The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1889-10-20
COLLEGES WITHOUT TEMPTA
TON

TION.
We have received an inquiry from an
anxious mother. on her own behalf and
that of other similarly situated, wheth-
er we can recommend college where
the professors make persistent, united
effort to save the students from the
temptation 20 drink. - and whether We
know OF any college which has any
sufficient safeguards against this temp
tation.n We have no difficulty in say
ing frankly that we do not. We
know of 70 college where the
professors make a persistent and
united effort" to save young
man from any temptation, except by
setting him good example. We are
not quite sure that we know what our,
correspondent means by "a persistent
and united effort" There are only two
things that it can mean: one is preach
ing Temperance to the young man, and
the other is watching hun so that he
can get nothing intoxicating to drink,
or can only get it with great difficulty.
We all know by experience that
preaching temperance to young men
is not very effective preventive,
and vet this is all that professors
can reasonably be expected to do. They
cannot watch young men night and day
to see that they get hold of no liquors.
They could not do SO at all unless they
had the students under military disci-
pline and restraint, as at West Point.
As matters stand the teaching work Of
professors takes all their time, and all
their ti.xe is not enough. If they had
to add police work to their professional
work, life would be intolersbe to
them, and neither work would be well
done. We may also add that they are
very nadequately paid for what they
do now.
We will now 60 n little further, and
say that in our opinion parents who ex-
pect to devolve on other people the task
of keeping their sons out Of temptation
after they reach the collegiate age,
would do well to keep them at home
Keeping young men Of the collegiate
age out of temptation is essentially
parents work. Ut cannot be delegated
or imposed on anybody else, except,
as we have said, by putting the youth
in barracks under military dis
cipline. No civil college in this country
is properly organized for any such
duty. The professor is teacher, but
not guardian in the proper sense Of
that term. His business is to teach
Young men who want to learn, and get
rid Of them if they will not learn. 1t
is not his business to keep them out Of
harms way by any extraordinary pre-
cautions If parents think their son is
unequal to the temptations to which
the inevitable freedom of college life
exposes him. the proper remedy
is not to commit his morals to
the care OF a poor, hard-worked
professor, who 10 already staggering
under the weight of his didactic
load, but to keep the youth at home.
A youth who needs watching, who
cannot be trusted to walk the streets
alone, is best and most effectively
watched by his father and mother.
Their espionage is the only espionage
which will not demoralize him, and
their circumstances on bis manners
and excuses are the remonstrances
most likely to prove effectual. No pro-
fessor can play the detective without
serious injury to his influence as a
teacher, and without developing GER
tain pride on the part of the students in
getting the better of HIM.
Expectations such as our correspon-
dent entertains about college discipline
are. in our minds. based on a wholly
mistaken view OF the function Of col
leges, and one to which the colleges
themselves have given too much coun-
tenance. Parents who have never at
tempted to maintain any discipline in
their own households, and who bring
up their boys without reverence. with
out refinement and without self-re-
straint. expect to get rid Of the respon-
sibility for their morals, when the age of
puberty comes, by packing them off
to college, and charging the professors
with the duty Of seeing not only that
they are diligent in their studies, but
also virtuous in their lives. There is
no college in the country fit for any
such task. IL is an abuse of collegiate
funds and discipline to undertake it,
aud we, for our part, hope to see the
day when no college will pretend, as
some Of them do now, to undertake it.
The next great step in advance in COL
legiate education in this country will.
we believe, be the resolute shutting OF
the doors on all boys who are not eager
to learn, and who are not willing,
while at college, to lead scholastic
lives. The waste Of endowments and
Of professors, and Libraries, and labora-
tories in this country on dropss and