UNIVERSITIES.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1725, 16 April 1913, Page 8

UNIVERSITIES.

o~— FRENCH AND AMERICAN COMPARED

METHODS AND IDEALS, OPINIONS OF M. HENRI BERGSON M. Henri Bergson, anatomist of'laughter anil the philosopher from the College <le France, recently paid a visit to the United States, to deliver a series of lectures at three universities, stated in the ■ coursß of, an interview in the library of Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University. "I tun, of course, familiar, in a general way, with the methods of study and the plan of your universities," Dr. Bergson said, "but my brief observation of tho undergraduate life has convinced mo that a closer acquaintance with it would bo of great value to me. Everyliing here, you see, is so different from the Sorbonue, everything, judged merely oil a physical scale, seems to be so lacking in tho specialisation that is tho important feature of our standard, your general schemo . is so eclectic, that I am extremely curious to. learn the effect of the system on the development of the student. Spacious Columbia. "I was immediately impressed and surprised at my first sight of the buildings of Columbia University, so beautiful and so largo, and so very different from the Sorbonne. Their plan seems to me a forceful expression of the American idea of life. Our conception is to have a definitive building. yours is that a series of buildings is necessary to have a university. i We build for eternity, we once for all achieve our plrm of tho whole; tlio American idea is—how shall I saj; —more provisoire, And I suspect that it is the true solution, quite naturally developed, for tho needs of your American life. "I think—l do not speak conclusively, because I have been iiere only a few days—that our French university student works harder than the American student. One reason for this may be that ho is older when he has been through the lycee, he is- preparing for a profession, he is bent, with' all his energies on specialisation. He is done with purely classical aims, already he looks like u professional man. Ho feels the great seriousness of life, he has more practical idea. "In' Franco them is a sharp division between the lycee and the university. Here, as I understand it, the course of study embraced in our lycee extends through the first two years of your college. Yon have, 1' believe, a triple plan, the secondary school, the college, and tho university. Perhaps it is the hard, grubbing work in the lyceo that accounts for the definite) aim cf the French university student. He has to go through so much more to get into the university. His examinations mean so much more to liira. Then, you have not our very rigorous system of competition here, our concours, that loom so large 011 the student horizon.

What Bachelor's Degree Means. "In my country a man's career is -ended. if I may use so strong a term, if bo does not make his baccalaureate—it is ft document on whiclt his whole life hangn. Here, Dr. Butler tells me,' it only hurts the student's feelings. Bfit in Franco, without it, a man cannot hold public office of any sort, he cannot even become a Customhouse inspector. Perhaps Lord Melbourne's comment that a man is tit for any office ho e.an get applies to your American life, and perhaps it is propel that it should. "I have been speaking with Dr., Butler of a work, 'La Nouvallc .Philosophic/ written by a professor in the Lycee fjhint TjOuß which lias been very well received. Dr. Butler tells me that such, a thing', is. practically impossible here, that if une of your high-school professors had written such a book it would have been a seventh-yonr wonder. This impresses mo ■with tho high standard of our lycee professors, nr. compared with n similar grade liere. Our university professors are recruited from the ranks of the professors in the lycees of Paris, and I understand that it is a rare occurrence when a highschool professor becomos an instructor in nn American university. Our system of elimination, the necessity of passing the aggregation.' the competition, in which they know only n few will be chosen, creates this high standard among our lycee profe«ors. "Of course, in France . the lycee professor lias not more tban twelve or thirteen hours a week—the remainder of his time is generally given to specialisation and study. In this country. I am told the high-schnol professor lias about thirty hours a week, aid that naturally retards bis advance. I think T moy say that 'in 'France there is 110 difference between the intellectual and scientific level of the university nnd the lycoo professor—the only difference is in the experience. This reminds me of the remark of the Oxford professor after lie had realised the high standard of our lyce professors. 'Here,' he said, 'you use razors to cut firew6od.' 1 Evil of Competition.

"But our system of competition has its bad side. Some scholars hold it to be too definite a method, that it docs not give a man time for a more general study from which lie might do something mora original. Many say it is a waste of talent. But our boys are not forced, one does not hear •in France of the child suicides that arn said to come from the great dread of the examinations and the failure to pass in Germany." Dr. Bergson was surprised to learn recently that a doctor's degree is not necessary here to qualify a man to teach, that it has been only in this generation that a doctor's degree like that in Franco was , obtainable in this country. "I was very much interested when I heard a young American philosopher say that he did not care) very much whether or not he obtained his doctor's degree," said Dr. Bergson, "that lie intended to teach anyway: And I am not sure that this is not a very_.good thing, especially for America. In"" my country the Collego de France, where I lecture, is the only institution where a doctor's degree is not necessary. With us it is a tradition that lias become a matter of pride and tho advantages of which are now evident. "The College de France was founded by Francis I in opposition to the Sorbonne and in consequence of the movement against the exclusive use of Latin in the university, and this was one prescription —that a degree was not necessary. Because of this lilferalitv we are now often able to obtain the services of men high in learning who would be barred from teaching anywhere else. I realised this iradit ion when I.entered tho College do France. The system there provides for the election of-the professors by the members of the faculty, and before my election one of them said to me, 'i shall probably vote for you, but really you know, you have too many degrees!'" Dr. Bergson said that the fight over tho study of the classics was still raging-in France. It existed everywhere, he said, and he did not lielieve there would be a solution of the problem, that is a sharp and definite decision for or against. "At the beginning of the twentieth century," he went on. "everybody went iu for the classics. But' there has been a reform in France, based on a philosophical reason, that has borne good results. We havo established sections—that ■ is, Latin and Greek are one section, then Latin and sciences, and then modern languages. At a certain ago a vouny man must choose. T say there is no solution, because tho only way to decide upon the instruction a young man must have is according to the nature of the man—whether the classical or the practical will best benefit him, "This idea. I think, holds the least number of difficulties. But we have tho same questions in the universities—whether the student shall talis the philological or the literary course, the artistic or the scientific. I think it is generally found that they cannot be entirely separated. ami that in fhe end there is a combination of the literary and f.life scientific. But there has been a great educational reform in this regard in ihc past twenty years."—"New York Post."