University of Nebraska College of Law - Yearbook (Lincoln, NE)

Page 82 text:

Che Hninersitg one the Public School Sgstem BY CI-IANCELLOR GEORGE E. MAGLEAN. The University of Nebraska is a part of the public school sys- tem of the State. The University embraces from the thirteenth to the nineteenth grades of the school system. From the thir- teenth to the sixteenth grades We have the ordinary undergradu- ate courses leading to the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science. The seventeenth grade leads to the degree of Master of Arts. The completion of the nineteenth grade brings to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. These last three grades constitute the Work of the graduate school of the University. It is open for the graduates of the colleges in the University, and of all reputable colleges Within and Without the state. In all the regular courses the University crowns the work begun in the grades and continued in the high schools. SCOPE OF THE UNIVERSITY7S WORK. In addition to the ample facilities for liberal education in liter- ature, science, and the arts, there is provision for technical edu- cation in the Industrial College, and for professional education in the College of Law. There are also special professional un- dergraduate cou1'ses preparatory to medicine, and in law, and journalism. Professional training for teachers is provided in a two-years? course, particular attention being given to Child Study and Pedagogy. Certificates entitling teachers to a first grade teacher's license, and later-if they are successful in instruction- to a life certificate, are given to those who take the special courses in Science and Art of Teaching and make the degree of Bachelor of Arts or Science. The University has a Summer School that after this year it is hoped will become a six Weeks, summer term of the University, intended especially to accommodate the teache1's of the state. The equipments of the University in men and means are thus put

Page 81 text:

LEGAL ETHICS 7 This leads to books useful to lawyers as lawyers, or as the best informed class in society. I omit books of law, for your course has given you general knowledge to guide your purchase to full limit of your means, and practice will advance skill to choose faster than means to buy a law library. Every young lawyer should own and be familiar with Cieero's Moral Essays and Sharswood's Legal Ethics, and own the best eyelopedia and lexicon his means can buy. Of high literature in fields of history, oratory, romance, and poetry, a well informed friend and aid of library and catalogue will guide. He cannot do better than buy as many of the best as possible. Liable to be called into, and more or less expecting to take part in public affairs, he ought to have and read Leeky's History of Civilization, Herbert Speneer's Synthetic Philosophy, those parts relating to evolution of society, to the family, and to par- ent and child, VVake's Kinship and Marriage, Morganls Ancient Society-a highly instructive and philosophic work by an Amer- ican of so rare merit that, translated, it went through three Ger- man editions, and was familiar to German philosophers before appreciated at home or the first American edition exhausted. An army must have an arsenal, and a soldier a cartridge box. The lawyer called often to debate must have his fvacle mecam whence, as occasion arises, by perfect familiarity he can draw metaphor and illustration as point to argument or repartee. There are but two such books in our language-Kiing James, ver- sion of the Bible, and Shakespeare. They are each a wealth of illustration and metaphor. Make them yours inorat familiar friends. The Bible is unrivalled in purity, condensation, and power of plain Saxon. Saxon is the basis of modern English. The layman use most wholly plain Saxon words. The man who sits in the jury box speaks and understands it. Make yourself master of the plain Saxon vigor of the Bible and you can make a strong argument which the juryman can comprehend. I hope something I have done, suggested, or said may rouse to higher thought and aspiration and be remembered and of advan- tage to you. I wish you each may merit and attain abundant success to your utmost desire. lf at any time I can aid you in perplexity, come to me and so oblige me and please me. New it remains only to say good bye.

Page 83 text:

THE UNIVERSITY AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM 77 at the service of those who are to be leaders in the entire school system. To meet the present requirements of industrial education in the state, the University has established a School of Mechanic Arts, with a two years' practical course that receives students of sufhcient age from graded schools. In like manner there is a School of Agriculture and a Dairy School that takes the boys and girls from the farm and returns them to the farm prepared to use applied science in improved farming. These two schools, it is expected, will become model schools, to be imitated in connec- tion with technical schools to be established in conjunction with the high schools in several counties in the state. These schools incidentally look toward encouraging students to enter the col- legiate schools of Engineering or the College of Agriculture. For six years past the University has maintained one of the two Sugar Schools in the United States. The University, mindful of its many-sided relations to the state, has offered courses in University Extension, under which, in a very practical form, are included Farmers' Institutes. A School of Music and Fine Arts is afliliated with the University, in which, pending the opening of the College of Fine Arts, in- struction is given in every grade of instrumental and vocal music, in drawing, painting, wood carving, modeling, and the his- tory of art. Through the voluntary service of the Botanical Seminar and members of the University faculty, in connection with aid from the general government, a botanical and a geolog- ical survey of the state have been begun. The Regents of the University have, entrusted to their charge, the United States Ex- periment Station for purposes of investigation in agricultural sub- jects and for thc diffusion of agricultural knowledge by the pub- lication of bulletins. A United States lVeather Bureau Station has been established at the University, and a Museum in connec- tion with it has also been started. A review of what has been mentioned thus far, shows that the University is not simply a multiform school for higher instruc- tion, but that it is also a practical servant of the State in almost every conceivable direction. It is a depository for knowledge and a center for the diffusion of it.