education, and as the best-equipped teachers in the high
schools are usually in the last years and the worst-equipped teachers
in the college are usually in the first years, the system makes for
better education. Moreover, it relieves the state universities of the
crowds of students in the first two years and permits overworked
professors to concentrate upon the advanced work of the last two years
and upon research work in the graduate schools. A system which offers
so many advantages and is so popular both in the high school and the
university bids fair to spread.

=The abbreviated and condensed college course=

While the movement making for the elimination of the college from
below has been taking place in the West, another movement having the
same effect has been taking place in the East, only the pressure has
been from above. The tendency is spreading for the professional
schools of the strong universities to demand a college degree for
admission. If the full four years of the college are demanded in
addition to the four years of the secondary school and the eight years
of the elementary school, the great majority of students will begin
their professional education at twenty-two and their professional
careers at twenty-six, and they will hardly be self-supporting before
thirty. This seems an unreasonably long period of preparation compared
to that required in other progressive countries. The German student,
for example, begins his professional studies immediately upon
graduation from the gymnasium at eighteen. Hence the demand has arisen
for a shortening of the college course. This demand has been met in
several ways. In some colleges the courses have been arranged in such
a way that the bright and industrious student may complete the work
required for graduation in three years. In others, as at Harvard, the
student may elect in his senior year the studies of the first year of
the professional school. Another tendency in the same direction is to
permit students in the junior and even in the sophomore years to elect
subjects of a vocational nature. This has been bitterly contested by
those who hold that the minimum essentials of liberal culture should
be acquired before vocational specialization begins. Columbia
_permits_ a student to complete his college and professional studies
in six years, and at the end of that time he receives both the
bachelor's and the professional degrees.

It is to be noted, however, th