Norwich bulletin., 1909-01-29
LETTERS TO The EDITOR.
Culture and Character in Education.

| Mr.. Editor: Many persons who IA
vor strict discipline for the control Of
students in college recognize their ideal
/ in a school like West Point. Others
! see in the system that frees the youths
from all surveillance and police con-
troll and places them on their honor
| the best possible conditions for secur-
| ing the best results in the rising gen.
| GRAFTON.
A writer in the North Atlantic I'M
dertakes to compare the results OBJ
tanned in the schools Of opposite sorts
as to their respective systems Of con-
| troll as far as there is any. Ee takes
as example the Unit. States Military
academy at West Point and Harvard
university, OF which he is an alumnus.
| lie classes then as follows:
"The one is a college of discipline by
virtue of a policy largely fixed by the
/ traditions of army service; the other
! a college of freeI 1m-a response in a
! large measure to the leadership Of
great man.
"The West Point cadet, once entered
upon his work, finds his studies abso-
lutely determined for him. Whether
| he will or not. he must take an as
| signed measure Of mathematics, sci
ence, modern languages, drawing, his
/ tory and dancing. He becomes a mem
| Der of a section of perhaps ten. The
i
| certain pages of a text book. At the
call OF the instructor he must rise, put
| his heels together begin with the for
mula, I am required to rec1te, etc,
and is most successful when ne repeats
| the exact language Of his text book
which is his guide He must be ready
every day, and his standing in COM
parison with every other man in his
class is posted at the end of each
week, made out to the fractional part
! Of a per cent Tho hours for work and
! play are fixed and he may not go be-
| yond the limits of the West Point
| reservation. Through the whole four
years course runs consistently the
! ideal Of personal discipline.
His courses once chosen, the Har-
yard freshman finds himself one OF a
group Of twenty or five hundred, ac-
cording to the subject. If he occupies
| his place with fair regularity he may
work earnestly or very little. There
| is no day-by day demand upon him
such as the West Point cadet must
expect With occasional tests during
| the term-generauy not dificult-and
an examination at the end, which
mark Of so per cent will pass, the sub
iect is credited to him as complete
study. Meanwhile the opportunities
for reading. for individual study, for
| fellowship and for amusement are un-
! limited. Individual freedom IS the key
note of his college life"
Doubtless in comparing school sys-
TENS it is necessary 70 compare the
men they have turned out to take part
in the public life Of the nation, as Wen
as in the private life Of society and the
home. In this connection the writer
quoted says:
There was one critical epocn in our
national life which furnished very
interesting comparison, and which has
always seemed to me to speak well for
that feature OF West Point education
which arises out Of the close COM
munity life and the bringing together
of boys from all parts Of the union. In
the troubled days which marked the
first efforts of reconstruction AFTER the
Civil war three West Point graduates
Grant, Sherman and Schoheld-by
virtue of their military commands
took definite positions as to the meth
DDS by which the seeded states were
to be brought back into the union.
Eventually the matter went to con-
gress and the plan which finally pre-
vailed was due mainly to two college
graduates one in the senate, the other
in the house-Charles Sumner Of Har-
ward and Thaddeus Stevens of Dart
mouth. I think it is fair to say that,
looking back after forty years, the
general Judgment of thinking men is
that the reconstruction policy or the
West Point graduates was not only
more Just and more merciful, but also
politically wiser than that Of Sumner
and Stevens.
Both Of these COLLEGES are noble
agencies for the education Of men;
both have sent into our national life
graduates who have done honor alike
to their institutions and to their
country The remembrance of this
fact ought to help toward educational
liberality. It serves to remind US that,
after all, we have no specifics in edu-
cation; that men come into larger
usefulness and into finer intellectual
and spiritual life by many paths. Dis
cipline and freedom both play their
parts in the evolution of the best hu
man character, and we may therefore
not wonder that institutions varying so
widely in ideals and in methods have
alike achieved high measure of success
and have won a place Of singular honor
and regard IN the nations estimate"
Some boys cannot be put upon any
pledge of honor. With some discipline
excites and arouses a spirit of resist
ance, while If given a fair degree Of