PHILOSOPHY AND PSYCHOLOGY.

The departments of philosophy and psychology, which were formerly grouped into one, are now usually separated, though the connection is still close between them in all of the colleges. The departments were chosen for analysis because their work forms part of the requirement for the degree in all of the colleges but Radcliffe and because the two departments together form a very considerable part of the curriculum. They are analyzed in separate tables for accuracy of detail.

The history of the curriculum shows that philosophy has always been included as a study in the five colleges. Vassar's first curriculum announces intellectual philosophy (Haven) and moral philosophy (Wayland) as required of seniors. Wellesley's first curriculum not only offers mental and moral philosophy, but history of philosophy. Radcliffe opens with six courses of philosophy and psychology. Among the instructors appear the names of Mr. James, Mr. Palmer, and Dr. Peabody. At Barnard and Mount Holyoke both, departments of philosophy are open from the start.

At the present time the three hours of required work vary in content at the different colleges. At Vassar philosophy is required in the junior year, and consists of a history of modern philosophy from Bruno to Berkeley, with discussion of a few important problems in philosophy. At Wellesley the requirement must be filled before the senior year, and the student is given a choice of courses. She may choose a semester of introduction to psychology and a semester of introduction to philosophy, or she may take a full year of an introductory course in experimental psychology.

At Barnard the course in philosophy which is prescribed for sophomores consists of one semester of psychology and one of logic. Though Mount Holyoke prescribes a requirement of psychology and philosophy, the semester course required is psychology and deals with psychological facts only. Any other course in the department may fulfill the requirement of the other semester.

In all of the colleges more hours are offered in the department of philosophy than in that of psychology. At Vassar the hours offered in philosophy are increased by two semester courses of three hours each on the history and principles of education. The department of psychology at the same college offers a two-hour semester course of educational cast called "Mental hygiene of learning and teaching." The policy at Vassar at present is against special training in a department of education.

A marked tendency in psychology is toward experimental work. In all of the colleges experimental or laboratory psychology is emphasized over theoretical psychology.

The greatest number of hours in psychology is offered at Barnard. Against the 9 hours of the other four colleges it presents 251⁄2 hours. The greatest number of hours in philosophy is also offered at Barnard. Although its 26 hours are an increase over Radcliffe by but 3 hours, they are greatly in advance of the other three colleges.

An analysis of the teaching force shows Barnard with more teachers both in psychology and philosophy than any of the other colleges. In proportion to the number of hours taught, Barnard leads in philosophy, and Vassar and Mount Holyoke in psychology. In the philosophy department the proportion of instructors to the entire teaching force is as follows: None at Vassar; 33 per cent at Wellesley; 20 per cent at Radcliffe; 27 per cent at Barnard; none at Mount Holyoke. This proportion reveals a remarkably small percentage of teachers of the grade instructor in this department in all of the colleges. The proportion of doctorates is correspondingly high: Vassar, 100 per cent; Wellesley, 663 per cent; Radcliffe, 80 per cent; Barnard, 82 per cent; Mount Holyoke, 100 per cent.

The departments of psychology give the following percentages of instructors: Vassar, 80 per cent; Wellesley, Radcliffe, and Barnard, 331 per cent; Mount Holyoke, 25 per cent. Here again the doctorates correspond: Vassar, 40 per cent; Wellesley, 100 per cent; Radcliffe,

100 per cent; Barnard, 833 per cent; Mount Holyoke, 75 per cent. Except at Vassar, which had a high percentage of teachers of the grade instructor, all of the colleges show few teachers of the grade instructor in the department, and many doctorates, a correlation which does not always follow.

FIG. 4.-Comparison of the number of hours given to English, chemistry, mathematics, and zoology, at Vassar, Wellesley, Radcliffe, Barnard, and Mount Holyoke.

SUMMARY OF THE STUDY OF THE MODERN CURRICULUM.

Though the development of the curriculum from year to year seems slow, and though the course of study sometimes appears impervious to demands for change, a comparison of the present with the early curriculum shows that it has been by no means a static institution. Unquestionably it has grown into a product very different from its

original simple form. Whether this growth has been in symmetry, virility, and flexibility, or whether it has been a matter of increase to unwieldly proportions by the process of accretion, is a question worthy of thoughtful consideration. An overloaded curriculum is not the guarantee of a useful one.

The history of the development of the college whether for men or for women, like the history of the church or of the state, shows different stages along the way of development differentiated, if not prolonged, by the hard and fast notions of final perfection which each age grafts upon an institution. With the changing ideals of

FIG. 5.-Comparison of the number of hours given to history, German, philosophy, and psychology, at Vassar, Wellesley, Radcliffe, Barnard, and Mount Holyoke.

women's needs, the college has added courses to the curriculum, increasing it in the direction from which the demands have come. At the same time it has held conservatively to all its original subjects. Rarely has a course been dropped, and, with the exception of domestic science, never a department; but constantly courses are added, and not infrequently new departments, by the biological process known as budding, develop and are separated from the original source. The criterion of the new work supposedly is that of Flexner's standard, whether an affirmative case can be made out for it. As a matter of fact, the affirmative case is obviously a strong one for most of

the work which has grown up since the foundation of the colleges. The history and economics group with its social significance, and the science group with its connection with the world's progress are examples of subjects which need no protagonists to prove their virility and worth.

Whether as clear a case can be made out for the old disciplinary studies which continue to hold their own in the curriculum even to the extent of composing much of the required work is more doubtful. The highest function of education is avowedly to produce a social individual; moreover, an actively social individual. The college, guided conservatively by the old guard which admits no aim except in terms of culture, adjusts itself slowly to the socialization of education. The possibilities of woman as a social individual have perhaps been too recently recognized for any adequate adjustment in college preparation. The recognition of the new possibilities, however, with their accompanying needs, is the tool which will fashion a modern curriculum built on the admission that no final perfection can exist for a college curriculum while humanity continues to change. The growth of the curriculum of the woman's college has been marked by no particular originality; that is, the woman's college can not be pointed out as the source of any single tendency in the American college to-day. The history of the older colleges for men indicate that after the difficult period of the Civil War, the worst of the struggle was over, and the advance from that time was easy and rapid. Few women's colleges started early enough to feel the inhibiting effect of the Civil War. Able from the beginning to take advantage of the hard won experience of the older colleges they have incorporated into the American colleges as yet little which could be designated as their original contribution. Their great increase in size and wealth points toward the conserving power of safe imitation. The growth of the curriculum has been as startling as any other form of development in the college. It has been most spectacular, perhaps, in the department of history, which either did not exist at all or was of feeble dimensions when the colleges were founded, and which now offers a total of more hours in the five colleges studied than does any other department except English. Closely related to history, and growing out of it is the group of studies including political science, or government, economics, and sociology. A frank response to modern demands, these departments are significant of the new education.

The growth of English shows in the ramifications of the subject, the large number of subjects in each division, and the number of students who focus their work in the department. An interesting summary of the students according to their distribution by the group system at Radcliffe (in per cents) is as follows: I. Language, litera