New-York tribune., 1910-01-22
american Life and the inner
ican College.

Scf
TEE REORGANIZATION OF OUR coll
LEGEs BY Clarence T. Birdseye.
svo. pp. tx. lo. The Baker & Taylor
Company.
THE AMERICAN. COLLEGE,. 4 criti-
cisni BY Abraham flexner. l6mo. pp.
X 257. The Century Company.
AMERICA AT COLLEGE. as Seen by
Scots Graduate BY Robert Is; Risk.
NJ A. with preface by Donald Me-
Alister n A. principal j.. Of o,s Glasgow 5fs
gov: John Smith Son.
The author Of notable book upon In
dividuai training in our colleges has
pursued the subject further, and reasons
that the colleges and universities of this
country. which have Expanded with un-
exampled rapidity in wealth and num-
bers. have not advanced at an equal
rate in scholarship and efficiency. He
calls for a radical change in the admin
istration Of our great educational plants
and asserts that the same thoroughness
that is now given TO athletic coaching. if
applied TO teaching. would have fruitful
results Every entering class is now
carefully looked over by college coaches
and trainers seeking available candi-
dates for football, baseball. crew. etc.
Yet where are there pedagogical coaches
who TO the like extent canvass every
entering freshman TO take his measure
as q student and to make sure that he
knows how to study, and, If he does not,
whose duty ii is to teach him the hne
points of the college training? OF the
one hundred and sixty-eight hours in
the week usually from twelve TO fifteen
are passed in the college classroom, so
that not 10 per cent of the students
time is spent with the professor. 1t
would be expected that careful analy-
sis and observation of the 80 per cent
would be made by the teachers. whose
work in the 10 per cent must be greatly
affected by the influences governing the
remaining time. The 80 per cent OF the
student life has been ignored and not
studied. and the instructors wonder why
the effectiveness of their teaching is only
q fraction of what it should be. They
have not thought out the true nature or
the student life. nor its effect upon their
own work, nor the way to reach and IN
fuence IL. But a reorganization on
modern business lines must reveal this
student life and it's bearing upon the
other factors Of the problem.
Up 10 a generation ago small numbers
and simple social conditions made the
college administration simple and easy.
but numbers and size and intricacy and
failure to grasp the change have upset
the college economy. And so the con-
clusion is reached by <Mr. Birdseye that
quite outside of pedagogical conditions
the administration is crude, unsclentlhc
and insufficient. the student life is too
often neglected, unstuded and mlsunder-
stood and true financial economy and sys-
TEN are disregarded. While there is such
lack Of intelligent coordination no sat
,sfactory results can be obtained. What
trained nursing is to the science of medi-
cine the administrative and student life
DEPARTMENTS should be to modern college
teaching Our teachers have improved,
but the results have not kept pace with
the apparatus. Recognized student ac-
tivities outside of the regular curriculum,
embracing everything from sports TO
oramatics. are not only more numerous
and engrossing, but they play more
i important part in the student life ana
In the character forming period; yet II
Is asserted that the faculty have not
fully recognized this plane OF college
life nor realized its bearing upon the re-
s,,lts of their work They have been con-
tent 10 study and discourse upon con-
stitutional history and political economy
and affairs of state and city without
within their own walls which palsy
their own efforts and too often prove
curse to some of their brightest studehIs'
a proper and separate administrative
department is the remedy proposed foF
these evils.
The autl7or makes an earnest plea LOT
the introduction of that system "hloh
has made our foremost commercial
enterprises pre-eminent The annual IN
come of the United States Steel Corpora
,ion exceeds the capital and plant which
o,r $50 institutions of higher learning
have been able 10 accumulate IN -io
vears and is fifteen times as large as
their combined annual income. Ii the
science OF modern administration can
dominate and systematic such divergent
Vet huge forces and powers. all working
seward common ends, it must solve the
comparativeiy paltry problems Of an in
stitution such as one Of our colleges. In
business affairs the administrative de-
partnent is fostered and rewarded, put
such is the inertia Of college ideals and
tradition that a clever administrator
Is hammered and circumscribed and
choked off. Again and again the author
draws a parallel between the control or
business enterprises and educational
enterprises. Only when we reorganlze
our college factories, he says, SO as to
make and keep our instructors, as our
chief primary units, of the highest grade
and in the highest state of efficiency, and
with constant opportunities and in
centiyes for self-improvement and all
this in charge of a coordinate sympa-
fhetic and earnest department looking
for results, shall we get anything like
the product OF which our institutions
are capable. The preceptorial work at
Princeton is quite as much an admin
istrative as a pedagogical advance. 1t is
an attempt TO insure that the good work
of the professors shall not be wasted on
IN ,.unrera red mass OF students. The