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TECHNICAL EDUCATION WITH A VIEW TO
TRAINING FOR LEADERSHIP.

BY FRED W. ATKINSON,

President of the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn.

The work of modern engineering has resulted in the development of enormous industries which require a degree of skill, intelligence and knowledge, and a high order of executive ability, which was entirely unnecessary in the days of smaller concerns. The demand for trained leaders has thus rapidly increased. Meantime, the whole problem of technical education has changed; technical education while retaining its form has broadened. "To-day, the school of technology," to quote President Pritchett, "is called upon not for a new form of education, but for an adaptation of its curriculum in such measure as to serve the needs of the man and of the engineer." No one questions the value of a thorough technical training, but many do regret that the graduates of colleges of technology are often deficient both in general culture and in those social qualities that make for the highest success. In my judgment, one of the important problems of engineering education to-day is how to give the students a wider culture and how to provide them opportunities for the development of those higher social qualities that make for leadership.

What impresses me most as a comparative newcomer in the special field of technical education, is, first, the fact that there are still many unsolved prob

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lems which only experience can solve, and second, the conservatism of teachers in schools of applied science which makes them unready to try educational experiments. First of all, technical education needs its "Committee of Ten" to do for it what that committee under the inspiring and constructive leadership of President Eliot did for secondary education. We can never form a true estimate of the worth of any kind of instruction, technical or literary, unless we see it in true perspective and proportion, and know the place it should occupy in a scheme of education which regards man in his totality, and not merely on his industrial or practical side.

The special functions of the college of technology as a part of our educational system should be more definitely determined and then an attempt should be made in a systematic way to formulate certain principles applicable to technical education. It is recommended that there be held a conference of teachers of each principal subject which enters into the courses of schools of applied science in the United States, each conference to consider the proper limits of its subject, the best methods of instruction, the most desirable allotment of time for the subject. It is further recommended that a committee be appointed with authority to select the members of these conferences and to arrange their meetings, the results of all the conferences to be reported to this committee for such action as it may deem appropriate, and to form the basis of a report to be presented to this Society. The recommendations of such a committee would at least be authoritative and serve as a definite basis for future

discussions. While there would be considerable diversity of opinion respecting many of the recommendations,-due largely to different local conditions, -yet I believe there would be substantial agreement upon many more. Without much doubt the committee would be able to construct sample programs, one, for example, showing the minimum amount of technical knowledge which should be required of the young engineer for graduation, one the course of study to be pursued by the college graduate as he enters upon the school of applied science as a professional school, and another embodying the growing tendency to give in the technical school rather than in the college the general education which constitutes culture. Four, five and six year programs should be included in the work of the committee. The differentiation in the programs will represent approximately the classification of the existing technological institutions.

The engineering schools may well consider their duty done if they provide the constantly increasing technical knowledge required and turn out good engineers. An engineer if he has it in him to become a great man, may ascend through his profession to any height to which his talents are equal. But large success is becoming more difficult. The industrial world is becoming more complex, more complicated, more confusing. Opportunities are greater than ever before only to the man who can add to a more intensive technical knowledge, a wider grasp of industrial affairs and an ability to deal effectively with men. Is it possible then to devise any practicable plan by

which certain technical schools can raise their ideals and furnish an environment where men may develop broadly with a view to increasing their educational and professional efficiency and thus fit them for positions of executive responsibility? I believe that there are certain institutions financially able and so placed as to do this, and thus advance the standards of admission to the ranks of engineers and exalt the profession's dignity. The limitations upon such an undertaking are clearly recognized. High proficiency in engineering can never be reached without natural ability and long experience. The engineer forms no exception to the law that experience is an imperative necessity for every human being. A school can no more turn out completely developed and efficient engineers ready for leadership than it can produce lawyers and doctors expert at the day of their graduation.

The ideal plan which I shall outline in detail, is not offered as taking the place of ability or practical experience, but as supplementing them under particularly favorable conditions, as furnishing an environment where men can develop broadly for all the work of life, and become efficient for engineering positions of executive responsibility.

I believe that any one of the large private technological schools could with success train specially for leadership by inaugurating selective process, say, at the beginning of the third year and enrolling the favored ones for a course leading to a different degree and requiring an additional year. I should prefer, however, that the selection of the raw material came at the beginning of the second year provided the in

struction in the first year was individual in character and that it were possible to determine with considerable degree of accuracy just which students had shown the native ability for the higher course. The selective process should, however, begin earlier-with admission. Impressed by the rapidly increasing demand for trained leaders in every department of engineering, the Trustees of the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn propose (provided there are sufficient funds available), to erect upon the traditions of that institution a school of engineering that shall make primarily for the highest efficiency. About one million dollars has been pledged by them, a sufficient indication that they believe in the work.

It will be a small school. With the number of its students limited at the most to three hundred, it will ensure to each the fullest personal development. Each will be dealt with as a separate problem. From the day of entrance he will in lecture room and laboratory come into immediate touch with professors of experience and eminent specialists.

It will not only be a small school but a school of picked men, assured of attaining high excellence. The merely average student will not be desired or admitted. It will attempt to address its teaching to the ablest. Instead of diffusing its energies in producing ten men for the ranks, it will concentrate every resource upon developing one thoroughly equipped officer. It will bend every effort to develop professional leaders. To accomplish such a purpose great care will be taken in selecting the choicest material. Weight will be attached to the candidate's personality.

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