The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1886-10-21
Idlensss In German Universities.

'PNh iNoiSi " iIOl. pCulllOt1cE, Ollc VI
the most influential men IN the law IA
Guilty of the University of Berlin. It's
publication has called forth a storm OF
controversy in the German newspapers.
The fact that German students fire.
quently spend the first half of their uni
versity course in idleness is not denied,
even by those who oppose the views of
the learned professor. and their chief
argument of defense is that these years
OF idieness make up the only season OF
romance in the otherwise unbroken life
of examination and positon-hunting to
which German youths are doomed:
What | want to see done away with is
the officially organized untruth, which
excites my Indignation every time l
have to carry it into execution. Every
professor twice a year t~estifies that
dozens OF students have been present at
his lectures, who, he knows, have new
er set foot in his room. 1t has hap
pened repeatedly that students guile
lessly presented to me Prof. Eck's pan
dects for me to sign, thereby admitting
that they did not know hat either Prof.
Eek or me by sight. don't want to
force anybody to hear tedious lectures;
I've cut many a lecture myself, and
know well enough that hard reading
and industry in his own room are in
the end more important, perhaps, to
a student than hearing the university
courses. But | can not pursuade my
self that this industry is to be found in
the case of those who attend no lee
lures the first two or three semesters
and calculate from the very beginning
on the ability of the paid coach to
cram them up for examination. The
number of these men, however, is very
large-among the law students certain
ly from one-fourth to n third; and so
the question simply is, Can not a sys-
tenn of marking, without compulsion,
be employed? To all Industrious stu
dents this would be a matter of indiffer-
ence. Would it not save the majority
of the lower layer of our future govern
ment officials from that cumming"
which must occur when one wastes from
one to three years of his life? The AGA
demic freedom would not be affected in
the least by this plan, only the right to
conceal laziness from parents, guar
dians, and the university officers would
be put an end to. l added that the
carrying out of such a change would
moi be easy. If it be deemed unworthy
of a student to be TINS daily controlled,
let me merely call attention to our
great military educational establish
mentS. The officers in the war acade-
my and in the artillery school, who are
on the average much older than uni
verSity students, who are in possession
of offices and rank, and are many of
them married men, must daily put up
with having their attendance at courses
of instructions marked.
The Berlin ReichSbate, commenting
editorially on this letter, is much sharp
er in its criticism
If any form of life has remained in
the rear of reform it is the academic,
and only the romance of student life,
and the easy-going Partially of wider
circles in the outer world, have kept
the public eye closed to this fact. There
is a mistaken idea current as to the po-
Sition of the better and more capable
class of students in regard to the exist
ing state of affairs. The general opin-
ion is that this class wo@ld bitterly re-
SEN every change as an attack upon
their traditional privileges. We should
like to emphasize the fact that, on the
contrary, a deep desire to reform the
present evil circumstances has long
been making itself felt in academic
circles. There is great d scontent and
Impotence, especially with the extra
ordinary arrangement of lecture cour-
ses, the lack of system, the indigestib l.
ity and even the partial absence of
spirit of the great mass of information
offered in the universities. One of the
most alarming features in the complete
irresponsibil:ty of the professor for the
intellectual progress of his hearers.
From this result the willfulness with
which every instructor, according to his
personal inclinat ions, chooses and
handles his subject, the dry, uninter-
ested tone which makes most lectures
an abomination to the useful ferment-
ing spirits of the auditors, and the re-
markably slight personal relations
which nowadays exist between profess
sors and students. in scientific matters.
One can boldly say thai if a student
really does any good work. he owes
this 10 his own self-teaching industry,
a good school preparation, or per-
haps to the personal interest of some
professor, but least of all, to the insti-
stitutionS of the university. When one
adds to this the evils in the system of
salaries, which have turned the Office
of private decent into a money specu-
lation. In the one-sided education Of
whole profess .ons, as of the philolog-
ians and theologians, who receive from
the university as good as nothing for
their practical calling in life, in the bad
arrangement of examinations, in the
social life of the students, as in the
dueling abomination, the awarding of
scholarships, and so forth, one is forced
to wish with all his soul that at last
some Gdipus might arise to undertake
the solution of these complicated rid.
dies. 1t is only a consequence of the
want of earnestness with which, owing
to all sorts of sentimental reminis-
cences, this subject is usually dealt
with, that in no walk of life does an
equal number of persons morally and
physically 60 to ruin, as in the student
world, before they have done anything
for the good of the community. Sta