LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS. 
 
 THE 
 
 Elective System 
 
 IN 
 
 Engineering- Colleges. 
 
 BY 
 
 M. E. WADSWORTH, Ph.D., 
 
 Director of the Michigan Mining School, 
 Houghton, Mich. 
 
 [Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Society for the Promotion of 
 Engineering Education, Buffalo Meeting, 1896.] 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2017 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates 
 
 https://archive.org/details/eldctivesystemin00wads_0 
 
THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM IN ENGINEERING 
 COLLEGES. 
 
 BY M. EDWARD WADSWORTH. 
 
 Director of the Michigan Mining School, Houghton, Mich. 
 
 It was my privilege to present, for your considera- 
 tion last year, a paper on the elective system as adopted 
 in the Michigan Mining School ; it is now my purpose 
 to continue this subject by presenting some further 
 particulars, and pointing out the conditions under 
 which this system might with great advantage be in- 
 troduced into other engineering colleges. 
 
 To establish a clear understanding between the audi- 
 tor and the author, it is desirable to divide the matter 
 up into heads which are regarded as cardinal points 
 in the argument. 
 
 I. Engineering is a Learned Profession. 
 
 This will probably be admitted without discussion ; 
 hence it clearly follows that studies forming an inte- 
 gral part of the course in all engineering colleges, are 
 just as truly professional studies as are those given in 
 schools devoted to Theology, Law and Medicine. Those 
 who follow the last named professions have certainly 
 not excelled the engineer, if they have equalled him, 
 in the task of promoting the happiness, welfare and 
 morality of mankind ; nor can it be proven that suc- 
 cess in either of these professions requires deeper study, 
 higher intellect, more experience with men and things, 
 or better balanced judgment, than is needed for the 
 successful presentation of engineering projects. Why, 
 
 ( 3 ) 
 
4 
 
 THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 then, does the public at large hold the engineering 
 profession inferior to the others just mentioned? The 
 answer is because we ourselves have set them the ex- 
 ample, and they accept the engineer at our valuation. 
 Educators have, unconsciously perhaps, but none the 
 less truly, proclaimed their own conviction of the in- 
 feriority of an engineer’s mental needs and equipment 
 by the introduction and continued retention of 
 
 II. Non-Essential Studies in Engineering Courses. 
 
 This mistake naturally arose from the fact that the 
 early engineering schools or courses were planned in 
 the now clearly erroneous assumption that their train- 
 ing must include a so-called liberal education, or else 
 must prove itself to be the equivalent of the classical 
 courses then in vogue. Further, most of these early 
 engineering courses were grafted into older institutions, 
 under the control of a literary or classical faculty ; 
 men whose very training and success in their chosen 
 lines disqualified them to perceive that the study of 
 engineering, if properly conducted, affords just as rigid, 
 logical and powerful a mental training, as can be ob- 
 tained through the study of any other subjects what- 
 ever. Nor has the day yet passed when men can be 
 found who strenuously maintain that such utilitarian 
 studies tend to warp and narrow the intellect ; and in 
 their laudable efforts to overcome an imaginary evil, 
 they persist in injecting into engineering courses such 
 subjects as Christian Evidences, British Essayists, His- 
 tory of English Literature, Ethics, Hygiene, Greek, 
 etc. That these subjects are worthy of study and af- 
 ford valuable educational training is freely conceded ; 
 
THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 5 
 
 that they excel engineering subjects as tools for 
 sharpening the intellect, or that they have the slightest 
 hearing upon the professional training of an engineer, 
 or any legitimate place in an engineering course, is 
 emphatically denied. If the engineering faculty deems 
 a knowledge of such subjects essential, it should de- 
 mand it as an entrance requirement of the engineering 
 college. To include them as a part of a technical 
 course is as illogical and unseemly as to demand that 
 law students pursue a course on pumps, or medical 
 students one on roof-trusses, or theological students one 
 on thermo-dynamics. The engineering faculty, and 
 they alone, are the parties competent to formulate the 
 list of studies for engineering students, and their de- 
 cision in such matters must be final, if engineering 
 courses are to be freed from driftwood and barnacles. 
 
 III. The Natural Sequence of Studies must be 
 Observed. 
 
 <Sy' 
 
 ^4— It is objected by many (1) that under the elective 
 0 '5 system the student will receive only a disorganized 
 course, and (2) he will finally graduate with a training 
 £ which is insufficient, because it lacks both depth and 
 comprehensiveness. Neither objection is sound, if the 
 ^course is in competent hands. The professor of each 
 branch unquestionably know r s wdiat subjects a student 
 must have mastered in order to profit from his own 
 instruction ; hence, if these are rigidly demanded, his 
 students must necessarily have received a systematic 
 and thorough training in everything having a real 
 bearing on any work they elect to take up. Strict ob- 
 servance of the sequence of studies will, with mathe- 
 
6 
 
 THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 matical certainty, force each student to go thoroughly 
 over every subject preparatory to every other subject 
 elected ; hence a disorganized course becomes impossi- 
 ble. It thus appears that, by this system, depth is not 
 sacrificed, but rather increased. 
 
 Lack of comprehensiveness is easily and effectively 
 guarded against, by demanding for graduation as many 
 courses as a good student can successfully carry in the 
 time usually available for a college course. Indeed, 
 if the natural sequence of studies be rigidly observed, 
 it is advantageous and perfectly feasible to throw down 
 the artificial barriers that have grown up between the 
 different branches of engineering, and thereby allow 
 the students to enter upon a general engineering train- 
 ing, without any sacrifice of thorough work, or any 
 friction between various departments. Students can 
 select courses in harmony with their dispositions and 
 abilities ; the differentiation will take place naturally. 
 While the degree will not mean that all have taken the 
 same studies, it will mean that every study has been 
 prosecuted with success (which is never the case with a 
 rigid or optional system). Further, it will mean that 
 the student has received a better training for his life 
 work than can be given under any rigid or optional 
 system. Quality, not quantity, is the distinguishing 
 feature of this plan. 
 
 There is no reason whatever why the elective system 
 should be confined to engineering colleges alone 
 among professional institutions. If the sequence of 
 studies, which is to the elective system what the key- 
 stone is to an arch, is rigidly observed, the system can 
 with advantage be introduced into Law, Medical, The- 
 ological or other professional colleges. 
 
THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 7 
 
 IV. The Elective System clearly shows up In- 
 ferior Teaching, Superfluous Subjects and 
 Incompetent Professors. 
 
 As each professor rigidly demands proficiency in all 
 branches preparatory to his subjects, every student in 
 a class must in a measure serve as an exponent of the 
 ability, thoroughness or honesty of such other pro- 
 fessors as have had charge of his previous studies. 
 Any evidence of general inferiority in training in any 
 one subject is quickly detected, and the remedy should 
 be promptly applied. 
 
 Everyone who has had any experience under the 
 rigid system knows fully that the range and nature of 
 subjects in such courses are so broad that no pupil is 
 endowed with sufficient talent to excel in all these 
 studies, while the majority of students attain only a 
 medium standing in various subjects. Excellence in 
 some branches is therefore considered to atone for de- 
 ficiency in others, and the student is passed. Such a 
 procedure is neither necessary nor permissible under 
 the elective system, and if resorted to cannot fail to 
 expose the instructor responsible for it. 
 
 Should a professor introduce courses foreign to the 
 work of the school, the fact is quickly made apparent, 
 because no other professor prescribes such courses as 
 preparatory to his own, nor do the students elect them. 
 Hence, this system does away completely with all 
 padded courses, incompetent instruction, or irrelevant 
 matters given merely to fill in a certain amount of 
 time. It makes such instruction serve as a check on 
 the proficiency of the others, produces a coordinate 
 system of studies, and renders possible educational 
 
8 
 
 THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 results which under the old systems would demand a 
 much larger faculty. 
 
 V. The Elective System is the only one which 
 can make Full Provision for the Differ- 
 ences in Temperament, Taste and Tal- 
 ents, WHICH MUST ALWAYS EXIST BE- 
 TWEEN the Various Members 
 of the Student Body. 
 
 The province of an educational course is to develop 
 and sharpen the intellect ; it cannot create brains, nor 
 can it by any method whatever eliminate those dif- 
 ferences in men which are implanted in them by the 
 Author of Nature. It is difficult to understand why 
 the attempt should be made to perpetuate an educa- 
 tional bed of Procrustes ; for the writer maintains that 
 this very thing is attempted when, contrary to the 
 teachings of Nature, it is insisted that students be 
 divided up into arbitrary classes, every member of 
 which must be forced to go through exactly the same 
 scheme of studies without reference to his natural 
 tastes and abilities. The results of this procedure are 
 too well known to need further comment here. 
 
 Under the elective system the student selects that 
 work for which he has been properly endowed by 
 nature ; he takes far greater interest in it, and the re- 
 sults are deep and permanent. So marked is this 
 that no instructor in the Michigan Mining School now 
 hesitates to demand of his men far higher and better 
 work than even the most sanguine could ever hope to 
 get under the old rigid system. Even if the elective 
 system does demand higher work in each branch, and 
 
THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM 
 
 9 
 
 a more proficient preparation for each study, the stu- 
 dent himself readily sees the object and justice of each 
 requirement, and cheerfully accepts an obligation 
 which carries with it freedom in choice of studies and 
 avoidance of those non-essential. All this acts like 
 oil upon the machinery, and enables the product to be 
 turned out with little noise, friction and wear and 
 tear. 
 
 It is frequently urged that a student is not com- j 
 petent to draw up a proper list of electives. If this t' 
 statement be true, does it not carry with it the inevi- / 
 table conclusion that he is even less able to select his | 
 studies for four years, before he has had even a day’s ( 
 experience in the course? Is not this exactly what i 
 he is required to do, when he is held to a rigid or * 
 optional system? 
 
 But experience shows that this statement has no 
 basis in fact. The natural sequence of studies guides 
 the pupil when making his selection, and, assisted by 
 advice from his teachers, which is always freely given, 
 he rarely goes astray, unless his abilities and tastes are 
 misjudged. This rarely happens and the mistake is 
 easily remedied. No such means of rectifying even 
 slight mistakes exists under a rigid or optional system. 
 
 It is necessary to take the “system ” and take all of it, 
 or to take nothing. It may not be amiss to call atten- 
 tion to an exactly parallel case in actual engineering 
 practice. Those engaged in electrical work know that 
 a comparatively short time ago every electrical plant, 
 from dynamo to lamps, was a representation of some 
 “system,” and it is likewise known that not one of 
 those systems was free from many defects in details. 
 
10 
 
 THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 To-day all this is changed. An electrical plant may 
 represent the product of a dozen or more different 
 makers or “ systems, ” because each part has been 
 selected solely on its merits for the particular purpose 
 in view. It represents one case of the beneficient 
 workings of the elective system in the practical affairs 
 of life. 
 
 Under the rigid system, a student who finds that 
 he has misjudged his abilities must either struggle 
 through in some way, thereby building for his future 
 a structure which is rickety and valueless, or he must 
 quit the course altogether, receiving, as a reward for 
 his work up to date, only a practically worthless foun- 
 dation for a mental structure which will never be com- 
 pleted. In the case of a similar mistake under the 
 elective system, the student may indeed have to 
 change some of the lines of the edifice, but little of the 
 material is wasted, since it can nearly all be used again 
 in a new structures designed with a better knowledge 
 of his capacity and needs. 
 
 Since engineering is largely a matter of economics, 
 is it not wise to have the student make the first appli- 
 cation of this principle when expending his own energy 
 and time? 
 
 VI. Certain Conditions are Essential if the Elec- 
 tive System is to be a Success. 
 
 It must be clearly recognized that every educational 
 institution has its individual peculiarities ; hence be- 
 fore undertaking the introduction of a new system, or 
 a modification of an old one, every school must make 
 an exhaustive inquiry to determine the relations be- 
 
THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 11 
 
 tween the proposed course and its environment, con- 
 stituency, faculty, trustees, equipment, object, etc. 
 That scheme which is most in harmony with these 
 should be adopted, and in determining which one 
 most nearly meets the required conditions, nothing is 
 more necessary than a liberal use of that very rare 
 commodity, common sense. 
 
 It is surely unnecessary, when addressing a body of 
 engineering educators, to point out the uselessness of 
 mere copyists or servile imitators ; temporary success 
 may crown their efforts in some cases, but not in one 
 like this, because in every problem the requirements 
 are so diverse. In every case the scheme must be 
 worked out anew, in every detail, from the very foun- 
 dation. 
 
 If the writer were asked whether he would intro- 
 duce into any other school in America the elective 
 system as now adopted in the Michigan Mining School, 
 he could conscientiously give but one answer — most 
 emphatically, “No.” The reason for this is that, while 
 the system seems perfectly in harmony with all its 
 needs, this school is unique in its nature, and its coun- 
 terpart is not to be found elsewhere in this or any 
 other country. While its system and methods are the 
 proper ones for this school because they were specially 
 designed to answer its wants, they will no more meet 
 perfectly the diverse necessities of other schools, than 
 will one prescription cure every disease. 
 
 Notwithstanding this, it is firmly believed that the 
 logic of the system is perfectly sound, and contains 
 more largely than any other the elements of success 
 for any school, if its details are carefully and consci- 
 
12 
 
 THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 entiously worked out so as to meet the peculiar needs 
 of each institution. It seems impossible for any edu- 
 cator to study exhaustively the history of education 
 and the spirit and needs of our own time, and then 
 fail to draw the conclusion as stated to the Society last 
 year, that the elective system is the coming system, 
 and that sooner or later it will find its way into every 
 institution of higher learning in the land. 
 
 Every educational scheme, and the elective system 
 more than any other, demands for success that schools 
 be conducted on sound business principles, the most 
 important of which are here mainly condensed from 
 the writer’s first “ Report to the Board of Control of 
 the Michigan Mining School.”* The governing board 
 must be composed of experienced, able, judicious and 
 conscientious men ; they need not of necessity be edu- 
 cators or engineers, but they should have the wisdom 
 to perceive that the successful direction of a higher 
 educational institution requires experience and ability 
 on a par with that demanded in any other business 
 or profession. They must realize that no success can 
 crown their efforts unless they clearly understand that 
 their duty consists entirely in formulating the objects 
 of the institution, providing the means to reach those 
 objects, choosing an able and discreet Director or Pres- 
 ident, and seeing that he attends to his duties. Assump- 
 tion of any other power is mathematically certain to 
 cause friction and throw painful obstacles in the way 
 of progress. 
 
 It is clearly evident that a board will be more ex- 
 cellent in proportion as its members are graduates of 
 
 * Pp. 70-80. 
 
THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 13 
 
 higher institutions of learning, and if possible, one 
 similar to that over which they are presiding. 
 
 The success of the institution depends largely upon 
 the chief executive officer and the faithfulness with 
 which he is supported by the board and faculty. The 
 president need not of necessity be an engineer, but it 
 is absolutely indispensable that he be an able and ex- 
 perienced educator, a man of broad gauge, liberal spirit, 
 unbounded energy, perseverance and firmness. To 
 him should be left, without any interference whatever, 
 the carrying out of the plans formulated by the board, 
 and he should be held strictly accountable for results. 
 Nothing short of incompetence should be deemed a 
 sufficient reason for interfering with his plans. 
 
 The president must make a study of the institution 
 as a whole ; formulate the results to be reached by 
 each official of the school in order to carry out the gen- 
 eral scheme ; see that these results are obtained ; be 
 empowered to discharge, without recourse to others, 
 any official found to be incompetent. He must allow 
 each of his associate officers full liberty to reach in his 
 own way the results demanded of him, rigidly abstain 
 from interfering with his work, and aid him whenever 
 possible. With a suitable president, competent faculty 
 and close adherence to these methods, it is possible to 
 introduce an elective system which will meet the needs 
 of the student and every live professor, and show up 
 incompetents. It will force the removal of that kind 
 of driftwood which lumbers up so many of our edu- 
 cational institutions, simply because the president is 
 not granted the proper authority to handle such ma- 
 terial and lacks the backbone to demand its removal 
 
14 
 
 THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 by the board. Unless someone oversees the instruc- 
 tors and is empowered to remove incompetents, suc- 
 cess will not be likely to crown any scheme, and least 
 of all the elective system. 
 
 VII. The Advantages of the Elective System. 
 
 They may be briefly enumerated as follows : 
 
 (a) It lightens the labor of the instructors, i. e., re- 
 moves much of the drudgery, makes the work far more 
 a labor of love, and enables each one to give as ex- 
 tended a course in his department as he wishes, with- 
 out interfering with another professor. 
 
 (b) It greatly reduces the friction between faculty 
 and students, almost does away with faculty meetings, 
 and renders the necessary regulations few in number. 
 
 (c) It renders examinations almost unnecessary, 
 grades the student by his daily work, removes the pad- 
 ding of courses, shows up inefficient teachers, and 
 allows the professors and the institution to get rid of 
 incompetent pupils with almost no friction. 
 
 (d) It results in better and higher work in each 
 subject, and develops the best that is in each student. 
 
 (i e ) It is more economical, both in money and time, 
 than either the required or optional systems, i. e ., a 
 smaller faculty accomplishes the same results. 
 
 (/) It enables an institution to keep pace with the 
 rapid development of the various branches of engi- 
 neering, without the introduction of new faculties and 
 new degrees with their attendant evils. 
 
 (g) It serves as a safety valve for the students’ pent 
 up energies, and almost does away with class rebel- 
 lions, especially those due to some particularly obnox- 
 ( 5 ) 
 
THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 15 
 
 ious professor, or to the suspension of some popular 
 student. 
 
 (h) It does away with the practice of hazing and 
 most of the other disgraceful customs of students in 
 educational institutions ; it renders the student more 
 manly, and in a professional school allows a man to 
 attend to athletics and his studies, without that de- 
 moralizing sacrifice of truth so fearfully prevalent. 
 
 (i) It proclaims to the public, and with perfect 
 truthfulness, that not only has the student “gone 
 through” certain studies to obtain a degree, but that 
 each of those studies has “gone through” him; in 
 other words, that no student has been allowed to slide 
 through some studies in which he was weak, because 
 there were others in which he was proficient; nor has 
 he been graduated simply because of his excellence in 
 athletics. 
 
 (j) It unites into one harmonious whole the 
 studies that are usually classed as undergraduate with 
 those that are called graduate, and leads the student 
 to consider them all as desiderata for his work. It 
 broadens his field of view, inclines him to pursue 
 further study, and diminishes his tendency to contract 
 the megacephalous disease. 
 
 VIII. Experience in the Use of the Elective 
 System at the Michigan Mining School. 
 
 When the writer assumed the position of Director 
 of the Michigan Mining School, nine years ago, the in- 
 stitution was in its infancy, and no systematic course 
 of instruction had been laid out. The rigid system 
 usual in engineering schools was the only one then 
 
16 
 
 THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 available, and it was accordingly introduced. The rapid 
 development of the school soon pushed this system to 
 its ultimate results, namely, the wishes of each mem- 
 ber of the faculty as to the work he thought should 
 be given in his department were gratified. There re- 
 sulted, in consequence, an engineering course which 
 could be successfully coped with, only by one excep- 
 tionably able both mentally and bodily. Seven to 
 nine hours daily were needed in the class-room and 
 laboratory, and all preparation for this work had to be 
 done in outside hours. 
 
 Every instructor realized that the system was crush- 
 ing under its own weight, and that prompt relief was 
 imperatively necessary. When casting about for a 
 solution of the long foreseen difficulty, the Di- 
 rector, among other things, interviewed each member 
 of the faculty, separately, as to his views on the 
 desirability and practicability of an elective system. 
 He properly considered that such views would be more 
 than usually valuable, since the faculty then contained 
 men who were not only experienced in the methods 
 and systems used in schools in Germany and in the 
 Universities of Harvard, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, 
 Ohio and Georgetown ; Colby and Bowdoin Colleges ; 
 and the Michigan Agricultural College ; but they were 
 also familiar with the methods employed in Columbia, 
 the University of Michigan, the Massachusetts Insti- 
 tute of Technology, and in most of the other leading 
 schools of the country. The consensus of opinion was 
 that such a system, while advantageous in a literary 
 institution, presented insurmountable obstacles to its 
 introduction in a technical institution like the Michi- 
 
THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 17 
 
 gan Mining School. The Director, however, saw no 
 other solution for the difficulties then encompassing 
 the course of study, and, notwithstanding the discour- 
 aging outlook, determined to test the practicability of 
 laying out a suitable scheme ; from time to time he 
 consulted each instructor as to his wishes in all mat- 
 ters relating to his department. After several months 7 
 labor the details of the plan were finally worked out, 
 obstacles surmounted, conflicting interests harmonized, 
 and the completed work submitted to the faculty and 
 the board. It was promptly and unanimously adopted 
 by both bodies, and has proven to be the greatest single 
 advance the Michigan Mining School has ever made. 
 
 The faculty meetings have been reduced from one 
 or more weekly to five in forty-five weeks, and, unless 
 some emergency arises, one or two meetings a year 
 will in the future be all that will be necessary to trans- 
 act the business that is required of the faculty as a 
 body. 
 
 The system has also brought about a simplification 
 of the other work and enables it to be rapidly done, 
 because the Director is charged with the duties that 
 usually devolve upon a faculty, and because each pro- 
 fessor has absolute control over his department and 
 the students in his classes. The professors in charge 
 of departments are responsible to the Director, while 
 each of the other instructors is directly responsible to 
 the head of the department with which he is connected. 
 
 The regulations of the school have been greatly re- 
 duced in number, and so arranged that the student 
 himself is specially interested in seeing that they are 
 observed, since if they are not, his own act takes him 
 
18 
 
 THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 out of the institution and closes the door behind him, 
 in most cases without the intervention of the faculty 
 or Director. Everyone who has debated long hours 
 over the case of some student, whether it was “ to 
 be or not to be,” can realize what a relief such au- 
 tomatic action is for a long suffering faculty. These 
 changes have all grown naturally out of the elective 
 system, with the result that the Michigan Mining 
 School has had one of the pleasantest, most profitable 
 and harmonious years it has ever experienced, although 
 it has never developed enough disturbance in its his- 
 tory for the newspapers to take up its discussion. Not 
 a single professor or student desires to, or would go 
 back to the old system and while further experience 
 will undoubtedly indicate various modifications of de- 
 tails, it can certainly be considered at this time that 
 the elective system is an unqualified success. 
 
 Discussion. 
 
 Professor DeYolson Wood wrote that he thought 
 elective studies in engineering courses are, as a rule, 
 demoralizing, that they lower the standard of mental 
 discipline, are costly to the institution, and are un- 
 necessary. This is no reflection upon an institution 
 which can equip and maintain different courses, which 
 courses, it is presumed, are elective. As there are ex- 
 ceptions to all rules, so in this case the Michigan Min- 
 ing School may have found advantages even if it has 
 not yet discovered disadvantages. 
 
 A graduate, after years of professional practice, said, 
 “ A student should understand at the outset that he is 
 to pursue any study that is required of him ; for he 
 
THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 19 
 
 may find that the first thing he will have to use when 
 he leaves college is that which he most despised when 
 in it.” Lay greater emphasis on the “ how” and on 
 the “ what” is studied. One straight, solid, thorough 
 course without electives will make stronger men than 
 one weakened by electives. 
 
 Professor J. Galbraith said that he had listened 
 with great interest to the paper. The difficulties men- 
 tioned in connection with the ordinary system are 
 more or less acknowledged by all. The great amount 
 of work required of a student under this system, and 
 the undue proportion which the dry and apparently 
 useless work bears to that which is interesting, make 
 the curriculum to some extent repulsive. The desire 
 of individual professors to aggrandize their own de- 
 partments and to arrange the curriculum to suit their 
 special requirements may in some cases produce a bad 
 effect. The speaker had hoped that the paper would 
 make clear a method of avoiding some of these diffi- 
 culties, but was obliged to confess that he did not see 
 the solution in what had been said. It appeared to 
 him that the only persons who are qualified to lay down 
 a curriculum in the professional courses of a technical 
 college are the members of the faculty, and they re- 
 quire to bring their combined experience and knowl- 
 edge to bear upon the problem. The student certainly 
 is not in a fit position to select the various subjects 
 leading to a professional degree, and decide the order 
 in which they are to be taken. Of course, if an in- 
 stitution decides to give its degree in one subject of 
 study as distinguished from a professional department, 
 it would be quite a proper course for the student to 
 
20 
 
 THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 consult with the professor of that subject as to the 
 preliminary studies that might be necessary, and to 
 follow his advice. 
 
 Even this is very far from being an elective system. 
 The professor makes practically a fixed course; just as 
 in the case of graduation in a professional department 
 the faculty lay down a fixed course, and where the 
 choice of the student comes in after selecting his sub- 
 ject of graduation is not very clear. No practical 
 method can be devised of making the individual 
 studies in a professional course elective if the degree 
 is to be worth anything, and the speaker did not think 
 that the term “ elective system ” ought to he used 
 where this is not done. 
 
 Pkofessor Wadsworth stated that there had not been 
 the slightest lowering in the work, but instead of that 
 a very decided raising. The professors of to-day de- 
 mand of their students in the Michigan Mining School, 
 that which not one of them would have dared to de- 
 mand the year before, simply because the burden then 
 was too great ; the men could not stand the strain of 
 so many subjects as those demanded by the required 
 courses. In his own classes he had done work that he 
 was ashamed to do, simply because he must do it or 
 the men could not by any possibility get along. The 
 burden was beyond that of human endurance. The 
 student now takes fewer subjects in the same time, 
 but does higher and better work. 
 
 If modern languages, together with everything else 
 that has been asked for from time to time, are made 
 a part of the engineering courses, what opportunity 
 is there for sufficient, or even for any, real engineering 
 
THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 21 
 
 training ? If engineering studies are necessary for a 
 man, it will not do for him, in his engineering course, 
 to spend most of his time on modern languages and 
 on a variety of unprofessional studies that might be 
 interpolated in an elective course. These studies 
 should be preparatory. 
 
 The elective system does require of a man that he 
 shall take a definite amount of work in order to grad- 
 uate ; he must take the same amount that is required of 
 him to graduate in a prescribed course, and it must be 
 strictly in the line of professional studies. The idea that, 
 in an elective system, a man can graduate if he has 
 spread himself over any given number of studies with- 
 out regard to their relations, is a thing that exists in no 
 elective system outside of a kindergarten. It cannot 
 exist. No man can study calculus until he has studied 
 algebra. The sequence of studies must be followed, 
 and the moment this is done, the student finds him- 
 self forced, practically, into a proper course of study. 
 The elective system is a natural and logical system 
 and it reaches the ends that every one has been hoping 
 to obtain in the required courses. It removes from 
 each student's selected course the special studies in 
 which he cannot naturally succeed. 
 
 Professor Galbraith suggested that in that case 
 the course agrees with ordinary practice, but contains 
 only what are considered necessary subjects. 
 
 Professor Wadsworth agreed to this, saying that 
 for each student his selected course became for him a 
 fixed course — fixed by his natural tastes and abilities, 
 and not fixed by a faculty who knew and could know 
 nothing about him. 
 
22 
 
 THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 He continued by explaining further the operation of 
 the system described. When the professor of hydraulics 
 demands of a student a certain amount of study, he 
 does not say that the student should have everything 
 in the curriculum, but he says that the student who 
 comes to him shall take calculus, shall take analytical 
 mechanics, shall take physics, shall take chemistry, or 
 whatever studies he wishes. The student, when he 
 enters upon his course, knows that if he is to take 
 hydraulics, he must prepare himself accordingly. If 
 he wants metallurgy, the professor has laid down 
 the ground previously which he must cover to take 
 metallurgy. He cannot graduate under one profes- 
 sor and follow only one professor’s course, for no three 
 professors even can teach enough subjects to give a 
 man his degree. The student can, if he wishes to do 
 so, on one hand devote his time more particularly to 
 metallurgy, chemistry, and geology as applied to min- 
 ing ; or, on the other hand, to the civil engineering or 
 mining engineering sides. Or again, he can give most 
 of his time to mechanical engineering or electrical en- 
 gineering as applied to mining, and give less to the 
 metallurgical and chemical sides. In this way he can 
 follow his bent of mind and tastes ; for as the individu- 
 ality of the student varies, so he can modify his 
 course ; but he cannot graduate with an inferior train- 
 ing. The training is deeper and more thorough than 
 it is in the required courses. The student may not 
 take as many studies, but he does better and more 
 thorough work. 
 
 There seems to be an inclination to make the criti- 
 cism that it is impossible for a student to choose his 
 
THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 23 
 
 course wisely for simply one year, and yet he is ordi- 
 narily required to choose his life work for four years ; 
 that excites no comment ; that is considered perfectly 
 proper. If a man can enter a school before he has ever 
 had a year’s experience in any professional training, 
 and select his course for four years, is he incompetent 
 to choose it for only one year ? That does not seem 
 logical. With a knowdedge of the sequence of studies, 
 and under the guidance of professors, the speaker be- 
 lieved him capable of choosing and choosing well. 
 
 There is a difficulty, and a very serious difficulty, in 
 the elective systems in many of the literary colleges ; 
 and that difficulty will arise in the engineering col- 
 leges unless there is a controlling supervision. That 
 difficulty is the introduction of “soft” courses. The 
 faculty must be under such authority that the 
 moment any member undertakes to bid for students by 
 giving “soft” courses, there will be a certainty of his 
 going out of the institution. This is absolutely essen- 
 tial. No good system of any kind, required or elec- 
 tive, is possible unless incompetent professors are 
 quickly dispensed with. The president, or whoever is 
 in charge of an institution, must have backbone and 
 authority enough to say that such men must go. This 
 is particularly true with the elective, and ought to be 
 made true of every system. 
 
 Professor H. S. Jacoby desired to ask a question as 
 to whether there had been in the writer’s experience 
 an indication of a disposition on the part of any stu- 
 dent to choose too one-sided a series of subjects. 
 
 Professor Wadsworth replied that there had been 
 none so far, perhaps because the system is guarded 
 so that a student can not very well do this. 
 
24 
 
 THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 Professor Jacoby said he had a great deal of confi- 
 dence in the ability of young America to choose very 
 many more things for himself than he is often given 
 credit for, and therefore had not much fear in that di- 
 rection, and he felt very anxious to ask the question to 
 more authoritatively learn the writer’s ideas upon it. 
 
 Professor Storm Bull expressed, as his under- 
 standing of Professor Wadsworth’s practice, that he 
 allows the student to say whether he wants to study 
 English or anything of that kind. 
 
 Professor Wadsworth explained that, in the elec- 
 tive system described, the studies are limited to profes- 
 sional studies. English and similar studies are pre- 
 paratory. These are not in the engineering curricu- 
 lum. With free opportunity for the student to choose 
 from modern languages and many other non-profes- 
 sional studies, in connection with his engineering work, 
 nothing can be done with an elective system and 
 obtain a high grade engineering course. The student 
 will not be properly an engineering student. He will 
 become a classical or a literary student, as that is the 
 line of least resistance. 
 
 The system of electives commences in the Michigan 
 Mining School at the beginning, i. e ., with the fresh- 
 man, immediately upon his entrance. 
 
 Professor Bull asked what was required for admis- 
 sion, whether either English or foreign languages? 
 
 Professor Wadsworth answered that the require- 
 ments for entrance with the former rigid courses had 
 been somewhat peculiar. What had been then re- 
 quired, and what is required now under the elective 
 system, are somewhat different things. The State 
 
THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 25 
 
 schools of higher education have a certain relation to 
 the high schools ; and there is now required a regularly 
 established and satisfactory course of study in the high 
 schools, if their diplomas are to be accepted for en- 
 trance. A special four years’ course of study has been 
 laid out by the Michigan Mining School, and recom- 
 mended for the high schools to follow if they wish 
 their diplomas to be accepted. This course includes 
 English literature, the French and German languages, 
 physics, political economy, rhetoric, logic, zoblogy, 
 botany, astronomy, trigonometry and various other 
 studies, such as in the old days constituted much of 
 the old fashioned college course outside of Latin and 
 Greek. French and German are carried through the 
 four years. Formerly, under a special certificate for 
 admission to the Mining School, only the mathematics, 
 physics and astronomy were demanded as preparatory 
 to the professional studies, somthing the same as is 
 similarly the case in a law or a medical school ; that is, 
 there was required algebra through quadratic equa- 
 tions ; arithmetic with the metric system ; geometry, 
 plane, solid and spherical ; physics ; elements of as- 
 tronomy, and book-keeping. Book-keeping was re- 
 quired simply because in mining work the students 
 ought to understand mine accounts. 
 
 At this time, if a student will satisfactorily pass 
 an examination at the Mining School in the subjects 
 named above, he will be admitted. The situation 
 is peculiar ; everywhere in the land, and particu- 
 larly in a mining district, there are a great many 
 young men who have gone into practical business 
 when they were about fifteen or sixteen ; later, when 
 they have arrived at the age of eighteen or twenty, or 
 
26 
 
 THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 twenty-five, they have a desire to obtain an education. 
 The high school tells them, “ You .must come to us 
 four years, then you must go to some other institution 
 three or four years to obtain your degree.” This is a 
 virtual embargo on these young men. They often 
 have great ability ; they work hard and they make 
 the best students. Therefore these men are informed 
 that if they will come to the Michigan Mining School, 
 after a two years’ special course in the high school, 
 and also after they are nineteen years of age, or else 
 will come to the institution and pass its examination 
 in the special subjects above named, they will be al- 
 lowed to enter. No difficulties have thus far resulted 
 to the Mining School from doing this. Experience has 
 shown that graduates of the high school do just as well 
 in the higher and harder work, and stand the wear 
 and tear of an engineering professional training in the 
 Mining School, as well as do the graduates of colleges 
 and universities ; oftentimes better, for the simple rea- 
 son that the majority of the latter have been trained 
 to memorize, and do not know how to reason. They 
 have committed to memory Greek and Latin grammars 
 and works of that kind, so that they have unfitted 
 themselves to think over practical questions. The in- 
 struction given students at the Michigan Mining School 
 incorporates a vast amount of practical work as an ap- 
 plication of the principles taught. 
 
 Professor W. F. M. Goss said that if he under- 
 stood the paper, it stated that the elective system 
 would do three things : It would avoid the overcrowd- 
 ing of courses ; it would operate to cut out subjects 
 which have no real value, if any such exist ; and it 
 would serve as means by which undesirable students 
 
THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 27 
 
 may readily be sent away. Since these are all matters 
 which under any system of courses are well within the 
 control of the faculty, the real claim seems to be that 
 the elective system will somehow protect the faculty 
 against itself. He thought that the average faculty 
 needed no such protection. 
 
 Professor Wadsworth replied that the three things 
 mentioned covered a part of the advantages, since ex- 
 perience shows that the average faculty fails to accom- 
 plish these objects with a required course. 
 
 Professor G. W. Bissell seemed to think it not a 
 fair statement that a student who enters a college and 
 chooses one of the engineering courses, and who after- 
 wards changes his course, loses four years’ time. He 
 had known instances in which a student entering in 
 civil engineering had changed to electrical engineer- 
 ing after one year, without sacrificing very much of 
 the first year’s time or losing very much of the second 
 year’s time ; the student need not throw away the 
 whole four years if he enters in the ordinary way and 
 then finds that he has made a mistake and changes to 
 some other course. Then as to the elective system, or 
 the elective feature of the system discussed by Pro- 
 fessor Wadsworth, if the student were to enter any en- 
 gineering college and elect, for instance, hydraulic 
 engineering, he would follow out much the same course 
 of study under the elective system at the Michigan 
 School of Mines as he would under a prescribed sys- 
 tem in any other engineering college of high standing, 
 provided, of course, that the professors in both schools 
 have the same ideas — and there would not probably 
 be much difference — as to what constitutes a proper 
 course of study in hydraulic engineering. It seemed 
 
28 
 
 THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 to be not very different from specializing, or taking a 
 special engineering course in other institutions of the 
 same grade. 
 
 Professor Albert Kingsbury said that he could 
 hardly see how this elective system could apply in the 
 average college. Indeed, his understanding was that 
 Professor Wadsworth does not think it will so apply. 
 
 Professor Wadsworth replied that his position 
 was that, while the elective system can be used in 
 every college, the special course that had been ar- 
 ranged for the Mining School would not, as it then 
 stood, apply to the average college ; he would always 
 vary it with the special conditions of every institution. 
 
 Professor Kingsbury thought that he could hardly 
 make a beginning with an elective system in a college 
 such as the one in which he is occupied. The elective 
 system which has been discussed appears to be one in 
 which the student is lead to suppose that he is doing 
 the electing, while in fact the faculty is doing it, and 
 the chief gain comes from a mere matter of policy in 
 working upon the human nature of the students. 
 
 Professor Wadsworth replied by asking if it is not 
 always well to oil the machinery, in order to make it 
 run more smoothly and with less friction. 
 
 Professor Kingsbury further explained as his un- 
 derstanding of the system that, if the student is to take 
 applied mechanics, the professor says to him, “ You 
 must have the subject of calculus,” and when he at- 
 tempts to study the calculus he is told, “ You must 
 first know algebra,” and when he wishes to study 
 algebra the professor says to him, “ It is necessary for 
 you to know something about arithmetic,” and so on 
 
THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 29 
 
 down ; and when all of these are followed down in this 
 inverse order and properly fixed, there is a fixed 
 course of instruction ; and when provision is made for 
 giving the instruction in this course, there must be a 
 fixed schedule ; and by the time the fixed schedule is 
 established, there is a fixed system just such as most 
 colleges are following. 
 
 Professor Wadsworth said that it seemed to him, 
 from the discussion, that the trouble is that none of 
 the gentlemen, or few of them at any rate, have ever 
 used the elective system in engineering work, and con- 
 sequently most of the criticisms do not apply to that 
 system as it actually is. It should not be supposed 
 that the speaker had no knowledge of a required sys- 
 tem. In an experience of thirty-three years, during 
 the chief portion of the time he had taught in a fixed 
 system, and had used optional systems and required 
 systems ‘‘ad infinitum” almost, so that with most of 
 the purposes of the required systems he is familiar. 
 From actual experience he would say that the amount 
 of time, labor, drudgery and other things that the elec- 
 tive system does save, is something that he is unable 
 to find w T ords adequate to express, so that his hearers 
 will understand it without trying it. This saving is 
 an actual fact, speaking from experience, and an ex- 
 perience of long years with the different systems. In 
 certain schools he would advise keeping the required 
 system, and he certainly would be governed always 
 by the practical requirements of each special case. He 
 would not, in the case of another college, introduce 
 any new system until he knew that a change would 
 be proper and beneficial to the institution. Most of 
 the objections which had been here made, apply to an 
 
30 
 
 THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 imaginary something, different from a true elective 
 system. He would be glad to send to any one the 
 catalogue of the Michigan Mining School, as it will 
 show, as near as a catalogue can, how the elective sys- 
 tem has been arranged there. 
 
 Professor Goss said that he should regret to have it 
 inferred from his previous remarks that he questioned 
 the value of the work done in the institution with 
 which Professor Wadsworth is connected. He could 
 readily believe that Professor Wadsworth’s plan might 
 give good results, and desired simply to question 
 whether the reforms which are stated to be the result 
 of an adoption of the elective system could not have 
 been brought about in some other way. If so, he 
 thought that the success of the reforms should not be 
 used as an argument to sustain the elective system. 
 
 Professor W. K. Hatt found that his impression 
 was not clear relative to one thing. The author said 
 that when the student found out the incompetence of 
 the instructor he would leave him and go to another 
 class. The speaker wished to inquire if the student 
 was permitted to control the character of his instruc- 
 tion, and, if so, on what features the student based his 
 judgment. 
 
 Professor Wadsworth replied that he hardly in- 
 tended to convey that idea. It was stated that the 
 elective system would show up the incompetence of 
 the instructor, because the teacher in Mining Engi- 
 neering or in any advanced subject would require that 
 the students should have had proper instruction in cal- 
 culus, analytic mechanics, mechanism, etc. If stu- 
 dents came to that professor prepared properly, it would 
 then be discovered that they were well taught ; if im- 
 
THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 31 
 
 properly instructed, this would also be known as 
 quickly ; since, if any professor is to do his work rightly, 
 the students must be thoroughly taught in the required 
 preparatory subjects when they come to him. In other 
 words, every professor naturally insists that the pre- 
 paratory work for his classes shall be done as it should 
 be, since stopping a student in one subject does not 
 cost him a year’s time, as it often does in the required 
 systems. He must insist on this or it is fatal to his in- 
 struction. It is in part this necessary building up 
 from the foundation in this way that makes the elec- 
 tive system’s success. The students themselves are 
 enthusiastic over their studies, and they do not wish 
 to be under a teacher who does not do good work. 
 
 Further, it has resulted in a decided elevation of the 
 moral tone. It has an excellent effect where there is 
 an incompetent professor, or one who is exceedingly 
 unpopular, or one who does not handle matters in the 
 right manner. Instead of a class rebellion, or perhaps 
 a petition presented to the faculty or board, accom- 
 panied with a statement that the students will leave 
 the school, etc., the result is simply a resolve on the 
 part of the students not to take the subjects that pro- 
 fessor has the next year. It culminates not in a rebel- 
 lion, but in the idea “I will not take that subject 
 next year. I will go more into the civil engineering 
 line, or the metallurgical line, or into some other sub- 
 ject that will enable me to avoid the obnoxious 
 teacher.” This attitude quickly shows itself and the 
 trouble is readily diagnosed. The teacher is told by 
 a live president what the trouble is, and he is obliged 
 to do his work properly or leave the institution. 
 
 Professor Bull inquired if those professors who 
 
32 
 
 THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 offer “ snaps,” as they call them, become popular at 
 once and attract the most students? 
 
 Professor Wadsworth replied that they do not be- 
 come popular in engineering colleges, but they do at- 
 tract students to lectures in literary colleges, where 
 there are usually numerous subjects that require no 
 advanced preparation. The question of the literary 
 education of a student is entirely different from the 
 question of his professional education. The profes- 
 sional student in most cases knows that, unless his work 
 is done well, he will not be a competent man in his 
 profession after graduating. In the case of a literary 
 college many of the students desire only athletics and 
 to obtain a polish, consequently they elect anything 
 that will give them their polish and degree. Further, 
 in a literary college there is usually a much larger 
 range of studies from which students can choose. 
 
 Professor M. T. Magruder wished to ask Profes- 
 sor Wadsworth if his students are not very much older 
 than the average student of the technical colleges ? 
 
 Professor Wadsworth said that the average age 
 this year is 23 years ; in former years it had sometimes 
 been greater, sometimes less. Certain conditions in 
 the Mining School may have raised it compared with 
 most other colleges, notably the special students, since 
 there have been some who were 56 years of age. 
 
 Professor Kingsbury asked if he understood cor- 
 rectly that this system had been in use only one year 
 at the Michigan Mining School? 
 
 Professor Wadsworth replied that this was all. 
 
 Professor Kingsbury said that he would be much 
 pleased to hear at the next meeting how it works, and 
 for several years following. 
 
DISCUSSIONS. 
 
 33 
 
 DISCUSSIONS. 
 
 On the Desirability of Instruction of Undergraduates in the 
 Ethics of the Engineering Profession. By Charles Carroll 
 Brown, Bloomington, Ills. r 
 
 Professor M. E. Wadsworth desired to ask for in- 
 formation, what is done in the different institutions 
 in that direction? At the institution with which he 
 is connected the subject of engineering contracts and 
 the question of ethics and principles of engineering is 
 taken up in connection with mining engineering and 
 with mine management and mine accounts. Is not 
 some provision of that kind made in almost all of the 
 colleges ? 
 
 The Study of Modern Languages in Engineering Courses. By 
 Thomas M. Drown, President of the Lehigh University, 
 South Bethlehem, Pa. 
 
 Professor M. E. WAdsworth desired to ask a ques- 
 tion : Could not the difficulty that Professor Fuertes 
 has spoken of, be done away with by taking the stand 
 that is taken in other professions, i. e ., that the so- 
 called general training studies should be left out of 
 the engineering curriculum ? Is it not possible to oc- 
 cupy a high plane and say that the engineer is just as 
 advanced professionally as anyone else ? Can he not 
 
34 
 
 DISCUSSIONS. 
 
 start his professional training where the other profes- 
 sions do ? Instead of asking the incorporation in the 
 engineering college course of English Literature and 
 numerous other subjects that belong to general cul- 
 ture and education, should they not be put into the 
 preparatory school where they properly belong ? The 
 engineering profession is belittled by starting its edu- 
 cation so low. Is it not possible to start it on the same 
 plane that other professions select ? In this way it 
 would seem that the colleges could have genuine en- 
 gineering courses and not be obliged to sacrifice their 
 engineering studies to the continual demand for the 
 interpolation in the course of literary subjects. 
 
 An Experiment in the Conduct of Field Practice. By Frank 
 
 0. Marvin, Professor of Civil Engineering, University of 
 
 Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. 
 
 Professor M. E. Wadsworth wished to speak about 
 a point which does not affect the method of Professor 
 Marvin as presented, nor the one Professor Fuertes 
 had spoken of, but which simply describes an attempt 
 to solve the question of field work in surveying in a 
 special situation. Every institution must have its 
 own methods. At the Michigan Mining School the 
 question that presented itself to the institution at first, 
 was some method of taking care of the practical as 
 well as of the theoretical work. Also, in the time 
 that was allowed the student, to give him an amount 
 of experience that would enable him to apply his 
 knowledge after graduation. That is, while he might 
 know the theory, if he could not adjust his instru- 
 
DISCUSSIONS. 
 
 35 
 
 ments and practically meet the different problem's 
 likely to come before him, his previous study was 
 worthless to him until he had learned later, by prac- 
 tice, how to apply it. The question was solved in this 
 way : The ordinary summer vacation work is by most 
 students taken as a vacation, a general good time ; 
 they do the work when they are compelled to, but 
 they will not do it well unless absolutely obliged to. 
 The failure of the summer school to impart real in- 
 struction becomes strongly marked if there happens 
 to be in charge of it an instructor who is what stu- 
 dents term “a good fellow,” but who has no idea of 
 real discipline or systematic instruction. The method 
 that the Michigan college employed was this : all of 
 the practical work was put in the regular year, or 
 made part of the regular system. Thus the student’s 
 work in the summer time is as much a constituent 
 part of the school course as it is in the winter term. 
 To do this the regular school year was increased to 45 
 weeks. In the field surveying, the practical work 
 covers various different subjects, like plane surveying, 
 topographical work with stadia and plane table, 
 geodetic work, railroad surveying, etc. The practical 
 work in surveying, exclusive of mining surveying, 
 occupies eleven weeks of the year, nine hours a day 
 for five days a week, Saturday is taken usually in 
 making up for the rainy days, for draughting, for 
 making up back work, etc. The extra day is needed 
 by many of the students, for while some are rapid 
 workers, others are slow. The student in the field, in 
 his surveying, is under the ordinary drill and disci- 
 pline of the school, and he is made to work just as a 
 
36 
 
 DISCUSSIONS. 
 
 young surveyor is required to work when he com- 
 mences his practice subsequent to graduation. The 
 instruction in theoretical surveying has, heretofore, 
 been given during the fall and winter terms. That 
 has been found to be disadvantageous, owing to the 
 fact that the student forgets the theory before he has 
 time to apply it. Consequently during the school 
 year 1896-7, the theoretical instruction will be given 
 in connection with the field work of eleven weeks ; 
 that is, the student will hear the lectures and have 
 his recitations in the morning at eight o’clock, going 
 into the field immediately after, and applying the 
 principles directly in practice. 
 
 Professor Wadsworth explained that he believed 
 all that Professor Allen said in regard to the value of 
 practicing students in surveying during the later por- 
 tions of their courses ; but in the case of the Michigan 
 Mining School the mining surveying, which is done 
 underground in the mines in the spring, requires that 
 the plane and railroad surveying preparatory to it shall 
 come during the preceding summer. Further, since 
 the mining surveying is preliminary to the mining 
 engineering, the order in which the three subjects 
 naturally fall is as follows: First Year: Plane and 
 Railroad Surveying, Principles of Mining; Second 
 Year : Mining and Mine Surveying, Theory and Prac- 
 tice; Third Year: Mining Engineering, Mine Man- 
 agements and Accounts. 
 
DISCUSSIONS. 
 
 37 
 
 Is Not Too Much Time Given to Merely Manual Work in the 
 Shops. By W. H. Schuerman, Dean of Engineering De- 
 partment, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. 
 
 Professor M. E. Wadsworth said that it seemed 
 to him in listening to Professor Schuerman’s paper that 
 the ordinary manual training which was referred to 
 in it is the work that is done in most schools by boys 
 of the age of 15 or 16 ; while the shop practice of en- 
 gineering colleges, properly speaking, is more apt to 
 be done by young men of more mature age, and is a 
 work of a different grade and character. For ordinary 
 manual training, the speaker could see no objections 
 to the author’s recommendations. 
 
 He wished, however, to give the experience of the 
 Michigan Mining School in handling shop practice 
 for students of engineering, averaging 21 years of age 
 and upwards. The speaker did this in the hope of 
 bringing out the practical experience of others in like 
 work. 
 
 At the Michigan college, the shop practice is con- 
 sidered to be of great value and use. The mining 
 engineers have many occasions to use their knowledge 
 of shopwork in the mines and about their plants. 
 The graduates frequently express themselves strongly 
 in favor of this work, as something that has proved 
 very useful to them in their subsequent practice. 
 
 In order to take the shop practice and receive any 
 credit in it at the Michigan college, it is required of 
 every student that he shall have previously completed 
 the requisite work in geometry, algebra, plane trigo- 
 nometry, mechanical drawing, physics, general experi- 
 mental chemistry, and the properties of materials. 
 
38 
 
 DISCUSSIONS. 
 
 The time given to the shopwork is eleven weeks 
 during the summer term. It occupies nine hours a 
 day. Five and one half weeks of the eleven are given 
 to practice in wood-working, and five and one 
 half weeks to metal-working. The class is divided 
 into two sections which alternate ; that is, one half of 
 the class works for five and one half weeks in the 
 wood shop, while the other half works in the metal 
 shop. 
 
 The preliminary practice in learning to handle the 
 tools takes only a few days for the average student, 
 usually two. After this introductory work, the time 
 is spent entirely upon material that is to be used in the 
 institution, i. e., upon work which is of practical value. 
 
 The shops are conducted upon the principles in 
 vogue in outside shops, and the student is made to 
 understand clearly the value of time, material and 
 quality of work done. Close record is kept of the 
 time spent on each job, and any work which fails to 
 pass inspection is promptly rejected. If any of the 
 material has been destroyed by defective work, the 
 student is required to pay the full value of the stock 
 used up by his carelessness. 
 
 Experience shows that the students have a deep in- 
 terest in their shop practice, because they feel that they 
 are making something that can be used. In this way 
 they receive the same mental training that comes in 
 actual practice in planning and arranging work for 
 their own or for commercial uses. 
 
 Lectures are given to the students upon the work 
 and its principles, text-books are studied, and recita- 
 tions are required, the same as is the case in the other 
 departments of engineering. 
 
DISCUSSIONS. 
 
 39 
 
 After the shop practice has been completed it has 
 been found by experience that it is of practical use as 
 a preparation for more advanced subjects, like engi- 
 neering design, metallurgical design, machine design, 
 mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, labora- 
 tory practice both in mechanical and electrical engi- 
 neering, ore dressing, etc. 
 
 The speaker would be pleased to learn of the prac- 
 tice and customs of other institutions, and how their 
 instructors handle shop practice. Also whether or 
 not the work has been found to be of vital interest and 
 of real use to the students.