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THE

POPULAR SCIENCE

MONTHLY.

NOVEMBER, 1891.

ONE

UNIVERSITY EXTENSION.

By C. HANFORD HENDERSON.

NE can scarcely fail to notice, in the intellectual life of America, how very rapidly a new thought sweeps across the continent. It travels with almost the speed of the whirlwind. The storm center is commonly Boston or New York or Philadelphia, and progress is toward the westward. At once the impulse is felt in Chicago and Denver and San Francisco. A new book, a new creed, or a new social ideal easily gains the popular ear. Like the Epicureans and Stoics, we delight to hear a new thing. It can not be said that this interest is always, or even generally, a profound or fruitful one. But it has at least this advantage, that it secures a speedy hearing for such ideas as are put in a form suitable for assimilation, and this alone is no inconsiderable gain. The educational movement known as university extension is an admirable illustration of this national alertness and versatility. It is a movement capable of very definite presentation and of calling up equally definite mental images. As a result, it is now familiar in name at least to the majority of our people, and it has become so in a surprisingly short space of time. Returned travelers from England have whispered the name in private for sevyears past. Certain phases of the movement, such as the Toynbee Hall experiment of planting a colony of culture-loving men in the arid district of London, have for some time attracted attention on both sides of the water. But, as a distinct object of public interest and discussion in America, university extension is hardly two years old. It was not until the winter and spring of 1890 that the movement took rank as a question of the day. Outside of the larger and more interested cities, and possibly even within their borders, it may still be that the name of the move

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ment is more familiar than the idea for which it stands. It is the purpose, then, of the present article to state briefly-as becomes the importance of the subject-just what university extension is, somewhat of its history, and what claim it has for a permanent place in our intellectual life.

University extension has been well defined as a university education for the whole nation by an itinerant system connected with established institutions.

I confess that this sounds ideal, the proposition to educate the whole nation on higher lines, but that is precisely what the movement means. It means that any one in any place and at any time may take up advanced work in any department of human knowledge, and that qualified men stand ready and willing to help him. I feel that this is a most significant statement-so significant, indeed, that I may be pardoned for having said the same thing twice.

Our people as a whole are not intellectual and are not cultureloving. They are not given to what Emerson calls the reasonable service of thought. The majority of them are the servants of a much less noble master. It can not be expected, therefore, that so large an idea as forms the germ of university extension will meet with anything like immediate fruition. But it is a leaven which is well worth setting to work. The success of the movement is already well enough assured to demonstrate that in any community there are unsuspected numbers with a turn for higher education, and such an attitude of mind is apt to spread.

That is the end-to permeate the nation, the whole American people, with a taste for culture, and then to provide means for satisfying it. It is admitted that such a taste does not generally exist, but it is believed that it can be brought into being. No right-minded person, I think, will quarrel with this purpose, provided it can be shown that the proposed culture is genuine and not merely a veneer. The method, too, is correspondingly simple, and it seems to me quite adequate. It would be an impossible task to civilize all America at once. The Philistine element is much too strong for that. If the movement attempted such a task it might well be regarded as overly optimistic. But it is really as practical in its methods as a paper-box factory. It is going to attempt no regeneration in the lump, nor to force its wares where they are not wanted. What it is doing and going to do is simply this, to put the higher education within reach of those who care for it, and through these to stimulate others also to want the same thing. It might be well described as a missionary movement conducted on scientific principles.

Unharnessed to events, the scheme would read somewhat like a dream. It will be better, then, to give an account of it by telling

just what is being done in England, and what is being done and planned in America. It is well to begin with England, as being the older and better organized field. For my knowledge of the work there I am indebted to the conversations of friends who have attended the Oxford meetings, and to various reports and pamphlets, but most of all to an admirable little book on University Extension by Messrs. Mackinder and Sadler, which I would strongly commend to those who care to go further into the details and history of the English movement.

The work in England is divided among four organizations: the London Society for the Extension of University Teaching, the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, and Victoria University. While there may be some friendly rivalry as to which shall most abound in good works, it must not be thought that the organizations are in competition with one another. This would indeed be impossible in the case of the London Society, since its staff of lecturers includes those of both Cambridge and Oxford as well. The chief business of these central offices is to provide lecturers and to arrange courses. It must be constantly kept in mind that they are essentially teaching organizations and by no means mere lecture bureaus. It is true that university extension does not disdain to present knowledge in an attractive form. It makes an admitted effort to be entertaining. But this is only a means to an end. The main object is more serious, and consequently no course is ever given on miscellaneous topics. The unit consists of twelve weekly lectures on one approved subject. Such a course, therefore, covers three months and constitutes one term in the extension work. There are two a year, the fall and spring terms, separated by the Christmas holidays. Now that the movement is well established, a strong effort is being made to bring the studies into close educational sequence, and to have the work of succeeding terms continue what has been done previously. This is not always possible, for university extension studies are strictly elective and are never administered in prescribed amounts. But it represents the ideal and the more intelligent students clearly see the advantage of continuous and related work in place of indiscriminate browsing.

The central offices do not, however, assume the initiative. They are the agents and inspirers of the local centers. The movement generally starts in any given neighborhood by the interest and effort of one individual, or perhaps by the concerted action of several. The known friends of education in the locality. are called upon, and the question of forming a center discussed. If the scheme seems feasible, a public meeting is arranged, great care being taken that it shall have no religious, political, or class

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coloring. A speaker goes to them from one of the universities and explains the extension plan. If the impression produced be favorable and the question of ways and means do not hinder, the meeting results in the formation of a local center, and a permanent secretary and a board of managers are appointed. subject is then chosen, and application made to one of the central offices for a lecturer. In many cases a particular lecturer is asked for, as the extension men are coming to have pretty widely known reputations, and the public naturally selects the most popular. The question of finance now comes in. The universities supply qualified lecturers, arrange courses, and hold examinations, but the expenses must be guaranteed by the local centers. The work does not pay for itself, but then no scheme for higher education ever does. The receipts from the sale of lecture tickets may generally be counted upon to meet half the expenses of the course. The rest must be provided for in some other way, commonly by subscriptions or by some larger benefaction. The university fee for the twelve lectures is about £45, and the local expenses will generally amount to about £20 more. This is for a single course. Where more than one course is taken, the proportionate expense is somewhat less.

In most cases the local center is an outgrowth from some library association or institute, and has already much of the needed machinery in the way of hall and books. The course is duly advertised and as strong a local interest enlisted as possible. The audience is made up of all classes, the more miscellaneous the better. The extension movement recognizes no class distinctions. It includes the gentry, mechanics, school-teachers, barristers, tradesmen-all, indeed, who will come. The work differs from that of the school, as it is primarily for the education of adults, and its methods have men and women in mind as the material.

And now the lecture begins. It lasts for about an hour, the lecturer endeavoring not so much to present the whole of the subject-matter of the evening as to give a distinct and helpful point of view from which his hearers may look at it for themselves. It seems to me that this is a most hopeful feature of the extension work, and one which brings it into direct line with the best of modern educational practice. It is the spirit of the new education to proceed always by appealing to the self-activity of the taught rather than simply to their capacity for receiving.

If the lecturer be skillful, the hour seems very short, for the feeling is abroad that here is a man thinking out loud and suggesting a whole lot of new thoughts which will make one distinctly the richer. It is a pleasant sensation, recalling the very cream of

bygone school days, and it shows itself in rows of flushed and grateful faces. An essential part of the lecture scheme is the printed syllabus, which is supplied at merely nominal price. This gives the systematic outline so needful to the student, yet so uninspiring in the lecture itself. In addition, the syllabus suggests a careful line of home reading in connection with each lecture. The lecturer also gives out one or more questions which are to be answered in writing and mailed to him some time before the next lecture. This home paper work is regarded as of the utmost importance, since it brings out the thought and originality of the student in a way that a simple lecture never could.

When the lecture is over, a class is formed of all those who care to enroll themselves as students, the other hearers withdrawing. The class lasts for about an hour, and also ranks above the lecture in educational importance. It is here that the personal intercourse between lecturer and students comes into play. It is, indeed, very much like the college seminar, and is as conversational in its tone as the bashfulness of the students will allow. The lecturer develops his points a little further, and explains any difficulties that may have arisen. He also uses the occasion to return the written exercises, and makes such criticisms and comments as he thinks best. Often, misapprehensions are to be corrected, and false views pointed out. Frequently there is the more agreeable task of reading some particularly good answer, and acknowledging the justness and perhaps the originality of a student's comment. In all cases no names are mentioned, and great care is taken not to wound the sensitiveness of any one. The sharper tools of irony and satire are always contraband."

One can readily see how much depends upon the personal qualities of the lecturer. He must, indeed, be a man out of a hundred, a well-qualified specialist, a brilliant speaker, and, above all, a man of much fine tact and discretion. Each organization has its regular staff of lecturers, who hold, in most cases, some other appointment, and give only a portion of their time to extension work. A few, such as Mr. R. G. Moulton, of Cambridge, and Rev. W. Hudson Shaw, of Oxford, devote themselves exclusively to the movement, and are its most successful exponents. But many promising young men have also been attracted to extension work-some through a genuine missionary interest in the spread of culture, and some for less disinterested motives. It is not, however, a proper field for experimentation. The work is difficult and needs men of known ability. The universities try to guard against failure by duly testing the capabilities of all young aspirants for lecture appointments. While it is most unfortunate when the wrong man does get into the work, the mischief is soon remedied, for his lack of success leaves him in a very short time.