Pedagogy at the Universities.

In the last number of the Nation a correspondent protests against the indifference of our colleges to the study of pedagogy. He declares that class reports show that teaching is universally more popular than any profession excepting the law and medicine, and yet the profession of teaching receives absolutely no attention at our universities. He further says, "The fact that teaching comes second and third on the list, although sufficient to show that some preparation for it should be provided, by no means shows the full importance of the subject. When we call to mind the very large number of college graduates who, though not teachers themselves, are serving on school committees as directors of teachers, and of the still larger number who, as parents, are directing the education of children, is it unreasonable for us to demand that not only a special course of instruction shall be provided for those who intend to become teachers, but also that a part of every man's college course shall consist of studies that will enable him to form a few general ideas at least of the proper way to develop a human mind?"

He deprecates the general quality of the instruction received in our colleges now, and asserts that in higher instruction there has been no advance in methods, "no universally recognized step in the science and art of teaching," that will compare with the improvement of methods in public school instruction. And the reason for this he finds in the lack of any fundemental law of pedagogy among college professors. College professors are free-lances and when they are successful teachers it is ascribed to their individuality rather than to the correctness of their methods; in consequence the value of their example is lost on their less successful fellow-teachers.

The result of these methods on the student is that he obtains no lasting specific results from much of his college course. On the other hand he could not devote as much time to a course in manual training "without retaining all his life some special power in the direction in which he has worked."

The improvement, therefore, which the writer of the letter most desires to see in our college is an improvement in the department or instruction, and this improvement must come through a better knowledge and application of the laws of mental development. To which end he thinks that there should be established schools of Pedagogy in our universities.