Practices and Objectives in Training for Foreign Service. Report of the National Conference on Foreign Service Training, Washington, December 26, 1923. Bulletin, 1924, No. 21

Eighteen States and the District of Columbia were represented at the second conference of collegiate instructors in foreign service training subjects, which was held at the New Willard Hotel, Washington, D.C., December 26, 1923, under the direction of the former advisory council and committee of fifteen on educational preparation for foreign service, now known as the National Council on Foreign Service Training. The topic of the conference was practices and objectives in training for foreign service of Government and business. This conference was the outgrowth of a small round-table conference held under similar direction at the Hotel Sherman in Chicago, Illinois, December 27, 1922. Preliminary to the latter conference the chairman of the National Council on Foreign Service Training, G. L. Swiggett, requested two groups of men engaged in the service of Government and business for an opinion based on experience in regard to necessary educational preparation for their respective types of work. Each group expressed the belief that overspecialization was not desirable; that technique should come late in the course of study; that the maximum of English should be offered; and that chemistry should be taken as a basic science. With these suggestions in mind it was decided at the 1922 Chicago conference that the following subjects, with unit requirements, will best serve as secondary preparation for further collegiate study in foreign service subjects: English, 4; modern language, 4--at least three units in one language; American history, 1; English history or modern European history, 1; economic geography, 1; mathematics--algebra and plane geometry, 1.5; chemistry or physics, 1; civics, 0.5; elective, 1; 15 units in all. [Best copy available has been provided.]