£ r ©s III., . vj \ \ I i <3l rr\ H C rv r t| *5 C h ©-£ / € ...{ Reprinted from the Educational Review, Vol. 56, No. 4, November, 1918 AN AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR EDUCATION In international relations the war has hastened the real- ization of good hopes. Possibilities have suddenly advanced to probabilities of a better understanding among nations, and we in America may confidently anticipate large benefit from new intellectual and spiritual, as well as new com- mercial and financial ties with the sympathetic peoples of every continent whom we have joined in a stupendous struggle for truth, honor and justice. Military victory over Germany and Austria, chief crim- inal disturbers of the world’s happiness, seems comparatively near at hand. When this is secured, the immediate goal of the present associates in arms will have been reached. But, plainly, a greater goal lies ahead, the attainment of which is likely to be harder than winning success in the glowing cause that now so largely absorbs our thought, the goal of lasting cooperation with our allies for the common good. After the war, when wearied peoples must needs begin anew their daily tasks under the burden of bewildering losses, when traditional jealousies may again awake sus- picion and conflicting national interests evoke old enmity, when anxious rivalries are certain once more to beget dis- turbing irritation, when the existing friendships of nations will be increasingly subject to the crafts and assaults of a desperate and revengeful foe, who can only profit by dis- pute — then will inevitably be required a determined joint effort of the enlightened among the opponents of the Cen- tral Powers everywhere to nurture the mutual confidence that now strengthens them all. The one field where untrammeled cooperation to this end can begin at once is education. No one questions the moral integrity of the educational authorities of any of the Allied 339 340 Educational Review [November nations. It is inconceivable that from any group of them could issue such a mendacious manifesto as the Es ist nicht wahr pamphlet, signed soon after the beginning of the war by a sorry lot of German professors, ready to spread the poison of untruth, themselves envenomed by false doctrine. The attitude of such professors, just because they were professors of high place and by our expectation therefore absolutely honest, has caused a violent revulsion of feeling against all German teachers, and the notorious ninety- three will have to acknowledge publicly their wrong-think- ing and expiate publicly their wrong-doing before any of them or their colleagues can be readmitted to the frank fellowship of scholars. No one questions, furthermore, the eagerness of the educational authorities of any of the Allied nations to use their influence for disinterested ends. And this influence, all will agree, is huge. Universities nowadays have as important a function as the monasteries of the Middle Ages in supplying national leaders. That no one can doubt who calls to mind the numerous names of some- time professors, down to Masaryk, the latest addition to the eminent group, not to mention the President of the United States, who for good reason are guiding the des- tinies of the world. Education, in truth, is the watchword of the hour. All classes recognize its power. It is ac- knowledged to be the only safe basis for the ideal democ- racies that inhabit and delight our dreams. We are all being educated to a new conception of patriot- ism, seeing it superbly grow from more to more into a vivid sense of obligation to humanity. The youth of our time are starting life with a consciousness of the beauty as well as the power of international fraternity. Those who are fighting on foreign soil in the common cause of right are growing aware that the walls and partitions of their old narrow intellectual abodes are being torn away. They are speedily learning that, as Coriolanus put it, “There is a world elsewhere,” a world of feeling as w^ell as of frontier, and their views of public affairs are being transfigured by a vision of the federation of mankind. 1918] International institute for education 341 Over twenty-two years ago (in June, 1896) I was bold enough to publish an article of considerable length, in the Revue Internationale de V Enseignement, on Les Universites de France et d’Amerique, in which I urged a continuous inter- change of students between France and the United States, advocated the establishment at French universities of a new type of doctor’s degree, the Doctorat de l’Universite (de Paris, Bordeaux, etc.), and pointed out the unexcelled op- portunities for graduate work even then in some depart- ments of some American universities, in the hope not only of making conditions of study in France more appealing to Americans, but also of inducing at least a few French stu- dents to cross the Atlantic. It may not be without interest to readers of the Educa- tional Review to see from the opening of that article how curiously it anticipated ideas that now extensively prevail and hopes that are on the way to generous fulfillment. “II se produit en ce moment un mouvement important dans le monde universitaire frangais pour encourager les etudiants Americains k venir en France. Actuellement presque tous les Americains, qui cherchent k l’etranger un complement d ’etudes se rendent en Allemagne. D’ou vient cette preference? quelles sont les raisons qui ont ecarte jusqu’ k present les Americains des centres universitaires frangais et par quels moyens serait-il possible de lever ces obstacles? “On me permettra de dire d’abord que je suis tout k fait sympathique a la tentative qui se fait en ce moment, et qu’ k mon avis c’est en France que l’etudiant americain doit venir. Du reste, je suis sfir qu’il le fera si les Frangais lui off rent les ressources d’ instruction dont il a besoin, et lui menagent le m&me bon accueil qu’il regoit tou jours en Allemagne. “Si je ne me trompe, tout annonce k present une reaction en Amerique contre les methodes allemandes trop exclusive- ment suivies jusqu’a ce jour. Nous commengons k nous apercevoir que nous sommes presque enti&rement ger- manises, et que ce fait est f&cheux. Nous commengons a 342 Educational Review [November nous revolter contre des methodes qui paraissent souvent ne pas distinguer l’or des scones, qui donnent k tous les faits la m£me importance, pourvu qu’ils soient nouveaux, et qui ne tiennent aucun compte de la necessite de presenter ces faits d’une mani&re claire et attrayante. I/Allemagne a fait de nous des esprits scientifiques, c’est-^-dire serieux, patients, exacts, impartiaux, profonds. Nous avons regu de bonnes legons et nous en avons beaucoup profite. Mais en meme temps les Allemands ont exerce sur nous quelques influences f&cheuses, et nous nous tournons vers les Fran^ais pour nous aider k les combattre. Ce qui nous manque, c’est F esprit de discernment, la clarte et la limpidite du style, l’ordre qui subordonne l’accessoire a l’essentiel, l’art de la mise en oeuvre, — toutes qualites, qui contribuent tant au charme et a l’utilite des livres frangais, et qui, lorsque vient s’y ajouter la maitrise du sujet, les rendent incom- parables. “Or, si Ton demande pourquoi les etudiants americains de lettres et de sciences sont peu nombreux en France, la cause n’en est pas tres difficile k expliquer. “Dans le passe les Universites fran^aises n'offraient guere de ressources k l’etudiant avance, et il lui fallait aller en Allemagne ou Tenseignement superieur etait mieux adapte & ses besoins. Aujourd’hui la situation est quelque peu changee et en France et en Amerique. En France, un vrai systeme d’enseignement superieur k ete etabli ; en Amerique, le desir de venir ici commence k se manifester, surtout dans les universites de Test. Pour prouver ma derni&re assertion, je puis dire qu’en ce moment trois des etudiants qui ont ete envoyes a Tetranger par l’Universite de Harvard passent leur annee a Paris et travaillent sur des sujets aussi differents que la philosophie, Thistoire, et la philologie romane ; 1 et il y k beaucoup d’autres anciens etudiants de Harvard qui s’occupent ici de sciences, politiques, etc. Je dois ajouter — ce qui est la chose la plus importante — que tous sont con- 1 The three here referred to were Charles M. Bakewell, now Professor of Philosophy at Yale; James Sullivan, now State Historian at Albany; and myself, now Professor of Comparative Literature at Harvard. 1918] International institute for education 343 tents de ce qu’ils ont trouve, et dans quelques cas, au lieu de passer ici un semestre seulement, comme ils en avaient d’abord l’intention, ils ont decide de rester au moins deux semestres, et peut-etre plus. “On ne peut pas esperer, bien entendu, que l’exode en Allemagne cesse tout d’un coup. N’y eut-il pas d’autre cause, l’exemple du passe suffirait pour emp&cher pendant quelque temps qu’il s’etablisse un grand courant vers la France. II y a si longtemps que les Americains vont en Allemagne qu’ils se tournent instinctivement vers ce pays comme vers la terre promise de la science; ils sont encour- ages aussi par leurs professeurs, qui savent eux-m&mes ce qu’on peut y gagner, et qui ont pris l’habitude de regarder l’enseignement superieur en France comme superficial, ou non existant. “J’ai sous la main un livre qui donne la carri£re academ- ique de 850 professeurs americains qui enseignent dans dix-neuf Graduate Schools (c’est-a-dire: ficoles des Hautes- Ehudes, ou personne n’est admis sans avoir etudie auparavant quatre annees dans une Universite) ; et je trouve qu’il y en a 155 qui ont le doctorat allemand. Autrement dit, parmi les maitres qui dirigent les hautes etudes de nos Universites, on en compte au moins un sur six qui poss£de le diplome allemand, et il s’en faut de beaucoup qu’ils representent tous ceux qui ont passe une annee ou deux en Allemagne et qui sont re venus chez eux prendre leurs grades. Vrai- ment l’influence de l’Allemagne sur le monde savant en Amerique est enorme.” The movement, started by a few Americans then study- ing in Paris, which this article was intended to promote, received cordial support from prominent French scholars, who were alive to the large bearing of the proposed inter- change on future national friendships, and it soon led to the establishment of a doctor’s degree not too difficult for a young American graduate to obtain, as well as to a much livelier interest in the Americans who afterwards sought instruction in France. Not so readily did the French take to the idea of coming to America to study, largely, of course, 344 Educational Review [November because of the expense involved, but also because it was too decided a break with old practise. French students in general were unaccustomed to going abroad, and such as needed to acquaint themselves with the English language naturally took the easy road to England. I recall, more- over, even now with amusement, how frankly my beloved master, Gaston Paris, exprest to me his conviction that Amer- ican English was not what his compatriots ought to learn. He admitted, to be sure, that it might be safe for them to come to Boston (for, as he said, he had not discovered any objectionable intonation in my voice or provincialisms in my speech), but he feared American English was for the most part like Swiss French, or worse. Such an objection he would not raise now. While I write these lines the first detachment of some 120 young French women are driving thru New York, having accepted the offer of the Associa- tion of American Colleges to pay their main expenses for a stay in the United States long enough to secure them an A.B. degree; a group of twenty French boys will arrive within a few days to get practical training in the Springfield High School; and another group of twenty French soldiers will also soon be here to enter our colleges. All these parties come with the approval and financial support of the French Government. The doors of our educational institutions stand open, never to be shut. Thru them hosts of foreign- ers will in the future gladly pass, to their advantage and ours. The first French student whom I helped to persuade to cross the water was M. Charles Cestre. During the years 1896-8 M. Cestre earned on advanced research in English at Harvard. Eater he took the degree of Docteur-es- lettres at the Sorbonne and became a professor at Bordeaux. East year he was French Exchange Professor at Harvard, three years, as it happened, after I had myself been invited by the Rector and Faculty of the Sorbonne to lecture there. The orbit of the circle is complete. Professor Cestre will be the first incumbent of a newly established chair of American Eiterature and Civilization at the Sorbonne, and 1918] International institute for education 345 I for my part am now trying to get established an American International Institute for Education, one of the chief objects of which will be to promote the same sort of inter- change of students with France (tho now not only with France, but also with other friendly nations) which I was eager for twenty-two years ago. The lessons of this per- sonal review are manifest : the internationally minded students of one generation are the internationally minded teachers of the next; international intercourse is forwarded most enthusiastically by those who have enjoyed the bene- fits of it. If the great body of our people are ever brought to understand even vaguely the imperative necessity of deeper knowledge of foreign lands, many leaders of opinion in this direction must speedily be developed. Only if we give men and women of every state opportunities for en- lightened travel, bring educated foreigners to discuss with educated Americans matters of common interest, and get honest information concerning one another spread broad- cast among nations, will rapid progress be made towards international friendship. Educational authorities of the United States have long recognized the importance of the acquaintance of foreign professors with their institutions, as well as of their pro- fessors’ acquaintance with foreign institutions, and several systems of exchange professorships have been brought into being during the past fifteen years. Harvard and Colum- bia have been foremost in this movement, but other uni- versities both in the west and in the east have regularly sought to secure eminent lecturers from different parts of the world. The disposition to and the possibility of such cooperation have been incalculably strengthened by Amer- ica’s entrance in the war, and much closer relations among men of note in the lands that trust one another are bound to be established without delay. What is now true of mature scholars will be still truer of the younger men who are preparing to carry on this intellectual work. Already some seven thousand foreign students are enrolled in Amer- ican colleges and universities. In a decade there may be 346 Educational Review [November seventeen thousand. If so, we have an immediate duty. We must make ready to satisfy these emissaries and sure- ties of good-will. The American Council on Education was called into be- ing, under the pressure of war, to serve not only as a means of easy communication between educational associations of the country and the Federal Government, but also as a clearing house of opinion and a starting point of action in the American educational world. Its first name was the Emergency Council on Education, but since it soon became evident that most of its proposed activities were permanent in character, demanding far-sight and far-planning to bring them to satisfactory fruition, and since its program was not only national in scope but involved cooperation in a distinctive national way with similar councils in other lands and with foreign governments, its name was changed to the one it now bears. The Council is composed at present of delegates from some twenty national associations of educational institu- tions, societies of scholars, boards and foundations, and may be enlarged by vote of the Executive Committee. No such all-embracing organization, representing almost every form of American education, ever previously existed in this coun- try. Its power for good has already been demonstrated and its likelihood of permanence increases steadily. Before the Students’ Army Training Corps was estab- lished, the War Department eagerly availed themselves of the facilities provided by the Council to make the Gov- ernment’s wishes regarding the colleges known thruout the land, and they have since openly testified to the important help they have received from the Council by its prompt and efficient cooperation with them in making the Corps a success. The Surgeon-General has committed to the Council the arrangements for the training of ten thousand nurses in American colleges to which women are admitted, another mark of the Government’s confidence in the Council’s strength. 1918 ] International institute for education 347 A judicious Committee on Education for Citizenship are now working on extensive plans to bring home to our young men and women better than has hitherto been done their privileges and, still more, their duties as future guides of a land seemingly destined to play a conspicuous part in ad- vancing civilization. At the request of the Council on National Defense, the Council has made all the arrangements and secured the money to pay for the reception of a very distinguished Brit- ish Educational Mission headed by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge and the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester, and including eminent repre- sentatives of the Universities of Oxford, Glasgow, Dublin, Eondon, and Birmingham, sent here by the British Govern- ment to inquire into the best means of procuring closer cooperation between the educational institutions of Great Britain and America, an end greatly desired on both sides. Such opportunities of service as this last mentioned lie particularly within the province of the Committee on Inter- national Educational Relations, who have received the official sanction of the Government for other plans that they have made with similar objects in view. The following gratifying letter from the Secretary of State, sent by re- quest to the Secretary of the Council in the absence of the Chairman of the Committee, is here made public for the first time : The Secretary of State Washington, August 15 , 1918 . Dear President Campbeee: On July 6th Professor Schofield left with Mr. Phillips, the Assistant Secretary of State, a memorandum concerning the Committee on International Educational Relations of the American Council on Education, requesting that this Government authorize the Council to state that their fur- ther efforts in connection with the Committee on Inter- national Relations have its approval. This memorandum has received the most careful consider- ation and in reply I beg to inform you, as requested by 34-8 Educational Review [November Professor Schofield, that the Government is in cordial sym- pathy with the high purposes of the Committee and earnestly hopes that the execution of the plans, as outlined in the memorandum, will result in strengthening the friendly rela- tions existing between the United States and other coun- tries. Sincerely yours, (Signed) Robert Lansing President P. L. Campbell This Committee are now intent on creating in New York City an American International Institute for Education, the objects of which are as follows: 1. To supply Americans with information regarding the educational institutions of foreign lands and to supply for- eigners with information regarding the educational institu- tions of America. 2. To facilitate the entrance of foreign students to Amer- ican educational institutions, assist them in securing a just valuation of their academic attainments and degrees, and give them such individual guidance as they may desire. 3. To endeavor to obtain scholarships for the most de- serving of such students and to make personal connections for all who need these in the furtherance of their work. 4. To stimulate and, so far as possible, provide funds to enable American young men and women of promise to go abroad for purposes of study, and to secure them access to authorities there in their special fields of inquiry. 5. To plan with foreign institutions for the interchange of lecturers and teachers, and to try to make the stay of eminent visitors in America widely influential. 6. To establish bonds between international societies formed for social, commercial, and intellectual intercourse. 7. To effect among scholars the world over closer coop- eration in research. 8. To arrange conferences to discuss ways of achieving wise international agreements. 9. To encourage the publication of books regarding the 1918] International institute for education 349 history of foreign nations, as well as of America, which will tend to correct misinformation and dispel prejudice. 10. To procure thru the many agencies of education a more general understanding of the interdependence of peo- ples, to the end of developing in all leaders the international mind. There is no need here to go into details regarding the or- ganization of this proposed institute. Suffice it to say that the final control will rest entirely in the hands of the Amer- ican Council on Education and that whatever gifts it may obtain to help it to carry on its work will in no way affect its independence. The Board of Management will be made up of the officers of the Institute, and the Committee on International Educational Relations, a body now composed of eight university professors with special knowledge of foreign educational conditions. This Committee, however, will eventually be enlarged to include the chairmen of Com- mittees on Special Subjects, who will be chosen by delegates of academies, foundations, and learned societies of national importance and will therefore be recognized by all as com- petent to pass upon questions of scholarship and to give good advice to students in their special fields. With the support of the numerous educational institutions that they represent, and with the help of such educational experts, the Committee ought to have unique strength in carrying on the work they have undertaken. It is hoped that the American International Institute of Education will eventually form part of a Union of Inter- national Institutes of Education similarly constituted in sympathetic lands, which could work in close cooperation. In such an event, each institute (of which there should be but one of its kind in any one country) would be entitled to appoint a National Director at every other institute, who would participate in the deliberations of the Board of Management of the institute to which he was accredited, as well as convey educational information both to and from that institute to his own country. If this result were achieved, each institute would be in- 350 Educational Review [November ternational in character within itself as well as within the Union. The Directors-in-Chief of the different institutes, with such other persons as the different Boards of Control might designate, would form a Council to consider questions of common policy, thus further emphasizing the international nature of the undertaking, and its complete devotion to the ideal of an unfettered republic of arts and sciences. The advantages of such a union are clear. They include the avoidance (a) of duplication of effort to the same end, ( b ) of expense in making collections of the same material and in supplying the same sort of information, and (c) of having various, perhaps conflicting, agencies in the same land, all liable to the suspicion of narrow national interest. Such institutes, furthermore, would inevitably become centers of international cooperation and be certain to exert large influence in promoting international friendliness. The act of any nation in establishing one within the union would be a witness to its good faith in seeking increased intellectual intercourse with America, not primarily for selfish advantage but for the common profit. The proposal of the Committee to establish an American International Institute for Education does not, of course, depend on the establishment for allied institutes in other lands. But the Committee feel that they ought to be far- sighted in their plans, and endeavor to create an organiza- tion which would so commend itself to foreign agencies as to be adopted by them with as little need of change as pos- sible. Various foreign bodies are now working on similar educational projects, but all aim at purely national advance- ment. These would probably be abandoned if the United States could in advance indicate a better way of attaining a better end — that of world-wide educational association, with the sole desire of bringing nearer thereby a mental and moral federation of the world. No other land, for obvious reasons, is so well fitted as the United States to take the initiative in such an enterprise. No time could be more suited than the present to start the movement, for all the Allied countries are eager to cement 4 1918] International institute for education 351 the spiritual bonds created by the war and all recognize that by education more than by any other force mutual understanding (not understandings) can be brought about. Finally may be mentioned a movement soon to begin in which the Committee see large possibilities of good, and for which they, with others who are interested in it, ask the support of educators in all parts of the country, a move- ment, namely, to induce each state legislature to establish Memorial Fellowships, in memory of those from their state who fall in the war, whereby in the future the most promis- ing young men and women of that state may be enabled, after they have taken a college degree at home, to study abroad in one or other of the lands of the Allies. It is surely not too much to expect that every state in the Union would welcome such an opportunity to equip its best-fitted citizens for enlightened leadership in the nation, build up among its own residents a body of experts on conditions in foreign lands, and, not the least, help to promote achieve- ments in science, literature, music and art, which would redound to the honor of the whole land. Such fellowships would show to the Allies in a striking way our appreciation of the incalculably great service they have rendered us in the preservation of our liberties, and bind them more firmly to us. But in establishing them we should be expressing our gratitude chiefly to our own youth who have sacrificed their lives for the welfare of their land. Our heroic dead deserve memorials. Marble monuments and bronze tablets are far less valuable, far less permanently inspiring, than tangible tributes to the aspiration of the living, continual incentives to new distinction. We could in no better way commemorate the young men on our Honor Rolls of war than by encouraging others of then- type to emulate their idealistic devotion and try to win places on our Honor Rolls of Peace. William Henry Schofield Harvard University