The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-10-05

enforce discipline, who tolerate Slip
shod, somnolent students and slovenly
work. Students have learned to APP
preciate the firm hand. the insistence
F, ON honest work. the rigid requirement
Of results.
We have also learned the value of
OF individual instruction. We have
watched company of student soldiers
under inspection, and have seen an
officer walking up and down the line
inspecting shoes and buttons as well
as rifles. We have seen the dilatory
recruits reduced 10 the awkward
] squad" and have often seen a petty
officer take a single student to
corner Of the, campus and put him
| through the manual of arms as II the
awkward boy were the only student
| In college. Then we have wondered
how many college teachers are accus-
| tened to remain after class with one
backward student and stay with him
till his difficulties vanished. If in
deed the professor cannot do 1t, we
must have some "preceptor" or tutor"
who can. Long range lecturing at a
class of two hundred restless students
is often pathetically futile. The lee.
ture system becomes the worst
enemy of real education, unless tnere
be a following up" process such as
every military instructor always pro-
vldes. The professor has sometimes
said his business is done when he fur
nishes instruction: the student may
take II or leave It. Henceforth we
must say that the student will take It
or leave the institution. Our profess
sional schools have always said this;
henceforth the colleges will say 1t also.
| But the chief result of the great eX-
pertinent has been deeper conception
of the relation Of learning to life. Sud-
denly every teacher was compelled to
ask himself: How far is this course
I have been giving adapted to fit men
for public service? What is its real
value when tested by this new
emergency? Will it give to young
men either such technical skill, or
such mental grasp, or such compre-
hension of the nations purpose, as to
make them one year from now compe-
tent defenders of human liberty?"
courses took on a peculiar and novel
importance.
Does this mean that our colleges
may soon be- turned into technical
schools? Far from III The technical
studies have indeed acquired a new
and permanent Importance. The war
has been a huge application OF applied
science. and the study of science in
it's application both to destruction and
to construction has taken a new hold
on American imagination and sympa-
thy. A new crop of chemical labora-
tories will Immediately spring up in
American universities.
But the curious result OF the S. A.
T. C. is that we have discovered that
the technical studies alone will not
make or equip a soldier. The Govern
ment insistence on teaching the
aims of the War was significant.
Unless the soldiers knew the aim ana
shared the purpose Of the nation, they
were ineffective, and the aim and pur-
pose depended directly on the history
of modern Europe. Lafayette, we are
here!" meant nothing to the soldier
ignorant of Lafayette, Deutschland
uber alles' conveyed little to one ig-
norant of German since 1870. History
has been found indispensable to both
the effective officer and the patriotic
citizen.
Music, some men have thought,
was a study that the colleges might
renounce in war time. But soon came
orders from the War Department that
special emphasis should be placed on
the organization of military bands and
on teaching the soldiers to sing. Pub
lie speaking was a study which II
seemed to many might be neglected
till the coming of peace. But from
Washington came explicit orders that
special attention be given to public
speaking, since many officers proved
unable to give military orders in the
open air in such a voice that they
| could be understood. The study OF
French took on a new meaning for
boys on their way to the French bat
tie front. Even the study of German
acquired importance for officers who
must soon be examining German pris-
oners and opening German docu-
ments. Biology, which had seemed
to many students a study of past evo-
luton, now became an Indispensable
equipment in camp sanitation and Red
1 cross WOTh. he COuISSo VI SbHNJ
: that had seemed most abstract and
: remote suddenly were linked up will
the most pressing tasks Of the pres
emit moment and almost the whole
curriculum pulsated with new mean
ing.
Such an experience sets us thinking
for many years. Surely there must b.
a way of vitality relating all study II
l action and the American student II
I entirely right when he asks to see thai
: relation before he goes to work. II h
! can see no goal, If no one can show
r him the goal, he may not be fal
5 wrong in suspecting that there is M
) goal. He cannot be satisfied to be told
that there was goal in the day.
4 when Harvard was founded or tina
] there Is a goal in the minds OF thu
:. COMMITTEE on curriculum" II stud!
does really lead into life In the broad
n est and noblest sense OF life" [
5 young man 20 years OF age can b.
: naha to see It. He did see 1t las
!. autumn and he studied with intensit!
: and zeal. It will be good thing 70
a us to survey again every course II
9 the college catalogue and ask, no
a whether 1t is essential to a rounde'
: and logical curriculum but how II &C
I tually equips men and women for tn
: tasks of life, how it can lin tn
i words of the founder Of Phillips-An