Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-05-23

boy or girl need not be reported by
the college as unsatisfactory; in the
second place. if the college reports
boy or girl as unsatisfactory, and the
school still feels that there are ex-
ceptional reasons for the failure, IL
NAV appeal to the whole board. But
when the school sends UP to the col
leges represented on the board boys
or girls who in two or more success
sive years fail in their freshman WORK,
it is perfectly satisfactory evidence
that the school is not living up to its
certificate privilege, and that 1t
should have that privilege withdrawn.
The third point to be discussed is
in regard to the dropping of schools
from the approved list. 1t is neees-
sary of course, if the certificate sys-
TEN is to have any effect at all, that
there must be provision for the with
drawal of the privilege when work
is not well done; but the statement
made by Mr.. Morrison that if a hum
dred students go to colleges repre-
scented on the board, and If in any
one of the colleges one or more stu
dents fail, the school viii probably
be refused further recognition, is alb
solutely wild. l have peen member
of the board for some years, and L
had known about the working of the.
board before that time. 1 do not
know any body of men and women
that is more charitable, more dispos-
ed to accept explanations for failures,
more reasona ole in treating cases that
need strong action. In fact, l am in
clined to think that the board may
i,,
severe in this matter. 1t is a we'll
known fact that Mr.. Morrison's criti-
cisms are based largely on the work
of one school which he had warmly
approved and whose graduates had
failed for several successive years to
make good in colleges outside of the
state in which the school was stu
ated. When a school is warned that
in any of its departments the work OF
its graduates has not been satisfac-
tory in college, and then when the
principal of that school persists IN
certifying weak pupils to college IN
that department or in others, ii is
high time that the principal should
be told that he has abused his privi-
lege, and chat the colleges can no
longer accept his word in regard to
the preparation of pupils. Any rea-
sonable principal is ready to admit
the justice of the practice of the board
in this respect. The public at large
should know that a school is never
dropped from the approved list I'M
less its record has been for at least
two successive years very unsatisfac-
tory A sensible principal. If his
school has been warned, will be very
careful about the pupils whom he GER
titles. And here it may be well to
state emphatically that there Is no
need for a principal to certify to col
lege any pupil about whom he has
the slightest doubt. That again Is
one of the good things about the Ger
tificate Board. If principal is not
very clear about the qualifications,
the character and ability of his grad
yates, ne can place the whole respon-
sibility for accepting or rejecting
| those men upon the college. Such
responsibility no college wishes to
dodge.
The fourth criticism made against the
| board is that certiacation is a State and
not New England matter. a good deal
OF course may be said for such view.
great State University TO accept, If it so
desires. the diplomas of high schools as
| satisfactory evidence that pupil is
| ready to enter on advanced work; for a
| State university has closer and differ
| ent relations with the school than do the
other colleges. But, on the other hand,
| it is good thing for the schools of our
State to feel that there is somebody out
side the State that is interested in their
| work. 1t is good thing for the schools
OF Maine to be placed on a par with the
| schools of Massachusetts, New Hamp-
| shire and Connecticut. We are likely to
be too provincial, too isolated, too self
| satisfied with our own work If we are
not brought in contact with what is be-
ing done in other institutions. It seems
to me that the work of the Certificate
Board along this line is undoubtedly of
value. Surely an ideal standard OF
scholarship for our schools has not been
| reached yet, and surely it does our
schools no harm to feel that they must
| be able to prepare their better pupils
| for colleges throughout New England If
| the Certificate Board is acting selfshly
| and narrowly, there might be reason for
| throwing that whole plan overheard and
| for the schools of the State to deal d.
rectly with the colleges of the State. 1t
sounds well no doubt to say that our
| Maine schools should be entirely free
| from any suggestion of any possible i'm
I provement made by anybody outside Of
! Maine; and yet until our schools are able
to fit adequately their graduates, not on
| ly for the colleges on the New England
| Certificate Board, but for Harvard and
Yale, the millennium has not been at
tained. The Certificate Board regards
! itself as only the means toward the at
tainment of higher scholarly ideals.
! Whenever the time comes that diploma
| of a high school is worth so much that
| it will admit to any college in the coun-
| try its graduate, the Certificate Board
| will gladly close its shop. That is, I
! think, the ideal toward which we are
working, but We are yet very far from
| the goal Until we reach that consum-
nation so devoutly to be wished, we
should do well to subject ourselves now
and then to criticism, intelligent even If