University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1911-01-05
The College World.
Let Us Standardize.

Our colleges and universities have
been so long under fire, and in so many
ways, that it is truly surprising that
the fundamental trouble with them has
remained so long unrevealed. But now
that-thanks to the report made by a
mechanical engineer to the Carnegie
Foundation-the light of modern in
ldustrial methods has been thrown up
on them. there will no longer be any
excuse for their persistence in evil
IL may take little time. to be sure.
TO put the new standards and ideals
into effective operation. but that :
merely a detail. The new day has
dawned, and the oily question that
remains is what institutions will be
foremost in gaining the favor of far
sighted and broad-minded men of
wealth by conforming their ways to
the principles of industrial efficiency
Student-time-units per professor num-
Der of pages of standardized lecture
notes, coordination of janitor-work
with teaching-time. and a score of
other measurements of efficiency
which will occur to every competent
college president. will take the place
of those vague and intangible ways
| OF estimating the merits of our in
stitutions of learning that have hith-
erto prevailed. To argue the merits
OF the change would be a waste of
words. In this age of industrial and
commercial advance, reform which
means progress toward mechanical
Standardization of methods and values
is sure to receive SO universal a well
come that its success is assured from
the start.
But as the crying need of mechani-
cal standardization has been so
'strangly overlooked in the college and |
university world, it will strike every |
thoughtful person that there must be |
a number of other departments of hu- |
man life, fully as important, in which |
the same defect exists and is equally /
in need of remedy. Nor does it re-
quire much looking about to find them. /
Take the case of mothers. for exam
pie. in their relation to infants and
little children. 1t has probably not
occurred to one mother in a thousand
to consider whether she applies the
time she expends upon endearments
and caresses, upon entertainment and
instruction, in the way calculated to
produce the maximum results as re-
CARDS either the happiness of the child
or its future economic efficiency. Nor
can it be expected that any individual
mother could effect such calculation,
even with the best of will. Only
through systematic observation by
trained experts can any trustworthy
conclusion in these matters be arrived
at. A certain amount of kissing and
is doubtless good for a child,
but who shall say whether a consider
PShtChtd6C vi tuc tlllie ACTUALLY |
devoted by the average mother to this /.
purpose might not be better employed
n other ways? 1t must be evident to
my scientific and mechanical mind
hat actions in this field based upon
impulses, upon the inspir-
Ition of the moment. must, in the ma
ure of things, be in the highest degree
The most important of all ;,
Industries is that of rearing human >,
eings, and yet in one of its chief e
hases it is allowed to 90 on in an ut.
erly haphazard fashion, without su-
ervision by experts, without any sta !,
istical tabulations, without any stand /,
I'd schedule Surely it cannot be long q
efore some benefcient multi-million-
ire will establish a foundation whose
,come will be used to bring about at
east some approach to orderly and n
usiness-like methods in this domain. II