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

to discover very little evidence that tne
policy of the Board seems to the New
England public dictatorial or arbitrary.
l believe that at present the Board mas
the confidence of the public. peileVe
that at present most of our towns ana
cities are content to have their schools
on the approved list; because the method
serves to maintain higher standards or
scholarship, and this is conducive to the
general welfare If the Board. through
the colleges does not serve the public in
terests, 1t should be Immediately sup
pressed; If IT helps to increase the schol- |
arship of our schools. and renders
thereby real service to those who are
not going to college as well as to those
who do go, it deserves surely such cor
dial cooperation as it has thus far re-
eeived from the public at large.
Back of all this criticism there lies of
course the Fundamental difference of
opinion concerning the mission of the
college and its relation to the school. |
The Board states frankly that college
is not the place for every graduate of a
secondary school, There must be Sc
lection. The college of liberal arts rs
still an institution of learning; it has
founded and developed the intellectual
life: 1t is based on scholarly ideals. To
do its best work it must select its can
didates by some process which will give
reasonable ground for belief that the
men entering it's gates may profit by its
training The college of liberal arts
knows no alchemy which will turn an
ill-trained. unschoarly boy into a use
full and Woodworking college man. 1t be-
Iieves that one of the greatest services
it can render the State at present is by
insisting sound and thorough work,
and in this principle. it seems to me that
it is winning more and more support. In
many of our colleges are indications that
the trend is not to be toward larger
classes and more general training, but
toward smaller classes and more exact
accomplishment. The scheme at AM
herst is significant along these lines. l
heard the Dean of Harvard College re-
mark lately that the graduates of that
great university of the last % or 80 years
who had been trained under the elective
system and under the less rigid methods,
were going to see to it that their sons
were more thoroughly trained and
equipped in a more scholarly way for
ton newspapers recently commented on
the unfairness of the public in holding
the college responsible for turning out
men who are not thoroughly and sound
ly trained, while 1t insisted on the coll
leges taking in men from any school on
any subject. In the present vortex of
educational theories and policies 1t is
sometimes hard to steer the ship
straight; but if the college of liberal arts
is to train it's men along the lines of
scholarship and learning and to equip
them soundly, 1t must be allowed to say
what sort of men it will take, and what
sort of preparation 1t deems essential for
its own work In details there may be.
large concessions made; in essentials
there must be no compromise And If
such an address as that of Mr.. Morri-
son, and such a policy as that advocated
by Mr.. Snedden in Massachusetts are to
be taken as a challenge. the college has
its answer ready. The colleges of lib
eral arts believe that they are render
ing an important service to the State;
that they are to certain extent quasi
public corporations; that they are under
obligations to the state, not In its politi-
cal, but In its social being. If the col
1eges turn out from their gates soundly
trained men and women, if they work
with the schools in securing high stand
ards, they are surely not unwarranted in
asking for public support. One of the
methods that has been found during the
last 10 years of most service along these
lines, is the work of the Certificate
Board. 1t may be that conditions will
arise to make the suspension of that
board inevitable: but under the present
conditions 1t certainly seems fair to ask
our school superintendent and officials
if they have been absolutely just in the
criticisms that they have poured upon
this Board. 1t has been called Trust, and
it is a trust; or rather it holds in trust
the scholarly ideals OF school and col
lege alike. 1t is working for the benefit
of the schools as we'll as for the life of
the college; and the final question to ask
of those who oppose its methods is this:
Is the College still a place of scholar
| ship and learning?