The Columbia evening Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1920-1923, 1922-07-17
BEST TEACHER
Is A SOURCE
OFNSPIRATION
Students Get General impress
sions of a College From
Those With Whom They
Associate.
CHARACTER A PRODUCT
Students Success in Life Is De-
pendent Upon Kind of
Men They Come in
Contact With.
Ry Ions PALMER CAyIT

4 certain boy whom | know exceed.
ingly well went TO college with enthusi-
asm-and nearly went TO shipwreck al
the door. He knew what college was
for. in all its is-friendships. social
activities. culture, rounding out Of edu-
cation. preparation for his life work.
He had been one Of the big men" in
his preparatory school. but he realized
that in college he would have to make
good from a new start. He was friend
u boy. rather sensitive and high strung,
and
His first experience in college froze
hi, enthusiasm. destroyed his illusions.
and turned his interest into hostility. 1t
took all Of his parents influence and
tact to keep him in the place al all 1t
was two years before he got back any
thing like that first spirit, which the
college had blighied at its own thres-
hold.
The college? Not the president. or
the dean. or the trustees. or the faculty;
no indeed. But the human beings who
10 him represented the college because
with them he came into direct practical
contact; the registering officer. the as
sisiant dean in charge Of his class, the
instructor in his most important course,
the graduate student serving as proctor
in his dormitory-all met him with un-
progressing and ungracious teven if
technically impeccsblei manner. rubbed
his fur the wrong way. chilled his en-
ihusiasm. and awakened a cynical hos
iiliiy towards the whole institution.
II should be said in fairness that
this happened when many Of the best
men Of administrative force. faculty, and
student personnel were away in war serv-
ice. Miscast substitutes we're in con-
tact with the students. The whole place
Was badly demoralized.
Nevertheless. be temporary and local
excavations what they may. the fact re-
mains that, just as in factory or bust
ness house. good intentions and humane
common sense on the part Of the man.
agement are often completely nullihed
by stupidity or inhumanity of far sub
ordinate fOremen; 50 in a college-the
boy gets what he gets. of substance and
general impression, not from the fine
character and speeches Of the president,
or the admirable wording of the pros
pectus. but chiefly from the fiesh-and.
blood individuals with whom he comes
in personal contact. And the impression
made upon the average student by those
personal contacts is the test BY which
in the long run any college is to be
judged.
Character and Service the Product
The product Of university is in the
intangible form of human character and
service" Chancellor Elmer Ellsworth
Brown Of New York University, said the
other day. Its profits are paid to the
whole community in form that cannot
be used 10 finance classrooms.-
The business Of college is not TO
grind out graduates who have been
through a certain succession Of steps.
The adding machine makes il easy to
be glib with statistics. 1t is relatively
easy, too. TO gather large amounts Of
money with which TO hire functionaries 1
called professors and instructors, whose
names and flames and lists Of courses
with little said about their salaries) can
be duly boosted about A college can
have a charmingly picturesque site, won
dehul buildings and equipment. a great
and brilliant faculty, and large num-
ber Of students, and still be terribly
futile.
President Lowell Of Harvard Univer-
sity was most eloquent and most in
tense when he talked to me little while
ago about the absurdiiy Of judging the