Birmingham age-herald., 1895-06-11
SENDING BOYS 10 coLLBGB.
Some Of tho Perpiexties Which Cop'tnr.t
 the Parent.

Some CT th3 IcrpieXitiaS W hlch ConftnLt
 the Parent.
 At this season of the year. as the terms of the preparatory schools are drawing 10 a close, the serious problem presents itself to many parents, where shall we send our boy to college? A generation or two ago the question would have been easily answered, even if it had been necessary to ask. The col leges were comparatively few and far between. Most of them were little bet ter than q first-class high school Of the present day. All things being equal, the nearest college attracted the parent, though in many cases he decided in fa- vor of the institution of which he, as a boy, had been member In other cases the educational advantages of each col lege were carefully weighed, and a de- cision was reached with reference to the peculiar opportunities afforded in spe- cal line of study and work. Those were the days which the conservative father now speaks of familiarity as the good old times. What a difference is there between the collcge-going boy of the middle of the century and the young man of .the present.
 In this rapid age the easy going father has little to say concerning a step which is, or ought to be, of vital importance. It is apparently enough to him that he has consented to pay the bills in order that his son may have first class col lege education. It never enters his head that his sons idea of what constitutes first class education may be at great variance with his own. He is impressed with his paternal wisdom and generosity when he declares that his son shall se- lect his own college, and it does not oc- eur to him either that the boy may not be capable of choosing wisely or that hid reasons for his choice are wholly unde-- serving. On the other hand the wise and prudent father not only asks his son to name the college he prefers, but also to give his reasons for his preference. Then paternal sanction will be dependent on the sufficiency of the reasons.
 It Is only too well known that many immature boys, fresh from fitting school, are carried away by the absurd craze for athletics, and will decide un- hesitatingly in favor of that institution which has borne off the intercollegiate honors in the domain of sports. The boy at Exeter, AndoVer or any other httlnS school looks eagerly forward to the day when he will be a member of the 1a'c football team, or the Harvard crew or the Princeton nine. All his faculties are bent to this end and the mere object Of study is to scrape through the academy and enter college, without regard to con- ditions. Unhappily college authorities, in their anxiety to secure great mum Der of students, cater to this deplorab Q sentiment. and many a boy, who, judi ciously handled, might have made some thing of his educational opportunities. spends four years uniting himself Tor the wrestle with life, which begins With the exit from college halls.
 The more then it becomes the duty or the parents to ask themselves ii it will pay in the long run--if it will be just 10 the boy--to approve sentiment tnat can be productive of no particular good,
 1 n evil Some years ago 1t was generally believed that it hurt no boy to go to college even if the amount of good were at the minimum But under the present system of college government. with athletics to absorb the entire time and attention of the youth, and with al most no restraint put upon tine under graduates in the craze for physical de Velopment and contention for the non or of the college" the prudent father shakes his head and counts the cost In ways not merely financial Perhaps he remembers the day when he went to college, when boys were boys as they are now, and when athletic sports had their charms as they have today, but when boating and ball playing and track con tests were incidents-not motiVcs-of college life.
 And he remembers that in d little. New England or western town there still ex- ists a college which has never gained notoriety at Mott Haven. and has never won victories at New London or on the Polo grounds in New York City. but where the old-fashioned ideas of text books and lectures and rigid eXamina- tions In the classics stil! prevail. And he says to himself that that is the place for his boy; knowing that if the pro- fessors attend strictly to the require ments of the intellectual curriculum the boy will see that he has plenty of lex ercise."
 Under existing conditions then the question of sending the boy to college becomes at once a serious one. If he Is naturally studious, with an earnest de- sire for an education, the problem is sim plified, but If he has the craze for ath- letics, which brings the vacant mind to the abnormally developed body, it is wise to put him in an institution where temptation is not too strong, or into a store or counting room or even on a farm. To let such boy choose for him. self is to run perilous chances"