Page:Essays on the Higher Education.djvu/111

Professor Palmer says truly that "the charge of 'soft' courses is the stock objection to the elective system." He is, therefore, at considerable pains to show how wisely the juniors and seniors on the whole make their choices, and with no predominating disposition to shirk hard work. I regret that we are not told more particularly just how the lower classes exercise their option. For it is as to the lower classes that our main contention exists. In order to make his case good, it must be shown that boys of eighteen and nineteen, on entering college without a knowledge of what their pursuits in life will be or of what in reality most of the studies before them mean, are competent to compose the entire subject-matter of their own instruction. On my part, I am prepared to affirm that for wise choice of elective courses far more maturity of judgment and knowledge of various subjects than belong to the American youth at such a time in his life are highly desirable, if not imperatively necessary. So far as I can judge, the choices of the Yale juniors and seniors show more taste for hard work than is developed under the new system. It is noticeable that no course in the classics or higher mathematics is set down as being a favorite with the two upper classes at Harvard in 1883–84. But 54 juniors and 181 seniors are reported as having taken courses in "Fine Arts" for the present year. At Yale this