, pure and broad, unaffected by
commercial intention? Isn't that what colleges are, and ought to be,
for?

On the shore of this vast and violent controversy we discreetly pause.
We shall not enter it. We cannot refrain, however, from extending our
finger at three reefs of solid fact which unsubmergably jut out above
the surface of the raging waters.

First. The colleges instruct their pupils in the subjects which those
pupils subsequently teach.

Second. The pupils specialize in the subjects which they are going to
teach.

Third. The colleges, besides providing the future teachers with
subjects, almost always offer to provide them with instruction in the
principles of education, and frequently offer to provide them with
instruction in the very technique of class-room work.

Our verdict, therefore, which we hope will be satisfactory to counsel
on both sides, is that the college is by no means a trade school, but
that if the woman who is going to earn her living will choose the one
trade of teaching, she can almost always get a pretty fair trade
training by going to college.

Passing beyond even the suspicion of controversy, we may observe,
uncontradicted, that the amount of trade training which a teacher is
expected to take is increasing year by year. In teaching, as in other
trades, the period and scope of preliminary preparation continue to
expand.

In the last calendar of Bryn Mawr College, the Department of
Education, in announcing its courses, makes the following common-sense
remarks:

"It is the purpose of this department to offer to students intending
to become teachers an opportunity to obtain a technical preparation
for their profession. Hitherto practical training has been thought
necessary for teachers of primary schools only, but similar
training is very desirable for teachers in high schools and colleges
also. Indeed, it is already becoming increasingly difficult for
college graduates without practical and theoretical pedagogical
knowledge to secure good positions. In addition to the lectures
open to undergraduates, courses will be organized for graduate
students only, conducted with special reference to preparation for the
headship and superintendence of schools."

There could hardly be a clearer recognition of the _vocational_ duty
of a college. There is meaning in that phrase "to secure good
positions." Bryn Mawr is willing to train girls not only to be
cultivated but to secure good position