The Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle is a school at home—a
school after school—a college for one’s own house, by which he may become
acquainted in a general way with the school and college world, into which
so many of our young people go, about which their parents know so little,
and the benefits of which college people themselves need to recall in
their later years.
It is for busy people, who left school years ago, and who desire to
pursue some systematic course of instruction.
It is for high school and college graduates, for people who never entered
either high school or college, for merchants, mechanics, apprentices,
mothers, busy housekeepers, farmer boys, shop girls, and for people of
leisure and wealth who do not know what to do with their time. College
graduates, ministers, lawyers, physicians, accomplished ladies, are
taking the course. They find the required books entertaining and useful,
giving them a pleasant review of studies long ago laid aside. Several of
our members are over eighty years of age. Very few are under eighteen.
The C. L. S. C. Course requires about forty minutes’ time a day for the
term of four years. It need not be done every day, although this is a
desirable way to carry on the work. The readings are comprehensive,
clear, simple, and entertaining. They vary, of course, in interest
according to the taste of the reader.
More than sixty thousand names are enrolled in this so-called “People’s
University.” Although not a University at all, it has put educational
influence, atmosphere and ambition into the homes of the people, which
will lead many thousands of youth to seek the education which colleges
and universities supply.
It is an easy thing to join the C. L. S. C. No preliminary examination
is required; indeed, no examination is required at any time. Members
are expected to fill out certain simple memoranda year after year, and
forward them to the central office of the C. L. S. C., at Plainfield, N.
J. But this is no task at all. A careful reading of the books is all that
is necessary in order to graduate.
The following is the distribution of the subjects and books of the
regular course through the year:
_October._