fessional school. Granted that no professional student can possibly get in the time allowed for a professional course all that he needs in his future career, it follows that the materials of instruction should be those of most practical service, and should be presented in such a way as to beget the cleanest understanding of their use. Useful knowledge comes from facts carefully coördinated - done up in packages and labeled principles." There is no one best method of doing anything in general, but there may be a best method for a particular worker under very particular conditions, to do a particular thing. The teacher who is alive to his responsibility, conscious of his faults and ambitious to improve, will find a better way of doing his work with each succeeding class. The pity is that he should be willing to travel the path alone, giving pain to himself and doing injury to others, when so many of his predecessors and colleagues are competent to act as guides.

Craftsmanship for the practitioner. — Intelligent workmanship is the final test of professional ability. High ideals and abounding knowledge will not save the practitioner from merited condemnation, if he fails in technical skill. Malpractice in medicine is not essentially different from incompetence in farm management. Such competence as is necessary to start the professional worker in the right way must come from practice under a master. Technical skill is established in habit. Bad habits are as easily acquired as good habits and far harder to break. The steps in habit formation are three: (1) the learner should know what he is expected to do; (2) he should be shown how to do it; and (3) he must be kept doing the

right thing until it becomes automatic. The conscious effort of an intelligent learner aids powerfully in determining the proper procedure in a particular case, but only persistent practice can ever give the skill demanded of the successful practitioner.

Improvement of technical skill. Some professional schools, like law, medicine, and engineering, have a welldefined body of special knowledge which can be imparted to relatively young students. The business of such a school is to uphold its professional ideals and give competent instruction in professional subjects, leaving the acquisition of technical skill to come during a period of apprenticeship in an office, a hospital, or a shop, under the eye of a master. In the case of other professional schools, like those of teaching, journalism, and agriculture, the graduate must make good the first day on the job, at least have the ability to conceal his faults. Under such conditions, technical skill is at a premium. It is true, however, in every profession that technical skill is an asset which must be acquired, if not in course, then in the lower grades of professional service. How much should be given in the professional school is always determined by the conditions prevailing in the profession. The profession that expects its novice to stand on his feet when he graduates must teach him to walk while in school. It does not follow, however, that a college graduate needs the same automatic precision in technical skill that the trade worker finds necessary. The lower the intelligence of the worker, the greater need of training in habit; the higher the intelligence, the more can be left to self-direction. But every graduate of a professional school should have

practice enough in doing the real work of his future vocation to make him conscious of his faults and to give him confidence in his ability to direct himself in the application of his knowledge. It is not a question of the necessity of practical work; that must be conceded. The real question is, how and when can it best be given? Given in one way, the college is reduced to the rank of a trade school; given in another way, it places the institution on the professional plane.

The basis for continued growth. Professional training as I have said, is merely a device to shorten the period of apprenticeship undertaken by every learner who would acquire the knowledge and skill possessed by the leaders in his field. The professional school teaches only a part of the game; it succeeds best when it induces its students to become learners during the rest of their lives. When it provides the minimum required of its graduates on entering their vocations, the rest of their instruction may safely deal with the reasons underlying their professional practice. These reasons are embodied in the specialized knowledge that I have characterized as an essential factor in professional training.

A golden mean. It is obvious that the reasons for a particular treatment can best be illustrated by reference to the act itself. It is the principle underlying all laboratory work, except when laboratory work is made an end in itself. The student who sees what happens to a soggy field is better able to appreciate the reasons for underdrainage. A month in charge of a dairy herd will vitalize the teaching of the principles of feeding as nothing in books or lectures can do. The case system has revolu

tionized the study of law, and the appeal from the lecture and the textbook in medicine to the laboratory, the bedside, and the clinic has transformed the professional training of the physician. Hence, I maintain that success in teaching the principles of professional practice is conditioned by actual experience in the practice of the profession. Here, then, is where the professional school kills two birds with one stone. The ideal balance is obtained when enough practice is given to check up the theory, and enough theory to direct the practice aright. Disturb this balance by teaching theory as an end in itself, and you have an academic institution. Teach theory as reasons for practice, and you have the makings of a professional school. More cannot be expected until teaching itself becomes a profession and its novices are subjected to the same rigorous training that the best professions now expect of their candidates. Meantime, there is only one unpardonable sin that a professional faculty is likely to commit, and that is the failure to uphold its own professional standards without fear or favor of academic tradition.

INDEX

Consciousness of kind, 217.

American characteristics, 26, 65, Correlation, 109.

Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush, 140, Denominational control of schools,

Church, training for the, 12, 54, England, 9, 20, 21, 51-52, 53-55.