hese data any definite
conclusions as to the proportion of students beginning economics in
each of the four years respectively. But probably three-fourths of
all, possibly four-fifths, take the general course either in the
sophomore or the junior year. Most of the institutions giving
economics only in the senior year are small, with a very restricted
curriculum, often limited to one general course. But it is a widely
observed fact that many students in large institutions postpone the
election of the subject till their senior year.

[19] Of this see further below, page 226.

[20] Article cited, _Journal of Political Economy_, Vol. 19, page 768.

[21] The society for the Promotion of Engineering Education has had a
standing committee on economics, since 1915. The first committee was
composed of three engineers (all of them consulting and in practice
and two of them also teachers) and the present writer.

[22] In Amherst, as described in _Journal of Political Economy_ by
Professor W. H. Hamilton, on "The Amherst Program in Economics"; and
in Chicago University beginning in 1916. See also, by the same writer,
a paper on "The Institutional Approach to Economic Theory", in the
_American Economic Review_, Supplement, page 309, March, 1919.

[23] At the meeting of the American Economic Association in 1897, at
which was discussed "The Relation of the Teaching of Economic History
to the Teaching of Political Economy," the opinion was expressed by
one teacher that economic history should follow the general course.
But all the others agreed that such a course should begin the
sequence, and this seems to be the almost invariable practice. See
_Economic Studies_, Volume III. pages 88-101, Publications of the
American Economic Association, 1898.

[24] This plan has at various times been followed at Stanford,
Cornell, Harvard, and Princeton, to cite only a few of the numerous
examples.

[25] In this plan the sections are small (three to seven students) and
the preceptor is expected to give much time to the personal
supervision of the student's reading, reports, and general
scholarship. The preceptorial work is rated at more than half of the
entire work of the term. The one great difficulty of the preceptorial
system is its cost.

[26] A strong plea is made for the "retirement of the lectures" by C.
E. Persons, in the _Quarterly Journal of Economics_, Vol. XXXI,
"Teaching the Introductory Course in Economics," November, 1916,