That the main subject for discussion before the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, which met in Cambridge on Friday and Saturday, was "The advisability of shortening the course preparatory for college" is a direct tribute to President Eliot, who first brought the subject to the attention of the association. This question is directly connected with that other great question which has been so hotly debated, whether the requirements for the degree of A. B. should not be lessened. In opening the discussion on the question before the association last Friday President Eliot made the point that what those who believe that the course preparatory for college can be shortened desire to accomplish is out primarily the gain of a year but the improvement of our educational system. And this, it has been shown over and over again, is exactly the contention of the advocates of the change in the requirements for the A. B. degree.

President Eliot very aptly remarked that we cannot claim to have an American educational system so long as some of the eccentricities which characterize it remain; the lack of any fixed standard of admission to the professional schools, for instance; and the existence of scientific schools claiming to do parallel work to the college but having a much lower standard of admission. These conditions which make it possible for the American student to leave long gaps in his education are eccentricities which no well balanced system of education would admit. The thought that this suggests is certainly novel and almost startling. Is the time not far distant when some university shall stand up and say that the only way to its professional schools is through the A. B. of a college of recognized standing? The remarks of President Eliot last Friday certainly seemed to indicate that he thinks something of this sort desirable; that the professional and graduate schools be put upon a uniform basis above the college department, and that the only way to them be through the college department. The shortening of the college course would be a step in this direction. The shortening of the course preparatory for college would be another. And in both of these changes the object is the development of an organic system in every department of education from grammar schools to the graduate and professional schools.