Our system of popular education is the boast of our country, and well may it be, for it has been making steady advances during all the years of our national existence. At the present time the facilities for instruction and the opportunities for obtaining a good general education are so ample that it seems hardly credible that any one who is desirous of obtaining an education should fail in the attempt.
It follows logically that as the standard of general education is advanced, the standards in colleges, technical schools and universities will also be advanced, and thus we find to-day that the majority of these institutions are not only constantly improving their curricula but they are seeing to it that those who go to them for instruction are qualified to pursue the prescribed line of studies. The only wonder is that the entrance standards in some of the professional schools have not been advanced more rapidly than they have, for in no other way have they been more handicapped than in this.
It is true there may be some parts of our country where the opportunities for obtaining an education are more or less limited, but this is no argument why those in the vanguard should stop in their course and wait for the center of population to shift a few hundred miles. We know that in Alaska and the Philippines the means for education are not so ample as they are with us, but we are not thinking of stopping to wait for those countries. On the contrary they desire us to go ahead and they will follow as rapidly as possible. And so if the youths of the country districts of Iowa, or Kansas, or Missouri have not, as is claimed by some, the opportunity for obtaining a high school education, is that any reason why those in Ohio, or Michigan, or Pennsylvania should be excused for neglecting theirs? No, this is not the way of progress.
If there are any two professions or callings where the unfit should be culled out more than in others, it is in those of medicine and pharmacy. These are the professions calling for the highest type ofmanhood, and at the same time special educational equipment and intellectual acumen. Being largely answerable to himself in the conduct of his business, it is plain that the pharmacist must be of a high moral type, and if he is of the type that he should be to assume such a responsible calling, he will first see to it that his general education warrants him in undertaking its pursuit. But if there are those who have not the moral sense to conscientiously qualify themselves by obtaining the necessary preliminary education, then the teaching bodies should exercise their power to eliminate them. Here is where the highest obligation of the schools and colleges of pharmacy rests, and here is where the supreme test of their sense of their obligation to the public comes in.
Certainly those applicants for entrance who have had opportunities for obtaining an education and have been so indifferent as not to improve them, can hardly be considered fit candidates for the practice of pharmacy. Entrance to a college presupposes a good general education; the studies to be mastered require it, and to admit the unqualified reacts on all those engaged in the practice of pharmacy and in the teaching of pharmacy. It also does harm to those who are still in the public schools, for instead of finishing their courses they discontinue their studies knowing that they can fit themselves by short cuts. It lowers the standard of the schools of pharmacy and so tends to keep away those who are qualified to pursue the work. In short, it lowers the tone of pharmacy at every point. And who can say that it does not eventually make an impression on the general public and influence them in withholding their support, both moral and financial?
I know of a young man who desired to study law, but who had not gone further than the grammar school. When he came to inquire about the terms of admission to the bar, he found that graduation from a high school was required. He then decided to enter school again and go through the high school. Can any one doubt the advantage of such a course to this young man or to the profession of law in requiring him to complete his preliminary education?
There are those who incline to take pity on those applicants in pharmacy who have not the desired amount of preliminary education and who argue that they should be given a chance. But this is a false kind of charity; if the applicants are sincere and havenatural ability, they should be advised to go back to school, but if they belong to the shiftless class, they should above all things not be allowed to ally themselves with pharmacy. No, this is not the place for the exercise of charity, particularly when we think of our obligations to the great public who have so long and so implicitly trusted us.