Chapter XXX: Part SIX: Vocational Subjects (3)

College history courses end thirty to fifty years ago. The journalist needs to know closely the last thirty years, at home and abroad. Weeks given to colonial charters in American history are as much waste as to set a law student to a special study of the Year Books of Edward I and II. College students have to put up with a good deal of this kind of waste. If twelve hours can be assigned to history, three should be on the classical period, three introductory to the modern world, three to European history since 1870, and three hours for American history; at least two of these three hours should go to American history since Garfield.

=Recent progress in all subjects must be summed up for the student of journalism=

The writing course should be used to supplement this by articles on both these fields so that a student will learn the sources of history for the last thirty years, its treaties, its elections, its movements, its statutes, its reference works. He will need all this knowledge as soon as he has to write as a correspondent, a feature writer, or an editor, on the important topics of the day. Statistics need to supplement economics and advanced courses, two, if possible, should give knowledge and method in the approach to new problems in currency, banking, trusts, and unions. At least one general course in philosophy is needed, and Freud is as important for him here as Aristotle. The contact of the newspaper man with book reviewing, book advertising, and the selection of fiction and news in supplements and magazines calls for the "survey course in English literature" and a knowledge of the current movement in letters for thirty years back. In science, in politics, in history, in economics, in philosophy, and in letters, it is indispensable that the young newspaper man should be introduced by lecture, and still more by reading, to the speaking figures of his own day on affairs, political life, letters, the theatre, and art.

=The journalist must ever be a student of human affairs=

These things are indispensable. The man who knows them can learn to write and edit, but the man who can only write and edit and does not know them will speedily run dry in the newspaper, weekly and monthly. News is today standardized. Each President, each decade, each great war, the Associated Press and City Press Associations cover more completely the current news. Presentation, comment, handling special articles, grow each year more important and more in demand. The price of supplement and magazine articles has trebled in the last twenty years. The newspaper grows more and more to be a platform, particularly the Sunday newspaper and popular magazine. If a man is to be a figure in the day's conflict and on its wider issues, he needs the special training just outlined, and when this outline is begun, he will find the toil of the years in these fields has but begun. About the safe harbors of journalism where men come and go, dealing with the affairs of and ending the ready market of the day, are the reefs strewn with the wrecks of ready and often "brilliant" writers whose few brief years left them empty and adrift, telling all they meet that no man can long earn a fair income and hold his own through the years in journalism.

A school can ameliorate all this by one course which requires much reading of the Bible and Shakespeare, by furnishing in the school library abundant access to the best current prose and verse of the day which will directly appeal to the young reader, since each decade has its new gods in letters, and by selecting teachers for the professional courses who have shown that they can write at least well enough to be paid by newspapers and magazines for their work. The teacher in writing whose work is not salable is not as likely to teach students how to write so that their work can sell as one who has earned his living by selling his stuff.

TALCOTT WILLIAMS
_School of Journalism, Columbia University_

XXVIII

BUSINESS EDUCATION

=Evolution of business education=

Business education of collegiate grade is a very recent development. The world's first commercial college was established at Antwerp in 1852, while the forerunner of American institutions of this sort, the Wharton School, was founded in 1881. Others followed in the nineties, but the general establishment of schools of commerce as parts of colleges and universities, as well as the inclusion of business subjects in the curricula of liberal colleges, took place after 1900. This sudden flowering at the top was preceded by a long evolution quite typical of the development of education in all the branches of learning to which institutions devote time because of their cultural or professional worth.

Some practical end and not the desire for abstract knowledge prompted early instruction and stimulated business education as well as education in general through various stages of progress. Of course all education is a process whereby technical operations and abstract truth developed by many generations are systematized, compressed, and imparted to individuals in a relatively short time.

The first stage in the evolution in a given field may be called the _apprentice stage_. Just as physicians, lawyers, and in fact practitioners in all the professions and crafts trained their assistants in their establishments for the purpose of making them proficient in their daily work, so did merchants at this stage give apprentice training in commercial branches to their employees. Traditional ways of carrying out certain transactions, convenient rules of thumb, and habits of neatness and reliability were passed on in a given establishment. As industry grew and guilds were formed, the training tended to become more standardized and merchants joined in establishing guild schools for their employees. Many such schools were conducted in the various crafts, and their modern counterparts are the well-known vocational or trade schools. This _vocational training_ stage was developed by business men for persons not employed as productive craftsmen but rather as workers in business offices which administered production and directly attended to selling and exchange, and for others looking forward to such employment. At this stage there grew up also private schools, usually conducted by teachers especially proficient in particular lines of service. Thus inventors of shorthand systems, devisers of systems of penmanship, and authors of methods of bookkeeping and accounting set up schools in these specialties. Here we have training outside the business house itself to prepare for participation in business, and the enterprises flourish because there is a demand for the people they train. At this stage rules of thumb are supplanted by systems based on principles, and the way is paved for the _technical school stage_. The training here is practical, but it is broad and based on scientific knowledge. This stage is not reached in all fields of endeavor, for some stop at the first or the second, while on the other hand the existence of a higher stage of education does not preclude the continuation at the same time of agencies carrying on instruction after the mode of the lower stages. With the rise of the factory system and the extension of capitalistic production and industrial integration in the form of "big business," there came a demand in the business world for men widely informed and thoroughly trained. Not only did men to meet this demand have to have good foundations of general education, but they needed technical preparation in the specialized field of business itself.

Business science is not only applied science, but it is secondary or derived from a number of the fundamental sciences. It draws its principles from the physical sciences of physics, chemistry, geology, and biology; it utilizes the engineering applications of these sciences; it derives valuable information from physiology and psychology, and it makes use of the modern languages. Borrowing from all the pure sciences and their applied counterparts, it formulates its own regulations so that it may manage the work of the world _economically_, so that it may bring about the production of goods necessary to meet humanity's many, varied, and recurrent wants, and make these commodities available in advantageous times and places with individual title to them established according to existing standards of personal justice and social expediency.

The final stage, the _cultural stage_, is reached when the educator determines that the field in question is so much a part of the general civilization or intellectual wealth of the world that it ought to receive some consideration, not only by specialists in the field but also by the student pursuing a well-planned course of a general or non-technical character designed to enable him to appreciate and play some rôle in the world in which he lives. It is because new branches of human endeavor constantly blossom forth into this stage, while more ancient branches wither and no longer bear fruit of contemporary significance, that the very humanities themselves change as well as realities.

Business as a field of human thought and activity has reached this stage, and educators reckon with it in laying out courses of general elementary, secondary, and collegiate study.

No one would contend that educators should in any way cease to offer general or cultural courses, but they should insist that these general courses embrace all of humanity's wealth, including that which modern society contributed, and that they should with each addition reshape their general offerings so that appropriate proportions will be preserved.

=Definition of business education=

Before the development of modern highly organized production, business training would have been synonymous with commercial training; that is, training to prepare men to play their parts in the _exchange_ of goods. This would embrace correspondence with customers, the keeping of records of stock, the cost of stock, making out bills, and attending to all financial operations which were associated with marketing and exchange. Successful training would imply, of course, the broad foundational grasp of arithmetic, reading, and writing of the mother tongue and of such foreign languages as the nature of the market might require, a grasp of various money values, banking procedure, and other information concerning financial affairs, the means of transportation, freight charges, etc. Manual skill had to be developed in penmanship, in the technique of bookkeeping, general office organization, and filing. With the invention of mechanical and labor-saving office devices, facility in operating them was required to supplement skill in penmanship.

Of course, with the development of the market the complexity of office management increased. In modern times the business man concerns himself not only with the duties of the merchant and exchanger, but also with the organization of industry and economical procedure. The modern business man, entrepreneur or manager, and all those assisting him in the discharge of his duties, perform functions in two directions: first, in the direction of the market in the establishment of price, in the selling of his goods, and in attending to all matters which flow therefrom, and secondly toward the production plant itself; while he employs technicians who know how to perform operations skillfully according to the laws of science, nevertheless he must know how to buy labor and how to organize labor and materials and put them in coördinate working relationship most economically.

We can therefore define business _education as education which directly prepares people to discharge the business function: namely, the economical organization of men and materials in production and the most advantageous distribution and exchange of the commodities or service for consumption_.

In the modern world it is hard sometimes to draw the line between the field of technology in production and the field of business management in production, but in general the two functions are fairly distinct. The technician is interested in operations of production, while the business manager is interested in their economical organization and in their government with relation to market conditions. The very engineers themselves must be selected, engineered, and paid by the business man. The business manager is interested in keeping the total price of his commodities above his total entrepreneur's cost. The technician is interested in inventing and operating the machinery of production, if and when the business man determines what operations will be profitable.

=Aims and curricula of business education=

The aims of business education are, first and foremost, professional; second, civic; and third, cultural. At no time can the three be separated, but it is possible to devise a curriculum which stresses one or two of the aims. It is also possible to treat a subject so as to emphasize technical and practical skill or to promote philosophical reflection.

The professional aim prompted the establishment of the first schools or colleges of commerce, and it is kept to the fore not only in institutions giving courses of study which lead to distinctive degrees in commerce, but also in places which give specialized instruction in particular fields. We shall consider curricula of the following types:

_Type I._ Curriculum designed to give the student training to meet a definite professional requirement established by law.

_Type II._ Curriculum designed to make a student proficient in a particular narrow field.

_Type III._ Curriculum leading to a baccalaureate degree in commerce or business, vertical type.

_Type IV._ Curriculum leading to a baccalaureate degree in commerce or business, horizontal type.

TYPE I. TECHNICAL COURSE, DESIGNED TO PREPARE STUDENTS TO MEET THE STATE REQUIREMENTS FOR CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS

_Entrance requirements_ for students matriculating for the whole course as candidates for a Diploma of Graduate in Accountancy--high school graduation, college entrance or a State Regents' C.P.A. Qualifying Certificate.

Non-matriculated students--mature persons wishing to pursue certain subjects without academic credit.

_Prescribed_

Accounting, Theory, Practice and Problems
4 terms, 4 hours a week--256 hours

This course covers general accounting for the single proprietor,
partnerships and corporations, embracing financing,
manufacturing, and selling operations, with agencies and
branches, the formation of mergers, syndicates, holding
companies, etc.; dissolutions and reorganizations.

Cost accounting 1 term, 2 hours a week--32 hours

Auditing 1 term, 2 hours a week--32 hours

Public utilities accounting
1 term, 2 hours a week--32 hours

Judicial (fiduciary) accounting
1 term, 2 hours a week--32 hours

Advanced accounting, theory, and problems
2 term, 2 hours a week--64 hours

Commercial Law 3 terms, 3 hours a week 144 hours

Covering general principles of law, contracts, and all forms of
special contracts of interest to the business man, especially
those related to personal property, risk insurance, credit and
real property, and forms of business associations.

Economics
Economic principles
1 term, 3 hours a week--48 hours

Economic development of the United States
1 term, 3 hours a week--48 hours

Money and banking 1 term, 3 hours a week--48 hours

English--Written, Business English
2 terms, 2 hours a week--64 hours

Oral English--Public Speaking
4 terms, 1 hour a week--64 hours

_Additional electives_--one course of at least 96 hours in Government
and enough other elective subjects in technical commercial work or
Political Science to accrue at least a total of 1000 hours.

The available additional electives in accounting are advanced
courses in different special fields such as Advanced Cost
Accounting, Municipal Accounting--General and Departmental,
Systems for particular industries or forms of business, Public
Utilities Rate Making and Regulation, etc.

In Government the available electives include such subjects as
American Government and Citizenship, American Constitutional Law,
International Law, Political Theory, Comparative Government, State
Legislation and Administration, Municipal Administration, etc.

In Political Science, courses in Economics and Business, such as
Economic Problems, Business Organization and Management, Public
Finance, Foreign Trade, Foreign Exchange, Insurance, Advertising,
Salesmanship, etc., are available, while general and special
courses may be taken in Sociology and Statistics.

Courses of study of this sort in a specialized field are offered in colleges usually at night for students who are in active business during the day. With more or less extensive additions in scientific, literary, and linguistic fields they become the curricula leading to baccalaureate degrees as represented by Type III, to follow. Large private institutes or schools conducted for profit and also correspondence institutions offer similar courses. Other groups of studies in particular fields are: in banking, in transportation or traffic, in sales management, including advertising and salesmanship, and in foreign trade.

A group in Foreign Trade will typify this sort of course of study, which differs from the one in Accountancy just given because the make-up will be determined wholly by each institution quite independent of legally established professional standards.

TYPE II. TO PREPARE STUDENTS FOR WORK IN A SPECIAL FIELD, FOREIGN TRADE

Principles of economics
1 term, 3 hours a week--48 hours

Economic resources of the U. S.
1 term, 3 hours a week--48 hours

Commercial geography
1 term, 3 hours a week--48 hours

Money and banking 1 term, 3 hours a week--48 hours

Foreign exchange 1 term, 3 hours a week--48 hours

Foreign credit 1 term, 2 hours a week--32 hours

International law 1 term, 3 hours a week--48 hours

Tariff history of the U. S.
1 term, 2 hours a week--32 hours

U. S. and foreign customs administrations
1 term, 2 hours a week--32 hours

Export technique 1 term, 2 hours a week--32 hours

Practical steamship operation
1 term, 2 hours a week--32 hours

Marketing and salesmanship

General course 1 term, 2 hours a week--32 hours

Special courses as desired on South American Markets, Mediterranean
Markets, Russian Markets, Northwest Empire Markets, etc.

Foreign Languages:

Practical courses in Conversation and correspondence in French,
Spanish, Portuguese, German, Russian, etc., according to market in
which trade is specialized, at least
4 terms, 3 hours a week--192 hours

Total (in 2 years, with weekly schedule of 10 or 12 hrs.)
672 hours

A special course of this sort usually leads to a certificate but not a diploma or degree. Obviously the technical aim is very prominent, though civic and cultural benefits of no mean character will of necessity be derived. New groups will be found as new fields of business become important and develop definite, recognizable requirements of a scientific sort. Naturally each such specialty goes through the usual evolution and contributes its philosophical distillation or essence to the cultural college course.

When we come to the construction of a curriculum leading to a bachelor's degree in business, economics, or commerce, we have the problems of the engineering schools. Just how far will specialization be carried, in what sequence will the foundational subjects and the specialties be taken up, and to what extent will other more general subjects not directly contributing to a technical end be admitted? In most institutions of good standards the degree is regarded as representing not only technical proficiency in business but also some acquaintance with science, politics, and letters in general. The question (already an old one in schools of engineering) arises then concerning the best way to arrange the special or distinctively business subjects in relation to the more general. Although there are a number of variations, two outstanding types are recognizable. We may devise labels for them: the _vertical_ curriculum, which offers both general and special courses side by side right up through the college course, and the _horizontal_, which requires a completion of the whole or nearly all of the general group during the first two years of college before the special subjects are pursued in the last two.

TYPE III. VERTICAL TYPE OF UNDERGRADUATE CURRICULUM, LEADING TO THE DEGREE OF B. S. IN ECONOMICS

_Entrance_: College entrance requirements.

_Requirement for graduation_: 74 units, of which 40 must be in general business and in liberal subjects, with 34 in specialized fields of business activity, to be taken after the freshman year.

A unit here represents successful work for one hour a week for
two semesters. Therefore the total 74 is equivalent to 148 of the
usual collegiate units.

_Freshman Required Work_

English composition 2 hours a week--2 terms
English, history of the language 1 hour a week--2 terms
English literature 1 hour a week--2 terms
Chemistry--general )
or } 3 hours a week--2 terms
Business law )
Physical education 2 hours a week--2 terms
Government--federal and state 3 hours a week--2 terms
Principles of economics 3 hours a week--2 terms
Economic resources 2 hours a week--2 terms
Accounting--general course 3 hours a week--2 terms

_Sophomore Required Work_

English literature and composition 3 hours a week--2 terms
Physical education 2 hours a week--2 terms
General history 2 hours a week--2 terms

_Required before End of Junior Year_

Additional political science 2 hours a week--2 terms
Physical education 1 hour a week--2 terms

_Required before Graduation_

Additional history 3 hours a week--2 terms

Physical education 1 hour a week--2 terms
A modern language beyond the
first year in college 3 hours a week--4 terms

Total required units 40 units

Elect after the Freshman year courses aggregating 34 additional units in
fields of

I. Business law 4 courses, 10 units available
II. Commerce and transportation 9 courses, 19 units available
III. Economics 8 courses, 15 units available
IV. Finance and accounting 20 courses, 53 units available
V. Geography and industry 11 courses, 26 units available
VI. Insurance 7 courses, 16 units available
VII. Political science 22 courses, 43 units available
VIII. Sociology 6 courses, 12 units available

Total required for the degree, 74 units

There is a school which grants a degree in Commerce for the equivalent of 36 of these units or 72 of the usual college credits, if the student has business experience, and for the equivalent of 48 of these units or 96 of the usual college credits if he has not. The course is essentially like Type I and includes no broad liberal requirements in literature, foreign language, and history and on the other hand is not so strictly prescribed as Type I. A strictly technical degree may be desirable for such a short course, provided the prescription is severe and includes languages. Generally it seems best to reserve degrees for full college courses of four years or more which include a reasonable general requirement in languages and science. This leads us to Type IV, or the curriculum which requires the first regular two years of the college course prescribed for one of the liberal degrees and permits business specialization in the last two undergraduate years or these with an additional postgraduate year. One institution requires the first three years as a foundation for a two-year course in business, and one conducts a postgraduate school of business administration leading to the degree of Ph.D. in Business Economics. No doubt postgraduate work will be continued mainly in the research direction, but undergraduate day and continuation courses will be devoted mainly to preparation for business.

It is not necessary to illustrate Type IV, because the first two years consist simply of the Freshman and Sophomore work of any sort of liberal college course, Classical, Scientific, or Modern Language, while the succeeding years are made up of special work in Economics and Business of more or less concentrated character.

The advantage of the type is obviously administrative. The whole vexing problem of insuring fairly wide cultivation along with opportunities for specialization is conveniently settled by giving general training, most of it remote from business work, for two years, after which the student is considered cultivated enough to withstand the blighting effect of specialization. But there are serious pedagogical objections to this arrangement which make the vertical plan seem preferable. A student coming from one of our constantly improving high schools of commerce is checked for two years and given time to forget all the bookkeeping and other commercial work which he has learned and on which advanced commercial instruction may be built, while he pursues an academic course. It would be far better to continue the modern languages, the mathematics, and natural sciences, along with business courses. Furthermore there is much to be done by educators in arranging such parallel sequences of subjects so that advantage may be taken of vocational interest to stimulate broad and deep study of related fundamentals. Considerable improvement could be made over Type III, but that type seems better than the one we have styled "horizontal."

In all these courses of study we quite properly find both the philosophical and analytical courses, those which are historical and descriptive and those of detailed practical technique; we find economic theory, industrial history, business management, and practical accounting; we find theory of money and banking, history of banking in the United States, and practical banking; we find theory of international exchange, tariff history, and the technique of customs administration. Concerning methods of teaching particular subjects we shall speak later.

Seldom do we find curricula drawn up with the purely civic end in view, though many schools and associations throughout the country are agitating the question of organized training of men for public service. Strictly speaking, this kind of training is both professional and civic because it is designed to make men proficient in carrying on the business of the State. In New York City the municipal college conducts courses of this sort for persons in the city service, while private bureaus of municipal research conduct their own courses. So far in America no courses are yet accepted officially for entrance into public service or as the only qualification for advancement in the service. Nevertheless, progress is being made in this direction. The curricula offered include courses in Government and especially Municipal Government, Public Finance and Taxation, the practical organization and administration of various departments such as Police, Charities, Public Works, the establishment and maintenance of special systems of municipal accounts.

But the great civic benefit comes from general courses in business, for the business man who has a real grasp of his work and sees it in the light of general social welfare becomes a good citizen. Business education gives some sense of the interdependence of industry, personal ethics, and government. The broadly trained business man realizes that he is in a sense a servant of the community, that his property is wrapped up with the welfare of his fellow men, and that what he has is a trust which society grants to him to be conducted after the manner of a good steward. Such training reveals to him the _raison d'être_ of labor legislation, factory laws, the various qualifications of the property right, the necessity for taxation, and the importance of good government to all the citizens of the State both as coöperative agents in production and as consumers. Continued and improved business education will elevate the mind of the merchant and the manager so that its horizon is no longer the profit balance but the welfare of all society.

The cultural aim of business courses is consciously kept in mind by the makers of curricula for colleges of liberal arts and sciences which permit a rather free choice of electives in the department of Economics and Business or of Political Science, according to the departmental organization of the institution. Here, of course, we find Economics, which bears to practical business much the relation which Philosophy bears to active life in general. We find also courses in Money and Banking, usually offered from the historical and descriptive rather than the technical point of view. Recently, however, colleges have included in this field of election practical courses in Accountancy and Commercial Law. The tendency is in the direction of including more and more of the practical and technical courses, although the historical and philosophical courses are retained. Nevertheless the cultural value is undiminished, unless one were to maintain that nothing which is exact can be cultural.

=Methods of teaching=

The field of business is so wide and embraces so many subjects that the methods of teaching giving the best results will be varied and used in different combinations with different subjects. Those subjects which are practical and largely habit forming, such as stenography, typewriting, bookkeeping, and the manipulation of mechanical and labor-saving office devices, are of course taught by some method of training which will insure quick reaction. In these courses the object is to cultivate habits of manual dexterity and habits of orderliness and neatness. Here we find that exposition is reduced to a minimum, lectures are few, recitations do not exist to any great extent, but that practice, 1st, to secure proper form, and 2d, to secure speed, is the controlling aim of the method. The teachers show their ingenuity in devising exercises which will give accuracy of form and then develop speed without sacrifice of accuracy.

In colleges these courses are reduced to a minimum because they are usually cared for in lower schools, but for students who come directly to the commercial college without them, preparatory courses of this sort are often conducted.

Among the technical subjects the one which calls for the most practice is, of course, Accountancy, first for the single proprietor, next for the partnership, and finally for the corporation. Various methods of presenting Accountancy have been suggested. Very few teachers employ extensive recitation work in this field. It is found most desirable to have periods of at least two hours' duration, so that the teacher can give such exposition and lecture work at the beginning of the period as he may see fit, and the class may then take up practice. In some schools it is customary to have one course in theory, another course in practical accounting, and another course in problems of accounting. However, the tendency seems to be in the direction of making these three aspects of the work mutually helpful, and the course is offered as a course in Accounting, Theory, Practice, and Problems. The theory is set forth in a lecture, practice is given with typical situations in mind, and then related problems are taken up for solution. Many excellent texts are now appearing and can be used in the customary manner. Assignments in these books tend to make unnecessary many long or formal lectures, but there still remains the need for classroom talks and quizzes. As the course progresses, the problems become more and more difficult and complicated, and the final problem work is exceedingly difficult and calls for a considerable power of analysis, clarity of statement, and care in arrangement on the part of the student.

A complete course of this sort usually covers two and a half or three years. At the end of the first year of general accountancy, special subjects may be pursued parallel with the general course. The order in which these specialties are introduced is usually Cost Accounting, Auditing Systems, Judicial or Fiduciary Accounting, and then other special branches such as Brokers' Accounts, Public Utilities Accounting, Foreign Exchange Accounting, etc.

General Accounting is very important both as an instrument for the business man to use and as a training to insure the grasp of general business organization. It is the opinion of the writer that whether a business man expects to become an accountant or not, he should have a thorough and technical grasp of this subject. In these specialties it is necessary to depend upon lectures rather than textbooks, not only because textbooks here are few and other works are not well adapted to teaching use, but also because the subject matter must be kept up to date and in keeping with changing practice. The lecturers should be practical experts in each particular field as well as acceptable teachers.

Closely related to Accountancy is Commercial Law. Commercial Law should, of course, be understood by every business man, not because he expects to become a practitioner of law but because he wishes to avoid unnecessary disputes and to shape his course wisely from a legal standpoint in dealing with his employees, his business associates, and his customers.

There are various methods of teaching Commercial Law. The one which has been in vogue thus far has been the textbook method, in which the principles of law of interest to the business man are set forth. Lessons are assigned in the book, and recitations are held. The lecture method also is advocated. In some universities which have both law schools and schools of commerce, the commercial students receive lectures in the school of law in such subjects as contracts, agencies, insurance, etc. It seems to the writer that neither of these practices is desirable but that the proper way to teach Commercial Law to the commercial students is the case method, in which the principles of law of interest to the business man are developed from an examination of actual cases of business litigation. We may very likely look forward to the publication of case books which can be used either alone or in conjunction with textbooks on legal principles. Lectures on law to commercial students should be reduced to a minimum, and then they should confine themselves to very broad principles which need no lengthy exposition or to fields in which the students may be expected to have a general grasp but no very detailed knowledge. But such subjects as contracts, agency, bankruptcy, sales, insurance, negotiable instruments, and forms of business association should be taught thoroughly to the student in the classroom through the case method, in which each case is fully discussed by the class and from which discussion legal principles are evolved. It is interesting to note that the states which stand highest in the matter of Certified Public Accountancy licenses are requiring very thorough preparation in law. To meet such requirements a course in law covering at least three semesters, three hours a week, with a case method is certainly necessary.

The modern languages taught in schools of commerce should be by the direct method, and always with the vocational end clearly before the student. Actual business transactions, such as selling to a foreign customer in the foreign language, correspondence, newspapers, catalogues and other documents of business, should be the supplementary reading and exercise material of the class. Facility in conversation and writing should be developed as rapidly as possible, and the grasp of the methodical rules should follow. It would probably be presumptuous to take a strong position here on the question of teaching modern languages, but experience with commercial students has clearly indicated that greatest progress can be made if the language is taught by a conversation or direct method from the very start, and if paradigms and rules of syntax are evolved after some vocabulary has been developed and some facility in speech has been acquired. We may say here, incidentally, that it seems wise to teach the spoken language for a while before taking up the problem of the written language, especially where the foreign language assigns different phonetic values to the printed symbols from those assigned in English.

While the various technical subjects offer different problems because of differences in their character, we may say in general that the aim of the school should always be to keep in touch with the actual practice in the business world; to have the lecturer use material which is up to the minute, and, where possible, to give the students the advantage of field work or at least to take them on tours of inspection in the different houses engaged in this or that line of business.

The curriculum of any good commercial college or university department of business includes courses in Economics, Commercial Geography, Industrial History, Business Management, and similar subjects. No doubt other chapters of this book discuss methods of teaching these subjects. But it may not be out of place here to indicate that the best approach to the study of Economics is through practical business courses in Accountancy, Commercial Law, and Practical Management. Economics is the Philosophy of Business, and it cannot be understood by one who is unfamiliar with the facts of business. Certainly it cannot be related to real business life by the academic student. It would seem, therefore, best to reserve the course in Economic Theory for the senior year of a business course and precede it with courses in Accounting, Law, Industrial History, and Management. Then, when it is taught, it should be presented through practical problems from which the general principles may, by induction, be derived.

=Relations with the business world=

It is important that commercial education should not grow academic and remote from the real world of affairs. Therefore schools of business should keep in close contact with merchants' associations, chambers of commerce, and such other bodies of business men as may be in the neighborhood of the school. Committees from such associations should have either a voice in the conduct of the school, or at least have very strong advisory representation on committees. In France, Germany, and in fact most European countries, colleges of commerce were directly established by chambers of commerce and associations of merchants, and the work is to a large extent conducted under their direction. Whether the college of commerce in America be a private institution or one supported by the public, it should form some sympathetic contact with the leading business organizations. Of course certain business associations have their own technical schools of training. The American Bankers' Association conducts its own courses, drawing upon various universities for lecturers in some subjects and drawing upon experts in business for other kinds of technical work. So also various corporations have their corporation schools which seek to develop business executives by progressive courses of training for those in the lower ranks.

Nevertheless, the collegiate institutions offering organized courses in commerce will do well to keep in touch with business men. Another way in which such schools and colleges can keep abreast of the times is to employ lecturers who do not make teaching their main business of life but who are expert in certain particular fields. Indeed, it is almost impossible to teach certain of the very advanced and specialized courses without employing men of this sort. They are attracted to teaching not by the pay but by the honor of being connected with an institution of learning, and by sincere desire to contribute something to the development of the work in which they are interested. These men, of course, can be scheduled only for a relatively few hours a week, and sometimes they can be had only for evening lectures, but in any event they are very much worth while. Obviously the director of studies in the college should give these men all possible assistance of a pedagogical sort, so that their advantages as experts in business will not be offset by deficiencies as teachers.

=Evening work in commercial courses=

This brings us to another consideration which is very important. It seems to the writer that the ideal training for a student who has reached the stage of entrance to college and who wishes to go into business is as follows:

He should enroll in the college course which is preparatory for business training and pursue his modern languages, Mathematics, English, and the Social Sciences, and also take up such accounting and technical work as he can have the first two years of his course. Then he should enter the world of business itself, be in a business house during the day, and continue his studies at night. It seems very desirable that this parallel progress, in organized theory and instruction, on the one hand, and in actual business with its difficulties which arise almost haphazard, should be carried on. The relationship is very helpful. Of course a substitute for this is the coöperative plan, in which the student spends a part of his time in college and a part of the time in a business house. Another alternative in institutions which have the three-term year is to put two terms in at college and one term in at business. The calendar arrangement of any institution will suggest variations of this suggested arrangement, the purpose of which will be to insure progressive development in business practice and also in collegiate instruction.

=Recent developments=

It is to be noticed that in the last few years business has become more and more intense. The developments are in two directions. The first direction is saving and efficiency through organization. This tends to keep down cost. The other direction is in the stimulation of the market and in perfecting advertising and selling methods. Naturally there have been developments in the recording, accounting, and clerical ends of the business, but scientific management in production on the one hand, and scientific selling on the other, are the two great developments. In both, engineering plays a prominent part and dictates a close correlation of the business and the engineering curricula of a college or university seeking to give most effective training either to the student of business or the student of engineering. On the selling side we are having the further developments which come with the growth of foreign trade.

In order to meet the demand for men competent to organize production wisely and from a business viewpoint, more courses will be given in what we may call production management or commercial engineering. Furthermore, the sales engineer must be trained. The curriculum of the course of collegiate grade should be made up somewhat as follows:

A two years' prescribed course in the general sciences and in general principles of business, followed by a two or three year curriculum in technical business management, on the one hand, including especially accounting, cost accounting, wage systems, employment management, and some branch of engineering on the other hand. The engineering course should be general but thorough. It should not go up into specialized fields of design, but it should include all the fundamental courses of engineering--of mechanical, electrical, and civil engineering. A combination course in engineering and business management is needed also to prepare men for places in banks as investment managers. The banks must advance funds to industrial concerns, and such loans cannot be made wisely save upon the advice of one who is thoroughly acquainted with plant management, equipment, and mechanical operations as well as costs of production and market possibilities. In addition, such a man must be well acquainted with systems of accounting and methods of preparing financial statements. In the field of salesmanship, engineering training is growing in importance. In short, the highly organized state of modern production and the tremendous part played by engineering in modern industry indicate the need for a close coördination of business and engineering education.

In conclusion we may say that business education is now at the stage where it has its own technology, is in close touch with other fields of technology, and is making its contribution to the general fund of modern culture. Texts and scientific treatises in the field of business are increasing, the pedagogy of the various included subjects is receiving satisfactory attention, and schools of collegiate and university grade are keeping abreast of the demands of the business world for adequate general and specific training in business.

FREDERICK B. ROBINSON
_College of the City of New York_

BIBLIOGRAPHY

COOLEY, E. G. _Vocational Education in Europe._ Commercial Club of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, 1912. Chapters on Vocational Education in General, Commercial Schools, and the Conclusion.

FARRINGTON, F. E. _Commercial Education in Germany._ The Macmillan Company, 1914.

HERRICK, C. A. _Meaning and Practice of Commercial Education_, and other works in the Macmillan Commercial Series, 1904. There is an excellent bibliography on the whole subject of commercial education as an appendix to Herrick's Commercial Education.

HOOPER, FREDERICK, and GRAHAM, JAMES. _Commercial Education at Home and Abroad._ The Macmillan Company, 1901.

There are numerous contributions on particular aspects and general methods and special methods in commercial subjects. The best printed bibliography of these is in the back of Herrick's book. A typical work on methods is Klein and Kahn's _Methods in Commercial Education_.

INDEX

Accountancy. _See_ Business Education

Adapting course of study, 95-97, 202, 244, 480, 572

Adler, Felix, 323, 325

Æsthetic aim, in teaching, 52, 92;
in music, 470

Aims, in teaching, 48-51;
modified for different students, 54;
in organization of knowledge, 65;
in teaching biology, 88-94;
in teaching mathematics, 172;
in physical education, 184-190;
in teaching economics, 217-220;
in teaching American history, 218;
in teaching political science, 282-287;
in teaching philosophy, 304;
in teaching ethics, 320-328;
in teaching psychology, 337;
in teaching English literature, 380-384, 422-423;
in teaching classics, 405;
in teaching Romance languages, 426-427;
in teaching music, 460-462, 467;
of art instruction, 478;
in teaching engineering subjects, 508-511;
in teaching mechanical drawing, 525-527;
in business education, 559.
_See_ Civic, Disciplinary, Utilitarian

Allen, J. T., 411

Angell, J. B., 30

Application of knowledge, 72

Art, 475-497

Art instruction, 475

Athletics. _See_ Physical education

Author's life, in literary study, 385

Biological basis of education, 85-87, 94, 364

Biology, 85-109

Brown, E. E., 358

Brown University, 5

Business education, 555-577

Butler, N. M., 30, 404

Calkins, Mary W., 339

Canby, H. S., 42

Case method, in political science, 292;
in philosophy, 316;
in ethics, 329;
in psychology, 338-340;
in commercial law, 572-573

Cattell, J. M., 30

Chemistry, 108-125

Chronological viewpoint in history, 257

Citizenship, training for, 282

Civic aim in economics, 219

Classics, 404-423;
in Colonial colleges, 5-6;
status in college teaching, 404;
through the vernacular, 418;
through ancient authors, 421

Coeducation, 18-21

College teaching, why ineffective, 46-48

Collegiate Institute, 4

Colonial period, 3

Columbia University, 5, 8

Commercial education. _See_ Business education

Commercial law, 571-572

Committee on standards of American universities, 42

Comparisons in teaching, 70

Composition and journalism, 546

Composition teaching, status of, 390.
_See_ English

Correlation, 70, 151, 156-157, 297, 295-297, 314

Course of study, 477, 481-485, 486-490;
in biology, 95-98;
logical and psychological, 103;
in chemistry, 111;
in physics, 134-137, 138-139;
in geology, 153-156, 158;
in hygiene and physical training, 206;
in economics, 225;
in sociology, 244-246;
determined by community, 246;
in American history, 259-262;
in European history, 269-276;
in political science, 280-281;
in philosophy, 312-314;
in education, 353;
in English literature, 386;
in classics, 410;
in Romance languages, 431-436;
in German, 442-453;
in engineering, 502-504;
in mechanical drawing, 526-530;
in business education, 559-567

Cultural aim, 220, 336, 348, 382-384

Dartmouth College Case and college development, 8-9

Democracy, 259

Descriptive geometry, 530

Design in engineering, 517

Development method, 73, 75-76
_See_ Recitation

Dewey, J., 362-364

Dexter, E. G., 30, 355

Differentiated courses, 504-508

Direct method, 444

Disciplinary aim, 51-52;
in physics, 126-127;
in geology, 143-150;
in history, 264;
in psychology, 336;
in education, 349;
in literature, 382-384;
in Romance languages, 424;
in music, 467-468

Draper, A. S., 30

Duggan, S. P., 353

Economic viewpoint in history, 257

Economics, 58, 217-240

Education as college subject, 347-376

Educational and instructional aim, 50-51

Elective system, 11-14

Elementary language courses as college courses, 426

Eliot, Charles W., 11

Emotional reaction in literature, 384

Engineering subjects, 501-524

English, teaching of, 49, 379-388, 389-403.
_See_ Composition, Literature

Equipment for art instruction, 490

Ethics, 320-333

Evening session for business education, 573

Examination, 80. _See_ Tests

Experimental work in psychology, 342.
_See_ Laboratory method

Expressional limitations of college students, 545

Field work, 254, 298, 517

Finance, teaching of. _See_ Business education

Flexner, A., 30, 42

Foster, W. T., 30

Functional aspect in teaching, 292

Geology, 142-160

German, 440-453

German influence on American college, 14

Gradation of subject matter, 56, 387

Graduate schools, 14-15

Graves, 353

Habits, 91, 199.
_See_ Aims, Disciplinary aim

Handschin, C. H., 42

Harper, W. R., 30

Hart, 355

Harvard, 3

Health instruction, 197.
_See_ Physical education

Heuristic method. _See_ Development method, Recitation

High school preparation, in physical education, 190;
in music, 469, 485

History, of American college, 3;
of college mathematics, 167;
of sociology, 241;
of music as college subject, 357;
of teaching of journalism, 533-539;
of business education in the college, 555-557

Holliday, C., 42

Horne, H. H., 36, 42

Illustrations, 243

Immigration and status of English teaching, 394.

Informal aim in teaching, 51

Informal examination, 308

Introductory course, in ethics, 328;
in political science, 288, 298;
in philosophy, 307, 315;
in psychology, 334;
in mechanical drawing, 527-528

Jefferson and founding of American college, 7

Johns Hopkins University, 32

Journalism as college subject, 24, 533-554

Junior college, 26-27

King's College, 5

Kingsley, C. D., 30

Laboratory method, 73, 78;
in chemistry, 62, 114;
in biology, 99;
in physics, 132;
in geology, 157;
in psychology, 343;
in engineering, 516

Language as index of mentality, 388

Law, 17;
commercial, 571-572

Lecture method, 73;
in chemistry, 113-114;
in physics, 131, 133;
in mathematics, 175;
in economics, 227, 231-235;
in sociology, 242;
in history, 260, 265;
in philosophy, 308-310;
in psychology, 340-341;
in classics, 419-421;
in engineering, 511-513;
in commercial education, 568-572

Length of periods in accountancy, 569

Literary analysis, 386

Literary appreciation, 380.
_See_ Aims, Cultural, Æsthetic

Literary style, 386

Literature and the classics, 407-408, 415.
_See_ English

Logical association, 63-64

MacLean, G. E., 30

Mathematics, 59, 161-182

Mechanical drawing, 525-532

Medicine, 17

Mental development and acquisition of language, 388

Methods of teaching conditioned by aims, 98.
_See_ Aims

Mezes, S. F., 48

Modern languages, when introduced, 7;
in business education, 571

Modern literature and the classics, 412

Monroe, P., 353

Morrill Act, 10

Motivation in teaching, 55-56

Municipal research, 298.
_See_ Laboratory method, Sociology, Political science

Music in secondary schools, 465

Natural method in classics, 411, 416-417

Newspaper English, 541-542

Non-sectarianism in American colleges, 7

Notebook of students, 356

Oberlin and coeducation, 20

Oral composition in German, 447

Oral reading and English literature, 384

Ordinance of 1787, 9

Organization of subject matter, 62-66

Outlines in biology, 102

Parker, S. C., 355

Pennsylvania University, 4

Philosophy, 57, 70-71, 123, 127, 302-319

Physical education, 22, 183-314

Physics, 126-141

Pitkin, W. B., 46-50

Place in curriculum, of political science, 287;
of ethics, 328;
of psychology, 334, 344;
of history of education, 351;
of educational theory, 359;
of German, 440;
of art education, 475

Point of contact in teaching, 57-62

Political science, 279-301

Preparatory training, in chemistry, 109;
in physics, 129;
in mathematics, 164, 176-178;
in physical education, 190;
in German, 448;
for journalism, 549

Problem method, in economics, 228, 231-235;
in sociology, 248-251

Professional preparation, for women, 20;
through political science, 283

Prose composition and the classics, 414

Psychology, 57, 334-346, 364

Public service, training for, 284

Quiz, how to conduct, 118

Recitation, 118, 174, 513-516, 568-572

Reduction of college course, 27

Reference reading, 73, 76, 267, 514

Relating course to students, 128, 370;
in chemistry, 120;
in sociology, 245;
in philosophy, 309;
in ethics, 321-327, 331-332;
in psychology, 338;
in music, 459;
in business education, 572.
_See_ Adapting course of study

Relative importance in organization of knowledge, 64

Religious character of American college, 5-7, 22

Reporting, teaching art of, 547

Research, 285.
_See_ Reference reading, Problem method, Seminar

Research scholars as teachers, 105-106, 124, 137, 178

Robinson, M. L., 42

Romance languages, 424-428

Scholarship as preparation for teaching, 38

Science, teaching of, 61-64;
place of, in journalism course, 552

Scientific methods, in political science, 298;
in psychology, 343

Scope of course in educational theory, 361

Self-activity, 72

Self-government, 24

Seminar, 76

Senior college, 26-28

Sequence of courses in political science, 289

Skill to be developed in biology, 90

Smith, F. W., 55

Snow, L. F., 30

Social museum, the, 254

Social sciences, place in journalism course, 550

Sociology, 241-255

Socratic method. _See_ Recitation, Development method

Stanley, A. A., 465

Student Army Training Corps, 335

Summaries in teaching, 66

Teacher, as scholar, 105.
_See_ Research, Teacher training

Teacher training, 18, 31, 37-39, 256-257, 436, 468-470

Technical subjects in college curriculum, 16, 25-26, 479, 504-508

Technique, as aim in teaching, 52

Testing results of instruction, 136;
in economics, 244;
in history, 261, 268;
in psychology, 343;
in music, 473;
in art, 493-496;
in engineering subjects, 519-522

Textbook, in geology, 158;
in mathematics, 179;
in economics, 228, 231-235;
in sociology, 253;
in history, 259;
in ethics, 330

Theology, in separate school, 16

Thoroughness, 66-72, 104

Thwing, C. F., 30

Time to be given to subjects, 345, 486.
_See_ Place in curriculum

Topical method in history, 266

Types of instruction, 396-398

Undergraduate and graduate teaching, 388

Unified courses, 59, 302

Utilitarian aim, 217;
of physics, 126;
of geology, 142;
of political science, 286;
of psychology, 337;
of history of education, 348

Values, 355. _See_ Aims

Vernacular, in teaching German, 445

Viewpoint in teaching, a new, 69

Virginia, University of, 7

West, A. F., 30

William and Mary, 4

Wolfe, A. B., 36, 42

Women, education of, 18-21.
_See_ Coeducation

World War, effect on curriculum, 183

Yale, 4

_A review of the factors and problems connected with the learning and teaching of modern languages with an analysis of the various methods which may be adopted in order to obtain satisfactory results._

THE SCIENTIFIC
STUDY AND TEACHING
OF LANGUAGES

By HAROLD D. PALMER
_Phonetics Department, University College, London_

"The aim of the book," the author says, "is to add to the general store of ever increasing knowledge of the nature of language, and to contribute a share toward ascertaining the principles which will help to emancipate language-teaching and language-study from the domain of empiricism and will place it once for all on a true scientific basis."

This book undertakes to analyze the language-teaching problem, to discover the factors that enter into it, and from the data thus acquired to formulate principles for the teaching and learning of languages.

The constant reference to actual conditions and the wealth of illustrations from the author's long experience furnish a store of practical suggestions for classroom work. Nothing could be more practically helpful and suggestive than the example of a standard course, which is worked out in detail for three years of French, or the discussion of such topics as applications of the laws of memory, the use of association and visualization, how to guard against what the author classifies as "the six vicious tendencies of all students of languages," when translation is and is not allowable.