duplicate of every other. Individuality is as much to be desired in schools as in persons. Local conditions and the qualifications of the teaching force ought to be important factors in shaping the school program. Concentration upon a relatively small number of subjects explains as much as any other one thing the strength of the A.B. course. The chief defect of the old B.L. preparation was the fact that it was made up of a large number of subjects pursued for the most part for but one semester. Much has already been done to remedy this evil, and no doubt the improvement will be still more rapid now that the schools have greater freedom to choose their own line of development and are under less temptation to multiply courses. As the schools grow the number of subjects which are studied for a period of two or more years will no doubt increase. As advanced work comes to be done in new lines, it will find a place among entrance electives. How far the work of the schools shall be elementary and how far advanced is, however, a problem which the schools themselves must work out. The high rank of the Michigan schools is no doubt due to no inconsiderable extent to the stimulating guidance of the University. But the University, in its relation to the schools, has never lost sight of the fact that they have a life of their own, which it may indeed foster but may not mar.