The San Francisco call., 1910-03-27

Du CENTS
4 FTER Professor Gayley has said
a all he has to say in this little
book there is little left for us to
answer. He tears the present system
of education to tatters and, while he
may seem to go to extremes in some
of his statements, on the whole he is
right. Much as it may hurt to read
his arraignment ii will do some good,
let us hope, in the end.4
This book is plea for common sense
In the management ofsour educational
system, and who can resist that? Every
parent must be interested, and though
the reforms suggested may come slow
ly, yet they are bound to come in time
The book contains II chapters, each
one of which is filled with quotable
passa ges. The second chapter. AN
Indifferent Generation" is perhaps as
severe as any, but who can quarrel
with the professor when he says that
the world OF learning was never bet
Ter Worla preparing for than now and
taat our young people Were never
more Indifferent To quote:
How many nights week does the
student spend in pursuits nonacadenlic;
how great a proportion of his days?
Wnat with so called college activities,
oy which he must prove his allie glance
10 the university and social functions
by which he must recreate his faded
soul, 10 margin is left for the one and
only college activity-whioh is study.
Grass meetings, business meetings, COM
mlttee meetings, editorial meetings.
football rallies, baseball rallies. paiaI1la
rallies, y;carious athletics on the bleach
efs, Sarrulous athletics In dining room
and paror and on the porch, rehears-
ais OF the glee club. rehearsals of the
mandolin club ard OF the banjo re-
hearsals for dramatics "a word to stand
the hair on end1. college dances and
class banquets, fraternity dances and
suppers, preparations for the dances
and banquets, more committees for the
preparations; running up and down
the campus for ephemeral items for
ephemerai articles in ephemeral papers,
a soliciting OF advertisements. a run
ming up and down for subscriptions to
the dances and dinners and the papers
and the clubs: running up and down
in college politics, making tickets. pull
Ing wires, adjusting combinations can
vassing for votes-canvassing the girls
for votes, spending hours at sorority
houses for sentiment, talking rubbish
increasingly, thinking rubbish. revamp-
ing rubbish-rubbish about high links,
rubbish about low. rubbish about ral-
lies. rubbish about pseudo civic honor.
rubbish about girls; what margin of
leisure is left for the one activity OF
the college, which is study"
The foundation is weak, saws Pro-
fessor Gayley, and the majority of the
liberal students do not know the rudi-
ments OF one subject thoroughly They
can not reason accurately, think clearly
nor express a thought lucidly, effect
lively nor correctly. Again. to quote:
How many can spell, how many
write a letter not illiterate; how many
use a diction simple, pure and idio-
matte, clearly enounced, Justly pro-
nounced2'
We know too that his next oues-
ticning denunciation is only too true:
How many know the difference be-
tween Sennacherib and floating rib
the Maid of Orleans and the Maid Of
Athens. the Witch of Endor and the
Widow of Main, Dionysius and Diony-
sus the jewels of Cornelia and the dia-
mond necklace the Lion of Judah and
the Lion of the North? Or, If some have
some, vague impression of some of these
things, for how many do they possess
an historical. or literary flavor? If a
speaker refer to Apollyon or the Hony-
huhms; to the Delectable Mountains or
Mount Hymettus, or the Horn of Rom
cesvalles; If he quote line of Horace.
a French bon mot or German COM
monplace: If he refer to the Seven
against Thebes, the Electra. the Bu-
COLES, the Telemaque, the Sorrows of
Werther to Giottos 0 or Boticelli's
Spring. to Gargantua or Pompelia, how
many eyes light with recognition?"
The author is not scolding entirely
because the students do not know all
these things. The system has been de-
fective for long. SO long that many of
his criticisms apply to those teaching
in the fine institutions of the country.
He says: Our Phi. DIS are lamentably
prone to error in the use of their own
tongue OF the later crop of instruc-
tors in universities. some say HE
don't ..hospi- able .Iuckrative.'' "ex-
oui-site,'' ..minerology" - confessing
that they hadn't ought to-; others
never fail, they fall down; they never
win, they win OUT. they are never at
a loss, though they are frequently .'up
against it,"
The motto on the title page is taken