ELECTIVE COURSES. Those sub jects in the colleges and preparatory schools which a student chooses to take, but which are not required for the com pletion of his school or college course. Prior to 1880 the number of electives in the standard colleges of the United States was small, the students' course consisting of one largely mapped out for him by the college authorities. The only exceptions to this were found in the Western colleges and State universities which allowed a wide latitude of choice to the student. Yale, Harvard, Prince ton, Columbia, and the University of Pennsylvania all required Greek, Latin, and higher mathematics for the Bache lor of Arts degree. In a few of the Eastern colleges a course leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science was of fered, but for the Arts degree, the above work was required for at least the first two years of college work. Greek was the first to be taken from the required list, and by 1920 the study of that language was no longer obligatory for those aim ing for the Bachelor of Arts degree. Mathematics is required only as far as plane and solid geometry and plane trigonometry. Latin still is required for the Arts degree, but not anything like the amount of time needs to be spent upon it in college as formerly. In fact, in all but one or two colleges a four years' course in the preparatory school Latin will enable the student to be a candidate for the Arts degree. This dropping of required subjects automati cally increased the number of elective ones so that in 1920 the college student has virtually a free field. This situation, of course, is not duplicated in the tech nical schools where the work must of necessity be prescribed. The latitude of choice given students in the Arts course varies with the different universities. At Harvard, after the student has entered, his course is entirely elective. At Prince
ton there still remain a few subjects which are required. Quite a few of the universities have adopted the "group system," that is, allowing the students to choose among groups of related sub jects. The fears expressed by many of the conservative schoolmen that with the elective system the students would choose all the easy courses and avoid the diffi cult ones has caused "advisors" from among the faculty to be appointed, with out whose consent his roster is not com plete. Because of the "groups" and the faculty "advisors" this evil has not been a serious one, or at least is not so re garded by most schoolmen.
The increase of elective courses in col lege and the variety of degrees offered by the universities led to an increase in elective students in the secondary schools. Those students who showed a disposition to prefer scientific studies to the ancient languages were allowed to drop the lat ter. As we have seen, such students can always secure the Bachelor of Sciente degree, and not a few can obtain the Arts degree upon the completion of their college course. This elective, then, is of fered by nearly all the high schools and private academies, with the exception of the New England private schools where the ancient languages still retain their traditional place. By reason of the fact that the colleges as yet prescribe closely the work which is necessary for en trance, the secondary schools have not been able to increase the number of their elective studies. The public high schools are now doing so more and more, but that is largely because less than one third of their students ever enter college.