The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-26
NEW THEORY USED IN
 COLLEGE CONTROL Dr. Stagg Is Working Out the Method at Anniston JAMES BRYCE'S IDEA Students Are No Longer Expelled By System of Class Merit and When
 Student Fails He Only Is
 to Blame
JAMES BRYCE'S IDE.
BY HARRY M. AYERS


 In his American Commonwealth" | James Bryce, the noted English ann hassador to the United States says that one reason why the American people respect their laws as much as they do is that having been given a direct voice in the making of the laws, they | look upon them with a sense of owner ship and obey them as the product, in a measure, of their own brains. Dr. Jonn W. Stagg, preacher, philosopher and social student, president of the Ala I bama Presbyterian College for Men in this city, has applied this same theory in the evolution of new idea in col- lege discipline at his institution which is distinct departure from anything heretofore attempted in the United 1 States.
 Dr. Stagg terms his system the doctrine of internal control" and while the writer has seen it's likeness to the Bryce idea, Dr. Stagg accredits its in tception to the words of a higher au- 1 thority, those of the Nazarene as ut | tered in Matthew 15:11, Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth man, for that l which cometh out of the mouth cometh forth from the heart" In other words, pr. Stagg says, he Is trying to teach his students to be good because it IS | good to be good and not because they l fear to do evil. a,t We have stopped expelling boys at at the labama Presbyterian college" said the noted educator in referring to his new system, "and if boy ever has to be removed from our school, he removes himself and has himself alone to blame; and once removed, all the powers and principalities of the uni verse can't get him back.
 Boys Are Like Mules
 Boys are very much like mules" he continued, and there never has been a mule that was born mean; the Baalims of this universe merely have the meanness of man instilled into | them after they are born So 1t Is with boys. Many of them may be mischievi- | ous innately, but that is merely due to energy plus and no boy is ever mean at heart. Respect a boy and teach him to respect himself, treat him with con sideration and confidence and he will grow up with respect for the law and for his fellow man, showing considera- tion In proportion as consideration has l been shown"
 Dr. Arnold of Rugby conceived system of discipline similar to that which Dr. Stagg has put into execution at the college here but his death pre- | vented its being carried into execution. l The Anniston educator has now applied it with notifications to suit the differ ent conditions under which he labors. Under this plan, a large so-called ther- mometer is kept in the hall of the building, and this thermometer regis ters the standing of every student in | school, the temperature being gauged l by the students work in the classroom. l No boy or man who dissipates his ener- l gies can do his best work, Dr. Stagg says. The teachers are thrown into in- innate contact with the students so as to judge them charitably. making al- lowances for those whose minds are not so apt as the brighter boys, and hence the students class work is made the sole basis of merit and demerit Once the thermometer goes up to 70 degrees, | go to speak, the boy opposite whose name it appears has failed to make good" has expelled himself from the college, beyond the power of any mans recall
 Even Pantry Left Unlocked
 Our system is what James calls the | law of liberty Dr. Stagg continued. We do not tell our boys that they shall not do anything or that they shall do | anything, but that if they fail to main- tain our standard they are injuring them | selves We tell them what is right and | what is wrong and strive to get them to live within the light of an ideal; that if they get into the wrong life channel they must sink for their own foolhardi- ress, that if they would climb the noun tain peaks they must do so by the ex- l ertion of their own energies. We are | trying to build citizens and we have | tried to make our college as close as pos s.be to real life. Believing that conf- dence begets confidence, we try to show faith in our students. Nothing is kept un- der lock and key, even the pantry be- | ing accessible to all who desire to enter, and in only one instance has this coveted | place in every household for young Amer | lea been invaded. In that instance the l violators were two new boys. When their depreciation became known they were the l butt end of a huge joke on the part of every other student at college as all know that would have said nothing to them had I caught them in the act of stealing my jam. In fact, our experi- ment has proved great success and we l are now making good students and pros- pectively admirable citizens out of two boys, in particular, who have never be- | fore been known to remain at any col lege. Not only are we succeeding in the | department of the students, but we are maintaining the highest curriculum of any | Alabama institution, one of our boys hay | ing recently been considered admissible to the junior class at Princeton univer- sity.''
 | An amusing incident is related in re- l gard to the experience of a former pres | ident of the college, who did not under stand the psychology of young America as well as does pr. Stagg. One night one | of his valuable chickens was stolen, and l having traced the theft to the students, | he came down town consulted a lawyer l and at chapel exercises the next morn