The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-08-18
PHILOSOPHY In SUMMERTIME
DISTRACTIONS FROM STUDY FORE
SEEN AND UNFORESEEN.
Some Are q Part or . Programme at o sum.
mcr School Session. but Most Are Per-
sOnal Idi0syDcrAcics- subtle Foes OF
Thought I'm Poetic Guise In Classroom.

mcr School Session. but Most Are Per-
sOnal IdiosyncrActes -6ubtie Foes OF
Thought In Poetic Guise in C1assroom
The promoters of the summer schools,
which have become adjupcts Of the
academic year at most OF the largest Ameri-
can universities, probably do well to prepare
a programme Of amusements along with
the programme Of studies. For IL a SCHOOL,
teacher Ii coming all the way from Paris,
Me-, OF Ozark county, Mo-, to spend a por-
ton Of her stored away funds in annexing
a new accomplishment or Two the chances
are that New York being the city she has
chosen to study in she is about as anxious
TO see New York as TO study English,
pedagogy or political science. or that Boston
being the seat Of her intended lahcrs she
is no less eager to take back reminisoenoes
Of Concord, Plymouth Rock and Mrs. Jack
Gardeners palace than 10 tuck away in her
Uranium for establishment some hunks
Of metaphysics, chemistry or ancient his
tory. The stay in New York must become
an opportunity for seeing New York, o.
the stay in Boston an opportunity for taking
in what the prospectuscs call points Of his
torical interest.
IL may be, too, that the season has sone-
thing to do with the elaborate programmes
Of distractions the managers Of summer
sessions take pains to provide. As q noted
psychologist once observed il is hard to
sit still in the summertime.
Porting over books pals soon after that
artificial excitement fades which the mind
feels on coming in touch for the first time
with a text book in some subject that has
been no more than a name to the teacher
become stu dent. The names have long
allured-@ethetics, sociology or compare
tive literature, but the student breaking
into these fields may find the matter dry
and technical and she will soon remark
that it In hard to get ones mind concen-
trated in the summer.
So she tells her companion that while she
cannot conscientously spare the time she
k that it will be a good plan to take
the Seeing Chinatown trip which, has
been arranged for the next day. and which,
she had decided to forego.
IL must be confessed hat the spirit OF dis
traction worms it's way ever into those
classrooms that should be ~impregnably
armored against it, for who can imagine
a young woman or a young man with the
least tendency to become frivolous taking
a course in the theory Of mathematics or
in modern metaphysical systems?
One can think Of such courses prefaced
by some u injunction as All light mind
edness abandon ye who enter here" But
even the philosophy classroom succumbs
to the taste for distraction. or else il will
haye to be acknowledged that at the sum-
mer sessions students take these courses
who are not vitality and temperamentaIly
interested in them.
And there are cruel suspicious that the
latter supposition may be true. For in
stance. il you find a young woman with her
normal school days-that 10. her days at
normal school-not 90 many years behind
her sitting at a philosophy lecture and whis-
pering to her neighbor that young Mr..
Cummins. who has a light brown mustache
and wavy hair a shade or so darker. and has
come to summer school to get a few much
needed finishing touches before beginning
the p~rincipalship OF the new Training
School OF Applied Sociology at Three Rivers,
Michigan for the summer school Is not
wholly destitute Of men lis quite the incest
man she has met since coming to town.
why. il you overhear her telling this inter-
esting fact When the lecturer is explaining
the moral significance Of the death OF
Socrates. are you unfair in ascribing her
preference to the more modern and tangi-
BILE subject OF the two?
Then you may over hear a couple OF
jaunty schoolma'ams confding to each
other their opinions of Prof. LaPlato.
whose latest book, The Hitherto Unimplied
Implications of the Theory Of Sufficient
Reason" bids fair, to revolutiopize most
OF the speculations about science and
philosophy.
He reminds me of the president OF the
Christian Endeavor Society at home"
comments the younger and the more dash
ing OF The two. a slender girl with anything
but n formidable expression. Il can hardly
look at him without being reminded Of a
compliment our Christian Endeavor presi-
dent once paid to me Not that our Chris
tian Endeavor president is anything like
so intellectual as Prof. LaPlato. but they
look very much alike. Well. to tell you
about the compliment"
Never mind. DEAR" the interiocutor puts
In at this juncture. whether maliciously or
accidentally you just canno tell. Il am
glad to hear that your county has produced
so good looking a man." she adds with Q
smile. which the first speaker returns with
courteous indifference.
Well. about this you notice a certain
well bred neglect of prosy things and their
e%xpounders that pleases you. School teach
ers. you reflect. very easily become too
theoretical. On he whole you conclude
1t Is better for school teachers to stick to
common sense and the objects Of common
sense. .
Possibly you get a surreptitious peep some
day at the notebook the young school,
ma'am at your side is keeping, presumably
filing it with important facts from the pro-
~fessor's lectures. The miscellany Of in
formation at once surprises you.
When can she have heard the professor
tell 30 many interesting things that you,
though strictly attending to his words
during the whole Of his lectures, haven't
heard him mention? While you are puzxling
over the phenomenon your eyes are pro-
vided with an explanation.
For the young woman. disdaining TO rup-
ture the discipline OF the classroom by
whispering to her neighbor. is using her
note book as a conversation pad. writing
her thoughts down for the girl who sits