Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1907-06-09
BIG UNIVERSITIES VS.. SMALLER
COLLEGES.

Clarence #. Birdseye, n prominent
lawyer or New York City, has put
into printed words certain thoughts
concerning college life and college
! training that have been in the minds
OF many others. 1t is not too much
TO say that there has been n doubt
with many as to whether the big uni
versities are doing all they purport
to do, all they should do for the
young men in their charge. The
doubt may have been OH the whole
rather nebulous. somewhat uniformed,
not universally expressed by any
means, but existent nevertheless. We
hive heard one leading teacher and
investigator, n man who was for years
n professor in one of the leading uni.
versities of this country, declare re-
Gently thnt tho big colleges of the
present day were training schools for
snobs and cads. We have heard an.
other man who Is In n position to
know something about the conditions
declare that these institutions were
schools for bummers. All of this may
seem like overstating the truth, but
1t Indicates what Mr.. Birdseye, in his
book on Individual Training In Our
Colleges, just published by the Mac
milan Company, lays stress on, that
there Is something wrong with our
college life today.
Mr.. Birdseye is of the old school, n
graduate of Amherst. He says of
what the college used to mean: "a
good education could be got nowhere
except at college. Fortunately boys
went To college from the small ham,
lets and frontier towns of the colo
MES. 1t was matter of much prayer
and thought as to which boy of n
large family should be given the op-
portunity to help himself through col.
lege. Then began eight or ten years
of self-saorlfice upon the part of all
the family md Of the chosen boy him.
self until he was fitted for college and
had completed his course there. He
was perhaps the only boy who hal
thus gone from that locality for many
years. His course at college and
thereafter was watched by all his
friends and acquaintances at home as
closely MS though he were their own
son. Men valued what cost so much
and came to so much-for n college
education was the making of man.
1t was at the same time the greatest
honor and the surest help to success
in life that could be conferred on any
bright boy. 1t set him apart from his
fellows and put him in the most enyi.
able position possible
Things have changed somewhat
since those days. Today there is a
good education to be had almost
everywhere throughout this broad
land. The high schools, II they are
administered in accord with the best
and highest standards, afford to the
young man or woman as good an edu-
cation as did the best Of the colleges
not SO many years ago. They stand
as the poor mans college, open TO
| every boy and girl who wants to know
and is determined to know. Unless
hoy wishes to specialize in some
branch OF knowledge he does not find
1t so necessary to go to college to
lay a groundwork of culture and
learning. And yet there Is much to
be gained by association with college
men and an experience of college
life; only many feel. as Mr.. Birdseye
feels. that too much has been sacri-
ficed TO the building up Of great, and
what he terms largely inefficient, In
stitutionss The individual has been
lost sight Of. The life outside the
class rooms has been emphasized un.
I'll 1t Is the thing; and it Is largely
without effective control. Mr. Birds.
eye makes the statement that the
average Harvard student has only
about "a hours of lectures and study
week: and, rs this is not to exceed
81 weeks In the year. the average for
the whole year is only eighteen hours
week. And he adds: 'If then an
earnest boy. who could not get to
college, should spend three hours q
Day exclusive of Sunday he would be
putting in as much time upon his
lessons rs the average Harvard man
deyotes to his lectures and study"
Yet the usefulness of the Mg in
stitution is not to be denied, though
70 secure the full measure of that use.
tulness 1t must adopt measures which
/ Will still give to tho ind,yta,,,, 80,