GEOLOGY AS A PART OF A COLLEGE CURRICULUMH. S. Williams, 1892 The demand for scientific studies as a part of the college curriculum is felt by all those who have to do with the provision of higher instruction for American youth. The reasons for this may be various, but a fundamental reason is found in the tendency among the American people in particular, and in this age in general, toward practicality in all things. Applied to education this practicality asks for a training which shall have a direct bearing upon the business of life to be followed immediately after the training period is ended. It means a differentiation of subjects and specialization in methods to adjust the education to the different functions which the students taking it are preparing for. It calls for a professional education for those expect to become lawyers, doctors, ministers, or teach technical education for those who are to engage in the arts of the mechanical or civil engineer, or of the architect. It results not only in the establishment of colleges and universities devoted to this kind of education, but it affects the methods of the high schools and academies, and is felt down to primary schools, and on the other hand the older institutions founded on a different plan are adapted to the popular demand by the addition to the regular studies of "electives," chosen not always for their value or disciplinary studies, but because of the practical applicability of the information to be derived from them, to the business of the student.
