I must think the German universities superior to
ours in this respect. Life is short, and we can learn but little. I
do not understand why it is necessary to spend several years in the
preparation of certain studies for entrance to a college, when there
will be no special use made of them after matriculation. I do not see
how the imperative pursuit of science, for example, in school or
college, is going to help the girl who is determined to devote future
years to literature. Why, of course, it will not harm her; but why not
be more economical of time and strength?
I can see, and know from experience, that the elective system is not
wholly practical in high schools, nor for girls and boys who are not
yet eighteen years old: because boys and girls need a stated amount
of general knowledge, which they get in the high schools; because they
are not sufficiently decided in their own minds and feelings,--not
sufficiently developed, mentally, to really know what is best for them
to study; and because so many boys and girls will shirk the hardest
studies. I believe college presidents give these reasons sometimes
in regard to their own students. But it is to me incomprehensible that
men and women in college should not know what they are there for. If
they are working for the name of being college graduates, it is no
matter whether electives are presented to them or not.
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