The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-07-27
BY DIR. DOUGLAS S. FREEMAN.

NV pdIeIll WIFI BOY 10 oQuCaCo can
survey the banquet of intellectual
sweets placed before him in this section
of The Times-Dispatch and fail to ask
himself upon what shall he feast his
son. With SO many good colleges from
which to choose, and with so many
genuine advantages described by diff
ferent institutions, what is best for the
boy? How, in short, shall he choose a
college?
This question is something more
than the selection Of one of many good
things. 1t is, in fact, a life choice.
Inevitably, the college which the boy
attends will set it's peculiar seal upon
him; inevitably in after life, his name
will be connected with the school from
which he graduated. Inevitably, too,
his moral standard will, in some meas
ure, be fixed by that of the institution
he attends. Wisely to choose and
rightly to judge is therefore to settle
one of the genuine problems of life. A
false choice may spell disaster; a
suitable selection will mean satisfac-
ton for life.
What Is the Boy to Make of Himself?
In choosing the college, the first
consideration is that Of the boys
expected career. Is he to be minister,
lawyer, an engineer, journalist,
physician? If he is to be any one of
these, there is school which is espe-
cially suited to his needs, school which
will prepare him in the best manner
for his professional or business career.
But it is not often that the father
knows when he prepares to send his
boy to college what avocation the boy
will choose when his schooldays are
over. The boy has to "fnd' himself
while in college, and not until he has
done SO can he generally determine his
profession.
Then, again, there is a danger of
too great specialization in college-a
danger more real than some educators
would lead us to believe. Take a
typical case, and see how the curse of
specialization during college may blight
a boys career or limit his usefulness.
A boy decides to be a physician, and
goes to college with that object in
view. In some colleges there are special
arrangements for just such young
men as he and teachers whose duty it
is to prepare boys as best they can for
entrance to the medical schools
Accordingly, this immature young man
with no ground work or culture is told
that Latin, Greek, English and litera-
ture are unimportant: the thing for
him to do is to master chemistry,
physics, biology and modern languages.
He does so, doubtless enters the medical
school better equipped at the outset
than a boy with a general classical
education, and, we shall suppose, gradu-
ates higher in his class. Now it is pos
sible that such a young man will make
a better physician than a boy gradu-
ated from a classical college and
stepped in the fundamentals of a gen
eral culture. But what if he does? He
loses in his ignorance of cultural sub.
jects far more than he gains in special
mastery of his chosen profession.
For this reason the best educators
of the day are turning from the more
extensive GROUP system" and are lay
ing down certain uniform requirements
for all students. Whether. he is to
build a railroad bridge or preach a
sermon, these wise men say, the boy
will build better bridge and preach a
better sermon if he has a general
intellectual and cultural equipment.
This does not mean, however, that
the boy who is to study medicine he
knows when he enters college that he
will enter that profession-should
spend long years in studying Latin
indirect discourse to the neglect Of
zoology. 1t rather means that if he
has decided upon his life-calling, he
should learn as much as he can in
college of the essentials that go to make
q cultured nantlaman and euo1.,1t hi inn