Evening Star Newspaper, September 8, 1935, Page 51

| Stagé — Screen Autos — Radio Part 4—10 Pages P . By John Jay Daly. IGH school graduates on their way to the college campus, the lecture room and the ex- amination hall are about to confront a new form or plan of education. If the full plan is pot in working order by the end of this scholastic year, it will undoubtedly catch up with the neophytes before they secure their sheepskin8. Called the third grand cycle of American education, the new order is an outgrowth of the old, rigid, four-year curriculum, which = was superseded by the so-called elective system. The new phase will be known simply as general education. While the framework of education has changed materially in the past several decades, objéctives remain the same—so far as America is concerned. The purpose of education in this oountry, as one of the leading educa- tors explains, is “to reduce the inten- sity of the struggle for existence.” A few scholars hide behind academic ‘walls, performing ‘mental acrobatics in the realm of transcendentalism—the art of living in the cellar and thinking in the attic. With these exceptions, a good living from a college education seems to be the sole human quest. Reduced to plain terms, the college graduate seeks: 1. Acquisition of common physical comforts. 3. Peace of mind. IN A NUTSHELL, the aforegoing are the two great rewards offered by the professors who invite the youth of America to drink at the well of learning. The test of an ability to acquire physical comforts is measured by this practical questio®: “After graduation, what can tu- dent do in an office, factory or labora- tory where situations demand certain knowledge the graduate must have with him on the instant and which he cannot produce as the result of ‘cram- ming,’ as for a college examination?” In other words, when a college grad- .htellwlontm spot what can he do - | for himself? What can he say? What account can he give of his four years’ stewardship? Bluntly, can he pro- duce? Any college graduate may honestly measure the value of his education by examining himself in the subjects he pursued at college. Under the new set-up it is not ex- pected that the 1935 model college student will say of any subject he may have studied, “Oh, I had that at col~ lege” and let it go at that, implying that while he attended the classes he is not now at liberty to discuss the affair, sis is to be rooted out of the college curricula. At least, this is the hope of the new system. It has the back- |ing of many professors who haves | worked quietly the past several years | mapping out the improvements needed. | One of them, who furnished the sub- joined information, has taught in five of the leading universities in America. He says the average college curriculum is at present overloaded with dead wood. Too many fads got into the super- structure of college life. Recently, for instance, one university added to its list of deans a man in charge of hygiene. Another university had at one time a class designed solely for the solution of the cross-word puzzle. The modern tendency is toward courses in beauty culture. Domestic eco- nomics—home economics—is a course still, mounting in popularity. What this educator and 'his con- freres want to get away from is the old idea that a college-bred man was merely subjected to a four-year loaf. In making a survey, looking over thousands of examination papers pre- in American universities, this group of educators in Washington came across an amazing fact. They found the present-day crop of college stu- dents, in contrast to a current belief, to be -anywhere from 5 to 6 years behind older generations—not only in their ages and studies, but in their outlook on life. - Some of the high- school graduates about to enter col- lege have reached the ripe old age of In other words, intellectual paraly- | sented for study by leading educators | WASHINGTON, FEATURES he Sundwy Star D. C., SUNDAY 23—above the average age of grad-| uates in the 1910 era. Somewhere along the line the world has added five years on the heads of | college men—and women. So far as| | years go, they are being thrown for a | loss in time. The average papers read by the professors were written by youths who ranged between the years | of 17 and 22 years of age—and all of | these were last year's freshmen. In the old days they would have been seniors with college degrees on the | way. | ;MANY factors enter into 1 ‘, of college education. Economic conditions played a part. It still plays & part. When young men get | out of college nowadays they are any- where from 5 to 10 years behind a previous generation that considered matrimony and the responsibilities of family life with the acquisition of | bachelor degrees. Today, work is not | so readily forthcoming—which means that only the unysual graduates of the present generation will carve niches for themselves. The facts are, almost 200,000 of June college gradu- | ates have yet to find places in the | body politic. They are still befng sup- | ported by their parents—or, they are on the dole. With these startling conditions in mind, the professors feel that some changes are needed in educational | methods—to help young men and women feel their responsibility to themselves and to their parents. Freshmen stepping within the gates | of college this year will be told, quite | frankly, they are going intcea foundry | his phase forging weapons to be used in fighting that age-old battle—the struggle for existence. They are not going for a joy ride. 1t is recognized by this serious group | of college professors that the college campus is a panorama sufficiently large to distract even the serious worker. They divide campus life into two parts and find it unevenly bal- anced. The clash is betwee nthe scho- lastic and social life. ship is placed, variously, at 70-30 and 60-40. The major emphasis seems to be placed on such activities as foot | ball, basket ball, track, the proms and showmanship. Questioned, some of the college men themselves admitted they went to certain institutions not for the perusual of studies but to “make contacts.” As each increase in the number of social activities must be deducted from time allotted to scholastic life, it is readily seen that the law of inverse ratio applies to some gradu- ates who come through “only by the This relation- | MORNING, skin of their teeth.” They go through college, but college does not go through them. The four years of college life are designed to absorb all of a student’s time. In the old college curriculum the student had little choice in the wastage of that precious time. His | course was. proscribed. He was out, then, for what became known as a | liberal education. That liberal edu- cation, in turn, was ordained to make | him a man among men—socially and professionally. In the nature of progress, the class- | room subjects became not only en- |larged but elective. the scholar was given his choice. Subjects were expanded so that a man who wanted to be an astronomer could graduate conveniently in the same class with one whose ambition | was to be a chiropractor or a veter- | narian. Here the new subjects came rolling into college, all of equal weight in the RECOVERY REACHES COLLEGE 'MERY M. FOSTER, chief of the Division of Statistics, Office of Education, estimates that this Fall 1,160,000 young men and women will be enrolled in the colleges and universities of the United States. Of this number, 330,000 will be freshmen. This compares with the enroliment of siz years ago—when American colleges first felt the depression. It is a 15 per cent increase over the enrollment of 1930; it is the first sign the American recovery. college circles have shown of SEPTEMBER 8, More subjects | |than any one student could master, | 1935. 'No Longer Will the College Graduate Face the 1World Armed I Merely With a Sheepskin and No Practical Kiowledge for a | Job in an Office, Factory or Laboratory, for the Newo Order Is to Provide Specific Equipment for Making “a Good Living.” as & career in city planning, social | hygiene, or beauty cuture. | These courses, added to the sum total of human knowledge, were de- signed to bring about a new culture/ ‘n America—a culture that would over- ride the influences of the comic strip, | the radio, the movies, cross-word puz- zles, and the drab existence of career men in small towns presided over by lord mayors who got what education ‘lhey could from a reading of the Bible | and a library of the world’s best litera- ture, whenever these books fell into their hands. ‘The basi¢ form of education, elabo- | rated upon by the college curricula of | a decade ago, was primarily leveled to | augment the early influence of the | church and the little red school house | where so many practical men found | the inspiration to amass great fortunes |and later to send their sons and | daughters to college, paying all the freight. That was an objective rather than a subjective education, these professors tell us, and it produced very few sophisticates. THOSE who graduated from our earlier schools came out with & terrific appetite for facts. This char- acterized the beginning of nineteenth century education in America—the persuit of which brought about most of our modern inventions—electricity, the telegraph, the linotype; to mention only a few. It was the era which gave America is Edisons, Fords, Morses and Westinghouses. It had little to do with Plato and astronomy, the Latin and Greek classics, Roman his- ] Children’s Page Book Reviews tory, or the hypothesis of mathematics —though these subjects made up that rigid old four-year course in college The little old red school house was a plain, old-fashioned class room without frills or furbelows. It dealt mainly with the three Rs and its graduates came eventually to check the problems of their day with the experiences of history. Scepticism was then .an unknown factor in! American life. Boys and*girls, com- ing out of school and college, were eager to seize upon all opportunities with an enthusiasm born of frontiers. They looked upon the world as their oyster and whatever education they possessed as the knife that would shuck it. From their hearts pumped blood that stirred an empire. | Working silently, advising the lead- ing college and university presidents, the little group of professors in Wash- ington now want to recapture some of the enthusiasms of the past and weld them into the new college cur- ricula. They believe it can be done, but it will take time. It will take time because the colleges, they say, | slipped into bad ways during the | past five years, and some of the | charges against them are well known | —publicized, in fact, by the Ameri- | can Association of Universities. In | plain, unvarnished English, racket- | | eering went on in the American col- | lege. It had to do with paid lth-’ | letes, and unethical practices in other fields, mostly the search for subsi- | dized’ students. | | Now there is a tendency to tighten | | the reins, after the college curricu- | | lum—trying to satisfy too many de- | | mands—had gone haywire. The re- | | sult is progressive professors all over the land are trying to get the vehicle | back on the roadway. | | There is one place, of course, where the hand of authority fails to assert itself—and that is on the check rein that bridles social life. This is the main complaint of the professors. | | It may be supposed that the | 330,000 boys and girls who enter the freshman classes of American rolleges| | and universities this year will have Lmelr eyes clear enough to look facts | squarely in m‘ face. Old professors ' are willing to tell these students they are not going on a four-year lark Some one has to pay the bills. When the check-up is made, the last exami- nation passed, the college gates will open backward and thrust this younger generation out into a cold, cruel worla —where they will be supposed to make their own living or state the reason why not. \',OW. in the analysis of the Ameri- “ ¥ can college, as its present state, the professors who are watching this work claim there are four factors which surround and influence the students. First, the college administration. Second, the faculty. Third, the parents, Fourth, the student body. These are the forces that mold the career of the student. As one of the old-line professors points out, the ad- ministrator—or the president of the college—has a mighty influence upon those who study under his regime; whether they known it or not. To begin with, he is usually ap- pointed to his post by a board of re- gents—mostly interested in their own affairs. Sometimes. unfortunately, not interested in the viewpoint of those “(Continved on Page 10, Golumn 1. 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