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Kansas University Weekly.
EDUCATORS HAVE not done discussing the possibilities of the new text-book law. Its chief points are: state uniformity; a commission of eight persons who shall be charged with selecting the books to be used; a maximum price, beyond which contractors may not charge; a limitation of contracts to five years; a provision by which two thirds of the voters of any school district may decide for district ownership of books; a standard of literary and mechanical excellence which all books must reach; and the required machinery for putting all of the provisions of the bill into immediate force and effect. The prices fixed on books range from five to eighty cents. The law seems of doubtful utility. It is unquestionably an economical measure; but it may be the means of introducing inferior text-books. The enforcement of the new law promises to be a costly experiment.
Superiority of the University.
It has come to pass at present that a reference to the colleges of Kansas which speaks of them as in any way subordinate to the university draws forth a chorus of indignant protestations sometimes mingled with personal vituperation. This condition of affairs is much to be deplored, for it tends to engender a public opinion which recent events have proved was fraught with much danger to the institution representing Kansas in the eyes of the educational world, and thereby the reputation of the state suffers. Not only this, but the bitterness manifested by the colleges of less importance against the central institution can not help but harm them in the eyes of an outsider.
By its very nature the State University is and should be superior to the colleges of the state both in its curriculum and the quality of its work. In the first place, it is supported by the state, which, although when in the hands of those ignorant of university needs, considerably hampers its development, yet is nevertheless on the whole, a more liberal patron than any one person or body of persons can be. Thus, a state university, having a larger endowment,
finer libraries, better laboratories, more complete museums cannot fail to be much superior to the less wealthy colleges.
But not only in library and laboratory facilities is the University superior. Much more depends upon the professors. And a state university commands men of broader culture, higher abilities and greater power than the minor colleges can hope to obtain. It is not infrequent, in fact it has lately been exemplified among us that a man will retain at much less remuneration his place in a high grade institution such as Kansas University rather than enter upon the routine duty of teaching in an academy or smaller college.
Many students of the State University enter after having themselves been teachers. They are therefore better fitted to utilize the advantages offered by the advanced course of a higher institution. The methods employed by the best professors tend to foster that self reliance and independance of spirit which is the distinctive mark of a university. There is no master or monitor, no hours when one must study or take recreation, no signal for "lights out." Those are matters which can be safely left to the student's own discretion. But he is expected to work, and is encouraged to give to his work an element of his own personality; to refuse to be molded by one book or one man's opinions, to consult all authorities bearing upon the subject, and above all to exercise individual thought and independent judgment.
The work of a university should be upon a higher and broader basis—a basis of research and original investigation, not upon that of pure mechanical study. This latter very necessary and important post it is that the high schools and colleges should fill and all honor to the one that fills it well. But the evolution from the high schools to the colleges and thence to the university should be so distinctly marked that no one should think that a class in college is on a level with the same class in the university anymore than a Junior in the high school is on a level with a Junior in college.