Within these institutions the relative—but not necessarily the absolute—amount of training in mathematics and in the classical languages will probably be lessened; while the amount of training given in natural science, and the acquirement of the modern languages so far as is necessary to a possible familiarity with the French and German literatures will be increased. The way to solve such a seeming paradox is, I think, steadily to improve our facilities and effectiveness in the teaching which precedes admission to college as well as during the college course. The ten years from six to sixteen are enough, and more than enough, to prepare the average mind for the most exacting of our American colleges. But alas! how much of this time is wasted, and worse than merely wasted, by the poor teaching that prevails in the intermediate schools.
Now the men and women who have a truly liberal education must somehow sweep away these evils which lie lower down; and this as the best manner of clearing the ground for a progressive improvement in the adjustment of later studies to the modern changes of educational values. But if, in making this adjustment, we relax our hold upon what we know, by centuries of experience, to have a high degree of such value, and then prematurely substitute—especially if we do so wholly at the option of the pupil—a large amount
