صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

re

only to undergraduate students. Scholarships are of various kinds, and may carry with them mission of the tuition fees in whole or in part, a sum sufficient to defray the student's cost of living, or both. They may also be granted for a single term or for the whole course. The funds are derived either from the resources of the institution or from private foundations. The scholarships are usually assigned on the basis of tests, generally competitive, of merit, but are also apportioned to various individuals, bodies, and state or local districts. Harvard University in 1906 offered 245 such scholarships with stipends and 98 withcut income; as in all other institutions, funds are provided for the indefinite increase of this assistance as required. In all cases the holder of a scholarship is required to maintain a fixed grade of attainment, failure in which generally entails the forfeiture of the scholarship.

Scholasticism, a general name for the theological and philosophical thought of western Europe from about the 9th to the 15th century A. D. The scholastics accepted as authoritative the dogmas which had been built up by the fathers of the church out of Scripture and Greek philosophy. In the first period of scholasticism (prior to the 13th century) the work consisted mainly in systematizing the dogmas of the fathers and making them intelligible to untrained minds. In its second period (from the 13th century onward) scholasticism endeavored to demonstrate the dogmas of the church by showing their harmony with the peripatetic philosophy, or the philosophy of Aristotle, as it was at that time understood. The exaltation of philosophy which this involved led immediately to the decadence of scholasticism, through the assertion by some writers of the supremacy of reason over faith, and by others of the supremacy of faith over reason. This conflict was inevitably present in germ from the beginning of the movement; the development of thought made it acute, and scholasticism ended in a variety of unsuccessful attempts to overcome it. The apparent artificiality of scholasticism is due to the fact that its work was not that of free speculation and extension of knowledge, but of the systematization of accepted beliefs in theology and philosophy. In the writings of Joannes Scotus Erigena, who is generally regarded as the father of scholasticism, reason and faith, philosophy and theology, are regarded as in perfect harmony. For him reason is authority and authority

is reason. Among the earliest of the great scholastics was Anselm (1035-1109), who held that belief must precede the establishment of doctrine, while, on the other hand, all who are capable of understanding ought to discover purely rational grounds for their belief. He was the first writer to state the ontological proof of the existence of God; and he was also the founder of scholastic realism, the theory (derived ultimately from Plato) that universals (e.g. man in general, iron in general) are real archetypes of the particular things (e.g. individual men, particular pieces of iron), and that the particulars are merely copies of these universals. He held this view in opposition to the nominalism of Roscellinus (born about the middle of the 11th century), who maintained that individual things alone are real, and that universals are merely names ог abstractions made by the mind. The conflict between realism and nominalism was maintained, in various forms, through a great part of the scholastic period. Nominalism, in the form that universals are ideas of the mind and not real things, came to be called conceptualism. The most extreme of the realists was William of Champeaux; and realism was also supported by Albertus Magnus (called Doctor Universalis), Thomas Aquinas (Doctor Angelicus), and Duns Scotus (Doctor Subtilis), although these latter writers endeavored to harmonize the realist, nominalist, and conceptualist views. The chief nominalist among the later scholastics was William of Ockham (Doctor Invincibilis), famous on account of the logical rule known as 'Ockham's razor.' Abelard (1079-1142), the romantic figure of scholasticism, took a middle position, holding the doctrine of universalia in rebus. During the first period of scholasticism, after the time of Abélard, the opposition between reason and faith began to develop. Some writers, such Gilbert de la Porrée, devoted themselves to metaphysics and dialectic; others, such as Hugh and Richard of St. Victor, laid stress upon faith (either the content of faith, the things to be believed in, or the act of faith, mystic contemplation). Among those who emphasized the content of faith were the authors of the Summa Sententiarum, collections of the opinions of the greatest church teachers, the best known of which is that of Peter Lombard. John of Salisbury, whose interests were practical rather than speculative, summed

as

up in an eclectic spirit the opinions of the earlier scholastics.

By the beginning of the 13th century a large portion of Aristotle's own works became accessible in translations from the Arabic, with the commentaries of such Mohammedan philosophers as Avicenna and Averrhoes. The earliest results of this new influence appeared in the works of two great Franciscans, Alexander of Hales (d. 1245), and Bonaventura, called Doctor Seraphicus (1221-74), and soon afterwards scholasticism bore its finest fruit in the systems of two Dominicans, Albertus Magnus (1193-1276), and Thomas Aquinas (1227-74), whose great work was, with the aid of Aristotle, to demonstrate philosophically all the doctrines of the church. The 'Thomist' philosophy endures as the traditional metaphysics of the Roman Catholic Church. The most interesting expression of it is in the works of Dante. Opposed to the Thomists was Roger Bacon (1214-292), a Franciscan, who claimed to be a purer Aristotelian than they, and whose work was philosophical and scientific rather than theological. In many respects he is the most modern of the scholastics. His writings alarmed the church; and Duns Scotus (?12741308), also a Franciscan, founded the school of the 'Scotists,' which emphasized practice as against theory, and theology as against philosophy. Scotism led directly to the nominalism of William of Ockham, still further emphasizing the division between philosophy and theology, and finally, in the eclectic system of Nicholas of Cusa, scholasticism came to an end, and the beginning of modern philosophy was foreshadowed.

See C. D. Bulæus's Hist. Universit. Parisiensis (1€85-73), Rousselot's Etudes sur la Philosophie dans le Moyen-Age (1840-2), Hauréau's De la Philosophie Scolastique (1850), Kaulich's Gesch. der Scholast. Philosophie (1863), Stöckl's Gesch. der Philosophie des Mittelalters (1864), F. D. Maurice's Medieval Philosophy (1870), R. L. Poole's Illustrations of the History of Mediaval Thought (1884), and Sighart's Albertus Magnus (1857).

Scholiast, an ancient commentator or annotator of classical texts or scholia, who generally made his notes on the margins of his MSS.

Scholten, JAN HENDRIK (181185), Dutch theologian, was born at Vleuter, near Utrecht. He became professor at Franeker (1840) and at Leyden (1843). His chief works are Principles of the Theology of the Reformed Church (1848-50), Introduction to the New Testament (1853), History of Religion and Philosophy (1853; Eng. trans. 1870), Critical Study of the Gospel of John (1864), The

Schomberg

OF

Pauline Gospel (1870). See his Levensbericht, by Kuenen (1885). Schomberg, FREDERICK HERMANN SCHOMBERG, DUKE (1615-90), German soldier of fortune, was born at Heidelberg, and fought first in the army of the Prince of Orange, and then in the Swedish army against the imperialists in the Thirty Years' War. Then for France he conducted a successful campaign against Spain and was made marshal. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 drove him from France, he being a Protestant. He then reentered the service of the Prince of Orange, whom he accompanied to England in 1688. He was appointed commander in Ireland, and fought the battle of the Boyne, in which he was killed. See Life by Kazner (1789).

Schomburgk,

SIR ROBERT

HERMANN (1804 -65), German traveller, was born at Freiburg in Silesia. He came to the U. S. in 1829, and settled in Virginia, but having failed in business, removed to the West Indies the following year. He was sent to South America by the (English) Royal Geographical Society to explore the river Essequibo, and during the expedition (1831-5) discovered the magnificent lily Victoria regia. In 1840 he was sent by the British government to survey the boundaries of British Guiana, and established the line known as the Schomburgk Line, of which so much was heard during the Venezuelan imbroglio in 1896. He was the author of A Descrip tion of British Guiana (1840) and The Natural History of the Fishes of Guiana (1843).

Schönbein, CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH (1799-1868), German chemist, born at Metzingen, Würtemberg; occupied the chair of chemistry in Basel from 1828 till his death; and is noteworthy on account of his investigations on ozone and hydrogen peroxide, and his discovery of gun-cotton. See Life, in German, by Hagenbach (1869).

Schönberg, MÄHRISCH ('Moravian'), tn., Moravia, Austria, 29 m. N. by w. from Ölmütz, with linen and silk factories. (1900) 11,636.

Pop.

Schönbrunn, Austrian royal residence, southwest of Vienna, was begun under Leopold I., and completed by Maria Theresa (1744-50). Within its walls the treaty, of Vienna (1809) was signed. In the parks are zoological and botanic gardens. Schönebeck, tn., prov. Saxony, Prussia, on 1. bk. of Elbe, 9 m. S.E. of Magdeburg. The chief product is salt (75,000 tons annually exported). It also manufactures chemicals and percussion caps. Pop. (1900) 16,261.

Schönefeld, HENRY (1856),

VOL. XI.-2

17

American composer, born in Milwaukee, Wis., and a pupil, first of his father, and then of Reinecke and Grill in Leipzig. Afterwards he studied with Edward Lassen at Weimar, meantime winning a prize with an orchestral and choral work performed at one of the Gewandhau concerts in Leipzig. In 1379 he settled in Chicago where he became director of the Germania Männerchor. Of his orchestral works, the Rural Symphony received a $500 prize offered by the N. Y. National Conservatory, Dvorák making the presentation. Other compositions are: Die Drei Indianer, ode for chorus and orchestra; an overture, In the Sunny South: a Suite, for string orchestra, that has been frequently played in Europe; a sonata for violin and piano that won a prize offered by the French violinist, Henri Marteau; and several piano pieces, of which those for children are particularly effective. was one of the first of American composers to make use of negro melodies.

He

Schönfeld, EDUARD (1828-91), German astronomer, was born at Hildburghausen, and was appointed by Argelander, in 1853, assistant at the Bonn Observatory, where he co-operated in the preparation of the Durchmusterung. Promoted in 1859 to be director of the Mannheim Observatory, he measured and catalogued 489 nebulæ (pub. 1862 and 1875), and pursued the investigation of variable stars, issuing two standard catalogues of them in 1866 and 1875. The National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D. C., awarded Schönfeld the Watson medal in 1869 for his work in cataloguing the stars. In 1875 he succeeded Argelander as director of the Bonn Observatory, and devoted ten years to the extension of the Durchmusterung to -23° declination. The resulting enumeration of 133,659 stars appeared in 1886.

Schongauer, MARTIN (144588), German painter and engraver, born at Kolmar. He learned the trade of goldsmith, and studied art under Van der Weyden, whose influence appears in Schongauer's masterpiece, The Madonna of the Rose Garden (1473). No other picture can be authenticated as his work, although many, such as two Holy Families and Adoration of the Shepherds, are ascribed to him. His engraved work is of more importance than his paintings.

Schönlein, JOHANN LUKAS (1793-1864), German physician, born at Bamberg; became professor of medicine at Würzburg (1820), professor of clinical medicine at Zürich (1833), and professor of pathology in Berlin

(1840).

School Administration

His clinical reports_are See Life, in Ger

of great value.

School

in

or

man, by Rothlauf (1874). School. See EDUCATION. Administration the United States conforms to no one plan, there being a distinct and independent system of schools in each state and territory. Yet there is a general uniformity of system that permits a general description and a classification into types. The distinctive feature of American educational administration as contrasted with the system of all European countries is the local character of control. The United States Commissioner of Education at Washington has no control over education whatever. His chief function is to collect statistics (and even here he has no compulsory power) and to disseminate information. In each state there is a superintendent of public instruction. In 29 states he is given this title, and in other cases, superintendent of common public schools, or secretary of the state board of education or similar title. In many states, the function of the state superintendent like that of the U. S. commissioner, is chiefly advisory in character and limited to the collection and dissemination of information. The tendency in recent years has been in the direction of greater centralization of power in state systems either in the hands of the superintendent or in the hands of a state board of education of which the superintendent is ex officio member and usually executive head. This authority has until recently related to the examination and licensing of teachers, and to the adjudication of conflicts between teachers and officers of administration. In regard to conflicts between various school officers, state superintendents in many cases have recently been given additional power. Recently also greater power in connection with the formulation of courses of study, selection of text-books, establishment of professional standards of teaching, care and distribution of school funds, control of reading circle for teachers and for pupils has been lodged in the hands of the board and exercised through the superintendent. The real unit of school administration, then, is smaller than the state, and is either the county, town or township, or the school district. Thus there are three general forms of school administration, though interrelation of these systems are practically as numerous as the states themselves, and the system is termed county, township or district as these units are the chief, though not the sole, agency through which local con

trol and support of schools is exercised.

The county system exists in the Southern states, except Texas, Alabama, South Carolina, and in Utah. But in all states, save Michigan and the New England states, county school officers are elected, usually county superintendents, and exercise some authority, again usually advisory or supervisory in a professional way. In these states retaining the county system, either the township or the district is provided with some limited function.

The township is the chief unit of administration in the New England states, in Alabama, Indiana, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. In Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Mississippi, the district system is optional with the township system. Varying relations with the sub-divisiens or districts exist. Practically in 27 states the district yet remains the basal unit, though in others, besides the six mentioned as having an optional system, certain modifications in the way of unification are permitted.

The officer at the head of the unit in township or district system is usually termed school trustee or school director. Often the executive is a board having the same name, or they may be called school visitors (Conn.), school committees (in Mass. and Rhode Island), boards of education (Ohio), or prudential committees (Vermont). These officers or boards are usually elected and have power of making, contracts, acquiring, holding, and disposing of property as well as power of appointment, if not licensing, of teachers, and of supervision of school work.

City school boards form a distinct type of school administration units. According to the last report of the U. S. commissioner of education there were in 1904, 1,212 cities of over 4,000 population in which the schools are controlled by independent boards. Many smaller city systems cortrolled by a school board are not included in this report.

The entire problem of school administration in this country is a most complex one; the condition now is most chaotic; certain definite, though wholly unorganized tendencies toward greater centralization are discoverable which in time will result in much greater uniformity. The subject itself has just begun to receive definite scientific study such as will permit in time a more definite formulation of principles of school administration than is now possible. (See EDUCATION; EDUCATION SYSTEMS

OF SCHOOLS.) Consult: Annual Reports U. S. Commissioner of Education, Washington, D. C.; Butler's Education in the United States (1900); Dexter's History of Education in the United States (1904); Cubberley's School Funds and Their Appropriation (1905); Elliot's Some Fiscal Aspects of Public Education in American Cities (1905); Strayer's City School Expenditures (New York 1906); Chancellor's Our Schools: their Administration and Supervision (New York, 1904).

Schoolcraft, HENRY ROWE (1793-1864), American ethnologist, born in Watervliet, N. Y. He was educated at Union College, was a member of Gen. Cass's exploring expedition to Lake Superior in 1820, and in 1822-36 was Indian agent at Sault Ste. Marie and Mackinaw. In 1828-31 he was a member of the Michigan territorial legislature, and in 1832 led an exploring expedition to the source of the Mississippi. By means of a treaty which he executed with the Indians 16,000,000 acres of Indian lands became the property of the U. S. Government. In 1837-41 he was superintendent of Indian affairs and disbursing agent on the Northwest frontier. He made a census of the New York Indians in 1845, and of the Six Nations in 1845-47. In 1847 Congress authorized him to collect and edit information relating to the Indians, and he was engaged in this work to the end of his life. He was author of: Journal of a Tour in the Interior of Missouri and Arkansas (1820); Travels from Detroit to the Source of the Mississippi (1821); Travels in the Central Portions of the Mississippi Valley (1825); Indian Melodies (1830); Narrative of a Voyage Through the Upper Mississippi to Itasca Lake (1834); Oneota, or Characteristics of the Red Race of America (1844-5); The Red Race of America (1847); Notices of Antique Earthen Vessels from Florida (1847); Life and Character of General Lewis Cass (1848); Bibliography of Indian Books Published in the United States (1849); Personal Memoirs of Thirty Years' Residence with Indian Tribes on the American Frontier 1812-42 (1851); Historical and Statistical Information Respecting the History, Conditions, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the U. S. (6 vols. 1851–7); The Myth of Hiawatha (1855); and The Indian Fairy Book (1855).

Schools, BROTHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN. See CHRISTIAN BROTHERS.

Schools, MILITARY. See MILITARY EDUCATION.

Schools of Art. In England the first academy for systematic

training in art may be said to have been founded by Sir Godfrey Kneller in 1711. All other academics were generally superseded by the institution of the Royal Academy schools (1768). In 1835 a select committee of the House of Commons recommended the establishment of a normal school of design. In 1852, through the reconstruction of this scheme, the S. Kensington Department of Science and Art arose, under the management of the Board of Trade. In 1856 the Council on Education took over the control. Under this Science and Art Department there are now 231 schools of art, in which examinations are held and grants given. Royal exhibitions, local scholarships, local exhibitions, and free studentships are awarded annually. Teachers and students alike are trained at the Royal College of Art.

art

The most famous of all schools, the Paris Ecôle des Beaux Arts, which was founded in 1648, teaches drawing, painting, sculpture, architecture, and gemcutting. Its classes are free, and open to foreigners. Winners of the Prix de Rome, for which foreigners are not eligible, are sent to Italy for three years at government expense. The whole number of students is about 1,400, of whom 200 are Americans. The teachers, to the number of 40, are among the best painters, sculptors, and architects of France.

In the United States, the oldest art school is that of the New York National Academy of Design, which was founded in 1825. It maintains classes in drawing, painting, composition, and coin and medal designing, taught by members or associates of the Academy. It is virtually free. Its pupils, men and women, number about 300. The N. Y. Art Students' League, organized in 1880 by a number of young painters who found the Academy methods too conservative, has proved a powerful rival to the older institution, although fees are charged, and has about 400 students on its rolls. The New York School of Art, commonly known as the Chase School, owing to the instruction given there by William M. Chase, teaches painting to about 250 men and women, who pay fees varying from $25 to $75 a year. The free art classes of the Cooper Union are attended by 500 students, of whom 400 are women. Drawing, painting, modelling, designing, and architecture are taught. Important art schools are maintained in connection with the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts. the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Chicago Fine Arts Academy, the

Schools of Engineering

latter having an attendance in all its classes of nearly 1,000 students. Smaller schools are maintained in Cincinnati, St. Louis, Washington, and elsewhere. In addition to regular art schools there are institutions in New York, Boston, and Chicago which teach design in connection with bookbinding, wall papers, textiles, wood carving, etc. Of such schools one of the most flourishing is that maintained by the Young Women's Christian Association in New York.

Schools of Engineering. Although the practice of engineering in a number of its branches is nearly or quite as old as civilization itself, the engineering school as now known is of mod ern creation. The discoveries in science, beginning chiefly in the 18th century, have made the practice of modern engineering possible, and concurrently with the extension of that practice there has arisen a demand for the suitable education of those following the calling of engineering. Schools of engineering have always covered two fields, one of civil engineering and the other of military engineering; the schools of civil engineering only will be considered here. The term 'civil engineering' is used in this connection in its broad, historical sense, covering all engineering not military or naval.

Probably no school of engineering, properly speaking at the present time, existed much prior to the beginning of the 19th century. At about that time the practical applications of science to useful industries had begun to create a demand for corresponding educational training in a number of European localities. Among the earliest European engineering schools was the School of Mines at Freiberg, Saxony; Others followed soon after and gradually grew into the engineering schools of Europe so well known at the present time.

Among the prominent schools of engineering of the middle of the 19th century was the department of civil engineering at Glasgow University, where Professor W. J. M. Rankine practically founded engineering science and wrote his works upon the fundamental principles of civil engineering, which are now among the classics of engineering literature. These foreign schools of engineering were, during that period, attended by many American engineering students, but the practice of seeking engineering education abroad disappeared during the last quarter of the 19th century, in consequence of the establishment and rapid growth of the engineering schools of America.

19

The first school of civil engineering, using that term in its broad historical sense, was the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, N. Y., founded in 1824 as a school of natural science by Stephen Van Rensselaer of Albany, the eighth and last of the Dutch patroons. This school, like the great majority and perhaps all of the earlier technical schools both in Europe and America, was founded to meet the industrial needs of its locality. Stephen Van Rensselaer was one of the earliest advocates of the Erie Canal in the state of New York, besides being much interested in the manufacturing and other industrial enterprises of the central part of that state. His purpose in founding the Rensselaer School, as it was first named, was the 'application of science to the common purposes of life. My principal object is to qualify teachers for instructing the sons and daughters of farmers and mechanics by lectures or otherwise in the application of experimental chemistry, philosophy, and natural history to agriculture, domestic economy, the arts and manufactures. He was

so deeply interested in these practical applications of science that he most naturally and, indeed, inevitably so shaped the instruction at the Rensselaer School as to develop it into an engineering school, conferring the professional degree of civil engineer (C.E.) within ten years from its establishment. In 1849 the Rensselaer School 'was reorganized upon the basis of a general polytechnic institute.' The course of study was extended to four years. It was intended among other things to attract young men who should desire to secure their professional educational training subsequent to a preceding college course or general education.

While the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute was thus the pioneer by a considerable period of time of the engineering schools of America, in 1847 both the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University and the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University were organized for the technical educational training which they were intended to afford. Although the first of these schools was started in applied chemistry the endowment given to it in 1860 by Joseph E. Sheffield of New Haven enabled it to broaden its purpose and begin its successful career as an engineering school. Similarly the benefactions of Abbott Lawrence enabled the Lawrence Scientific School to undertake its work as a school of engineering, which has since grown into a great technical de

Schools of Engineering

partment of Harvard University. The engineering department of Union College at Schenectady, N. Y., was also an early school of engineering as it was established in 1845.

In 1864 the School of Mines of Columbia College, probably the most prominent school of mining engineering in the United States, was established primarily by the efforts of Professor Thomas Egleston. This famous school was intended to meet the demands of a technical education devoted to mining subjects, to metallurgy, and to applied chemistry. At the time of its establishment the development of the mineral resources of the United States was attracting much attention and the creation of many valuable mining properties gave rise to a strong demand for mining engineers. The well-considered mining course given by the School of Mines through the efforts of a number of prominent instructors attached to its faculty soon placed it among the foremost technical schools of the country. Within a few years after its establishment courses in civil engineering and other branches of applied science were established, geology and architecture being included among them. A course in electrical engineering was added in 1889, and in 1894 a department of mechanical engineering was first created. Through a reorganization of the technical schools of Columbia University in 1896 the School of Mines was restored as an organization to its original purposes of mining and metallurgy. The School of Engineering was created at the same time, including courses in civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering. All these courses of study extend over a period of four years.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was also among the earlier established schools of engineering. It was incorporated in 1861, but the breaking out of the Civil War delayed the beginning of instruction until 1865. Since that date it has grown with phenomenal success. At the present time it is devoted to a wide range of instruction in applied science including courses in civil, mechanical, mining, electrical, chemical, and sanitary engineering and naval architecture, as well as architecture, chemistry, metallurgy, biology, physics, and geology. It possesses extensive laboratories, museums, and library which are used to give the educational training afforded in it a strong trend toward the useful arts and sciences.

The technical department of the University of Pennsylvania,

1852.

originally known as the Towne Scientific School, was also among the earlier schools of engineering as it was established in Originally professorships were created in geology and mineralogy, civil engineering, and mining. Mechanical engineering and electrical engineering, as well as other courses of study in applied science, have since been added until it has reached a position of much prominence among the schools of engineering of the United States.

The Worcester Polytechnic Institute at Worcester, Mass., was incorporated in 1865, and offered courses of engineering study immediately thereafter. This institution was equipped to begin its educational work chiefly through the liberality of Hon. Emory Washburn and John Boynton, one a successful manufacturer and the other a successful merchant of Massachusetts. It extended the field of its instruction until it now offers courses in civil engineering, mechanical engineering, sanitary and industrial chemistry, electrical engineering, and general science. A marked peculiarity of the instruction given in engineering study in this institution is the shop practice, which constitutes a necessary part of its educational training. Although other institutions offer instruction in shop work there is no other school of engineering in which shop work has been more prominent than in this one.

These descriptions of some of the earlier schools of engineering in America are typical of the development of all. They may be divided into two general classes, although members of each class may have distinct features and variations. In one of these classes are found the schools of engineering standing by themselves as independent centres of instruction, like the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Worcester Polytechnic Institute; while in the other class are found those schools of engineering which are integral parts of university systems, like the engineering schools of Columbia University, the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University, and the engineering schools of the University of Pennsylvania. Both of these general classes, have been developed with characteristics or features peculiar to themselves, although the subject-matter of the courses of instruction have been practically the same in all. The main difference between the two is probably that due to the broadly cultivating influence of the university environment of those schools exist

ing as parts of university systems.

The rapid growth and expansion of the engineering profession during the past fifty years has created correspondingly developed conditions for its successful practice. These include not only a large and much wider range of advanced applications of science to the constantly increasing fields of engineering work but also much more exacting requirements of general cultivation, for the reason that engineering has become one of the learned professions. A logical consequence of these conditions has been the constant tendency to place the schools of engineering upon the same educational plane as the older professional schools of law, medicine, and theology. The more recent developments, therefore, of the educational training of engineers in the United States have been in the direction of making a college course precede the engineering school. As already stated, an attempt to gain this end at least partially was made over fifty years ago when the reorganization of the course of study at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute was completed. Similar attempts have also been made in other institutions like that of the Thayer School of Civil Engineering of Dartmouth College, which, founded in 1867, is one of the six oldest schools of engineering in the United States. Complete courses of engineering study including a prior college course leading to the bachelor's degree have now been established in a number of institutions. Prominent among these are the six-year courses of civil, mechanical, electrical, and mining engineering at Columbia University, which cover three years in the college and then three years in the professional schools of engineering. It will probably be but a comparatively few years before such a complete course of engineering study becomes what may be termed the standard educational training for all branches of civil engineering.

Instruction in a wide range of testing laboratories, power laboratories for steam, hydraulic and electrical power, hydraulic laboratories and laboratories for electrical engineering work are required parts of every advanced course in engineering study. Workshop practice is not SO general, although there is much of it in many courses in mechanical engineering and in some courses in civil engineering.

The practice in awarding degrees for the successful completion of courses of study is far from being uniform among the engineering schools of the United States. Many give the degree of

bachelor of science at the end of the course, usually prescribed to cover four years, and in some cases, like those of the Sheffield Scientific School and the Thayer School of Civil Engineering of Dartmouth College, the professional engineering degree is received at the end of an additional course of study, usually prescribed to be two years. On the other hand, many others, like the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the School of Civil Engineering at Cornell University, and the Schools of Engineering at Columbia University give the professional degrees on the successful completion of the four years' course.

In 1866 there were but six schools of engineering in America, but at the present time there are about 140, counting all of the universities, colleges, and schools of technology which give courses of engineering study. Some of the older and more prominent of these are the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University, the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University, the Engineering Schools of Columbia University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the Stevens Institute of Hoboken, N. J., the Schools of Engineering of Cornell University, the Schools of Engineering of the University of Pennsylvania, the John C. Greene School of Science of Princeton University, Lehigh University, the Thayer School of Civil Engineering of Dartmouth College, Washington University, St. Louis, the Virginia Polytechnic at Lexington, Va., the Schools of Engineering at the State Universities of Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Colorado, and California. For Canadian Schools of Engineering, see UNIVERSITIES, CA

NADIAN.

The state schools of engineering are supported chiefly by appropriations from public funds, although they receive some income from tuitions. Others secure income from endowment funds, individual gifts, and tuitions. See TECHNICAL EDUCATION.

According to the Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Education for 1904, there were at that time not less than 21,500 students in the U. S. schools of engineering.

Schools, Private. Origin of the Private School in the United States.-Private schools have, during pioneer conditions, preceded public schools, but so soon, however, as the public school, in the American sense, has been established, the private school has become the school of those families in a community who

« السابقةمتابعة »