The preparation of the aspirant for entrance into a profession involves the provision of a fundamental knowledge of means of acquirement of professional knowledge and this means acquaintance with the languages in which the literatures of the profession are to be found. In the case of the law school, this means Latin; with the theologist it includes Greek and Hebrew; with the medical man, it means mainly Latin, as with the others, so far as affecting early history; while, with all, this means the necessary acquirement of the modern languages, French or German, or more commonly both, and sometimes Italian and others. In engineering, it involves the acquisition of the modern languages, the sciences of the physicist and the chemist, of the mathematician, sometimes of the geologist and of the mineralogist; and it supplements these with special studies furnishing the peculiar, 'expert,' knowledge constituting preparation for the characteristic branches of the professional course.
When the whole course of preparatory work is surveyed, from primary to secondary and special, and when its relation to the strictly professional course is noted, it will be found that the latter involves so much of the admittedly educational, as distinguished from the professional, work that it thus becomes practicable for the aspirant to give all the years which his individual means and his time may allow, and most profitably, to liberally educating his faculties and to the storing of his mind with useful knowledge.
Says Dr. W. T. Harris, the philosophic educator and psychologist:[1]
This is simply a statement of the fact, admitted by all, that professional training in the special school is the application, in a restricted field, of principles which should be applied in every field and in all studies, whether those characteristic of a profession or those which constitute divisions of a broad, liberal and cultural education. But it is also true that, before specialization can be properly commenced, the scholar must have terminated that division of his education which is intended to give him general preparation for 'the future of his life.' It is true that a certain amount of specialization may be practicable in the preparatory years; but it is none the less true that, in preparation for the latest stage, the student must give main attention to the educational side and leave the professional to be given main attention in years following those of growth and of development of character and of intellectual power.
The guiding hands of parent and teacher may do much in the
- ↑ The Forum, January, 1901.
