ESSAYS ON CATHOLIC EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES

edited by Roy J.Deferrari, PhD., LL.D. '12. The CatholicUniversity of America Press, Washington,District of Columbia, 1942, pp. 556, $4.50.

THIS IS WHAT THE LATE Herbert Darling Foster would have termed "a fat volume." Its 556 large pages contain twenty-seven carefully written essays by North American Catholic scholars and educators, both men and women, and are a vast mine of information on a subject little known to the average outsider or non-expert.

The titles of a few of these essays picked at random indicate the breadth and thoroughness of the discussion:—Catholic Education: its Philosophy and Background: Catholic Education and its Relation to the State: Education for Patriotism: The Organization of the Diocesan School System; The Junior College in the Catholic School System; The American Catholic College for Women; The Place of the Catholic Law School in American Education; Medical Education in Catholic Universities; Catholic Libraries and Library Science in the United States; The Fine Arts and Catholic Education; Psychiatry and Psychology in Catholic Education; Catholic Education and the Negro; Catholic Education and the Indian; Are Catholics Doing Enough for the Deaf and Blind?

In Roy Deferrari's essay on The Origin and Development of Graduate Studies under Catholic Auspices, we learn that The Catholic University of America, modelled upon the University of Louvain, was one of the pioneers to attempt systematic graduate studies in the United States as its chief or only concern. The admission of women to graduate study in 1928 made possible for the first time the higher education of women in the United States under Catholic auspices. Today, the Catholic University of America is the only church-related university among the thirty-four members of the Association of American Universities.

Graduate study here as at St, Louis University, Fordham, Marquette, Notre Dame, and other Catholic universities has languished for lack of funds. Mr. Deferrari points out that whereas the leading non-Catholic graduate schools individually number their endowed scholarships and fellowships for graduate students in the hundreds, ranging from a few over one hundred to nearly four hundred, all Catholic graduate schools in the land put together cannot muster a single hundred such scholarships or fellowships for advanced students.

The Preface, also written by Dr. Deferrari, concludes with the statement that the authors of the various essays are aware of the weaknesses and the strong points of Catholic Education in the United States, that they look to its future with complete faith and confidence. In this spirit they offer this volume to the world.