The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-04-25
life AND THE COLLEGES.

The current number of the American
Magazine has a contribution on college
education and its results. in which a
professor gives some amazing stories of
the plans. or lack of plans, among the
seniors of an institution of learning.
One of the seniors whom he questioned
thought he would go into the diplomatic
service but before he could do that he
said he would make, say 100000. so he
would be prepared to represent his
country properly. He had no definite
idea as TO how he would make this
small amount or how long it would
take but imagined he might be all of
ten years acquiring it,
/ Another student proposed to enter
politics after graduation, but thought
Colorado. his native state, too small for
his ambitions, because he meant to be
president of the United States and be-
lieved a residence in the state having
the largest number of electoral votes
would be necessary to his success. An
other boy thought he would get into
some job that would pay him $1,000 a
year. and figured it would not take him
more than two years to attain that
earning capacity.
Now these three college boys, almost
ready 10 go out into the world. were
serious and yet nothing could be more
pathetically humorous than their no
ton of what will happen TO them. Not
one of them had pursued any special
| course of study which. might possibly
! have made him unusually valuable. Not
one had any large means or any re-
markable Intellectual attachments
which would justify an inordinate am
bition. They were all plain. foolish col
| lege boys. destined to an awful disillu-
sionment. The one distinguishing trait
of character common to all of them was
the cheeky assumption that the world
was waiting eagerly TO reward them for
being alive.
1t had not occurred to these young
men that $1,000 salaries, 100000 for
times and high diplomatic station are
reached in most cases by hard work
through long years. by diligence, self
denial through mistakes and eXpe-
rience. In the deceptive environment
of an easy college career. care free and
Astounding with all the allurements OF
Youth. they had not learned the primer
of life itself If they survive the first
disappointment and do not give up in
utter encouragement, they may
amount to something after all; but the
chances are they will never achieve
much because their foundation ideas
are all wrong.
Obviously something is the matter
with system that permits young
man Ia reach his senior year with such
immature. foolish conceptions Of the
worlds trials and obligations. The mi
tial mistake of course, was with the
parents who could let boy reach col
lege age with no more sense; but the
fault ought to have been remedied in
the institution of learning or else the
mana cement of that college has
wrong conception of what education is.
One man. Thomas Arnold, revolution
lied the educational methods of Great
Britain when he became the head of
Rugby. and he did it by assuming that
ebara cter was the fundamental need of
an education: that learning was i'm
nortant. hut only incidental, to the up
building of the forces which make men
effective for good in this world. He
valued the humanities but the all-im-
portant thing on which he laid most
stress was the character of the boy as
he developed into manhood: One can
not imagine such thing as the gradu-
alton from Rugby i'm Arnold's day of
three men as ignorant and character
less as these three cited by the Amer
lean college professor. though il is not
unusual to see examples of their kind
in any assembly Of average graduates.
A knowledge of the languages. of lit
terature and history and political econ
omy is desirable The associations of
college life. may go far ITO prepare a
man for contact with his kind in the
stress of competitive conditions. The
memory of college days is a great
pleasure always. But these are not the
essentials; unless the college boy grow
ing into manhood learns to recognize
that his success of failure will depend
upon hard work, on honorable dealing,
on creating a value within himself
which others need and win pay for, he
might as well be a sheepherder all his
DAYS. And a. boy who fails to learn
these facts would probably. be failure
as a herder. ss