problems. In no other way is it possible to invest
theoretical principles with definite meaning to the student, and by
this process it is possible to transform abstract theory into glowing
realities which under a competent teacher arouse the student's
interest and even his enthusiasm.

8. Specialization in engineering curricula is a natural outgrowth of
the evolution of engineering knowledge, and is in harmony with sound
principles of teaching. For example, all engineering students should
have a certain amount of mechanical drawing; but the best results will
be obtained if the civil engineer, after a study of the elementary
principles, continues his practice in drawing by making maps, while
the mechanical engineer continues his by making details of machinery.
Both will do their work with more zest and much more efficiency than
if both were compelled to make drawings which meant nothing to them
except practice in the art of drawing. Similar illustration can be
found throughout any well-arranged engineering curriculum. A vitally
essential element in any educational diet is that the subject shall
not pall upon the appetite of the student. He should go to every
intellectual meal with a hearty gusto. The specialized course appeals
more strongly to the ambition of the student than a general course.
The engineering student selects a specialized course because he has an
ambition to become an architect, a chemical engineer, a civil
engineer, or perhaps a bridge engineer, a highway engineer, a
mechanical engineer, or perhaps a heating engineer or an automobile
engineer; and having an opportunity to study subjects in which he is
specially interested, he works with zest and usually accomplishes much
more than a student who is pursuing a course of study only remotely,
if at all, related to the field of his proposed activities after
leaving college. Further, the more specialized the course, the greater
the energy with which the student will work.

Many of those who have discussed specialization seem to assume that
the only, or at least the chief, purpose of an engineering education
is to give technical information, and that specialization is
synonymous with superficiality. From this point of view the aim of a
college education is to give a student information useful in his
future work, and the inevitable result is that the student has neither
the intellectual power nor the technical knowledge to enable him to
render efficient serv