Page:Engineering as a vocation (IA cu31924004245605).pdf/31

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ENGINEERING AS A VOCATION
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the product of the alumnæ, much as some of them will dispute it.

There is really nothing serious the matter with our engineering schools that will not be corrected in time. The Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education is doing good work and many eminent practising engineers belong to this society, which invites helpful criticism. If anything is a fault with the training given in the schools it is that many schools have paid entirely too much attention to outside criticism and the students are narrowly trained specialists, who have been cheated in their unfortunate attempt to get a proper education. However, this does not belong in the chapter which is supposed merely to define the engineer. In a later chapter the subject of the scholastic training of the engineer will be discussed. This present chapter has defined the engineer in the words of two eminent engineers. A third definition is by some unknown and reads: "An engineer is a compound of common sense and mathematics. If he has not enough mathematics his lot in life will be hard. If he has not enough common sense God pity him."