Evening Star Newspaper, March 29, 1931, Page 92

F 16 THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D, C., MARCH 29, 1931. ST “Just Being Collegiate Is Time Lost” SoSays the Man Who Advised.Youth to “Be a YEAR and a half ago the good, solid, substantial citizens of this land of the free and brave blinked their eyes and took a sécond look at the head- lines of their newspaper. Yes, sir, they got it right the first time! A college pro- fessor was advising young men to “be sncbs and to marry the daughter of the boss!” Such talk was heresy in this man’s nation of democ- racy. Why, we weie a land of pioneers—cal- loused hands, big hearts and hard work. And this college professor even went so far as to advise two-pants suits and a clean shirt twice a day! What is a little honest dirt to be afraid of? Baggy trousers are a sign of democracy. So began the deiuge. And as I sat in Prof. Robert E. Pogers’ office in one of the Massa- chusetts Institute of Tachnology buildings which faces the histo.ic Charles River and the beau- tifur’Metrcpolitan Parkway, he chuckley heartily in remembrance of the flood. He became famous overnight. Prof. Regers geis a great kick out of life. He isn’t the tradit onal, dignified, long-faced pro- fessor. He's short and rotund. XKeen, friendly and oftentimes twinkling eyes look through his glasses at the world. And, shades of Horaoce Mann, he was wearing spats! He had a big following before his “snob™ ad- dress to the graduating class of Tech made him a mnational figure. He's a very popular lecturer—dynamic, witty and wise. His radio broadcasts are widely anticipated. His exten- sion courses in literature at the State House in Boston are thronged by people of all classes end ages WE.&Mhh;ofieema-wkedourflpeltt each other for an hour and a half; both pipes should have been put out of their misery a long time ago. The office looked as all pro- fessors’ offices do—desk and table littered with papers, books on the floor and bulletins on the radiator. The walls were lined with books on every conceivable subject. “Fire away,” said Prof. Roge:s wien pipes were going well and we'd settled satizfcctorily Boston weather on a raw morning in Wintertime. “Well,” I said, “the question of how o achieve success is still the burning gquestion. Young people particularly want a sure-fire recipe. Parents are willing to make extreme sacrifices that their children may make a mark in the world. Deo2s your previous advice ‘Be a snob and®marry the boss’ daughter,’” still hold goad?” Prof. Rogers thoughtfully pulled away at his pipe and looked quietly out over the traffic of the parkway, bcyong the Charles River, to where Boston loomed in the murky fog. He began quieily: “Yes, the advice still holds. It's been very interesting and illuminating to me during the last year and a half to get the country’s reaction to that bit of advice. “The reaction in general has proved that while young:=r people approve of what I said, older folks disagree. Perhaps modern modesty is more frank than the traditional point of view. “Of course, it’s the larnger application of the principle that I and every other thinking person in this democracy is really concermed about. The true gusstion involved is: What shall be the attitude of the superior type of person toward society? Will the gifted mem and women realize their vespomsibility to society and use their particular talents for its benefit?” T intertupted with a question: “Is a college education essential for success today?” “I don’t think it's any more essential today than it ever was,” Prof. Rogers stated emphati- cally.,. “A man with brains and will power is going to be a success in life whether he goes to college or not. And the man who gets te college without sharpening his brains and get- ting into habits of hard intellectual work has wasted his time. true to a certain extent that specialized knowledge seems to be a distinct asset. But right here in Tech, one of the highest- specialized schools in America, we have a mighty interesting situation which proves that the main function of a college is not specialized instruction, but mental description—or an ‘in- tellectual cours: of sprouts’—that will give gen- eral service whatever a man does in life. “The situation I speak of is this: A large number of graduates never go into the kind of work for which they're trained! “The time is coming when the present em- phasis on the specific will give way to a general foundation. The highly apecialized business schoel, like the Harvard School of Business Administration, still has, I believe, to prove its fundamental educational value. “Percy Marks in a recent book says a college mam spends four years under glass, exposed to @& regulated, forcing tenperature. When he gets out he’s no better than the man .whe goes into business straight from grammar school or high school. But if the oollege man is any good hell go ahead faster than the other. No, a coliage education isn't essential for success.™ “Speaking of young people and college” I remarked, “I must ask you a gquestion every one likes to discuss. What's wrong with the youmger generation foday?” I kmnew Prof. Rogers would smile. He did. He even laughed. “Leave the young folks alone,” he chuckled. “In the sense the profes- sional alarmist uses the term, there's nething wrong,” he replied. “The younger generation isn't going to ruin morally at all. It is enor- mously more wide-awake and intellectually skeptical in its approach to fundamental prob- fems than its fathers and mothers ever were. $¢\JODERN young people realize life can be a far richer experience than the funda- imentalists would allow it %o be. “On the other side, I do feel that our young to grips with the ‘problem of the job. dis the discipline of hard mental 5 un te the value of repetitive routine forming habits of thinking and work. veproach that cur eolleges are turning fmany bond salesmen—our schools turning too many boys who want white-collar jobs. Snob’’ Also “‘the Boy Who Goes to College Without Sharpening His Brains and Getting Into Habits of Intellectual Work Has Wasted His Years and His Effort.” Prof. Robert E. Rogers, who once told his students to be “snobs.” Now, he does not think a college education is any more essential than it ever was. BY PROF. ROBERT E. ROGERS. As old to HAYDN S. PEARSON. These are symptoms of the ‘softness’ I just spoke about.” “I've read several interesting reports of what you've said regarding woman school teachers. Do you think any of this ‘softness and slack- ness’ in coming to grips with the job problem is due to this?” I inquired. Prof. Rogers swung around. “T'm glad to have a chance to correct a general misappre- hension. The opinion seems abroad that I have no use for woman schcol tcachers and want to get rid of them, Nonsense! “AH I ever said was: ‘The present public- school system is sadly out of balance.’ It's very unfortunate that boys cam go through their entire public-school life without ewer having had a man teacher. “Boys of high-school age ought to be taught by man teachers. Certain subjects, such as history and literature, have been given alto- gether too strong a2 feminine slant. “Furthermore, the heavy demand for teachers teaching to types more fitted for the work. The time is coming when all public-school teachers will” be required to have a degree from a reputable college as well as specialized teacher training. But please make it clear that I am from private schools and from large city high schools staffed entirely by men. “Furthermore, the recent noticeable growth of private schools, both in mumber and regis- tration, shows careful parents are turning more and more to private schools for the things which the public school is not giving. Here in the East at least nearly every parent who can afford to is sending his children te a private school. ‘The private school gives a cultural background which the public school is not giving.” Prof. Rogers declared it was his belief that public schools were making a grave mistake in their efforts to lower the standard of reguire- ments for entrance into colleges and univer- sities. “LOG!CALLY." he said, “the setting free of a larger amount of leisure for all. Of course, as women are freed from domestic industry, they give that much more power to outside industry. Perhaps the five-day weck may come as a result of woman-power. “On the reverse side of the picture is the possibility that there may b= a superfinity of labor which will bar married woman workers as well as the unmarried who do need work for a living. “If woman's freedom gives us leisure which we use worthily then her emancipation a blessing. But if it simply of bridge playing, miniature professional sporting of much genuine value. “The freedom of woman the upper middie-class and more & parasite than the lower middie-class woman richer and more useful career. women can continue to iously held by men 1is a serio “It's safe to say, however, that woman's free= dom for professional activity is here to stay. “Along this line, pethaps a word about the future would be apropos. Education is the remedy for present-day ills, and we're going to see in the future splendid, new-type secondary schools which will not try to prepare for college; they will prepare for the business of living. Th-n boys and girls won’t think that they have to go to oollege just for the sake of doing so. *“When that happy future day comes colleges will restri-t their work to the old ideal of turning out h'zhly trained intelligances for the professions. This all applies to girls’ schools and women's coleges as well. Perhaps the education cf the future will solve the problems of the pres°nt-cday feminist movement.” “Is all th's going to change our American family life?” I asked. “I don't belicve our genuine, worthwhile family life is being changed as much as the alarmists think it is. It still remains the essential unit of our society,” the professor replied. One further question I had for this man, whose opinions have become bywords in think- ing homes everywhere. “Do you think the world as a whole, and the United States in particular, is getling more civilizsed, or is Rumanity slipping backward?” “There’s no doubt,” he said slowly, “that we @re more prosperous, healthier, more luxurious than any pesple in the history of the world has ever becen. We are less the victims of disease; we live long:r and happier lives. All that is to the good. “In regard to the United States, there is a rapidly growing, quiet, unostentatious class of middling-weli-to-do, educated people who are making the very finest use of their leisure time. Of course, the vulgar, ostentatious crowd makes more nois?, but the second generation of this crowd which hes meade so much momey recently will be an improvement on its parents. “A mew civilization is on its way, and 25 years from now the United States will be far ahead in all ways over its present conditions.” (Copyright, 1931.) Life Is Like That Continued from Fifth Page “We.” Nansen's “Journeys.” Scott's diary. He opencd a drawer and drew forth a shee$ of clean whitz paper. He began, with a steady, firm hand to write: I must go without saying “Good-by!” No shake of the hand, no understanding glanc: before I go. This is all that I regret . . . If there were any other way, any other road, I would take it. But I could not have ‘spoken of this, for men are not to be argued with. You would have been resentful of my int>rference, and all our fine comradeship would have been lost. I, too, when a boy had dreams, had hopes and decsires—the dreams you have dreamed, the hopes and the desires you have felt. I, tco, loved—or thought I loved. 1, too, was conguered—Dby white moonlight, by a woman’s voice, perhaps; but more, I think—now that I am leok- ing back—by the cry: “Life is serious!™ Life is not serious, my son—mnot serious in the way mosi poople think of ic. Life is not valuable; it is not to hoard as a miser hoards his gold, but to be spent, and spent royally. As Franklin speat it, as every great man has spent The only reason for living is the fow : ] sf it it iiggg‘gsfi }Lg’lgpi- i ’liillit EZ ; i I ol | i SEx ; 8 E £ £ i