Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1926-01-16
DAILY KENNEBEC JOURNAL, SATURDAY JANUARY 1e, 1926

always recognized q paramount OBJ
legation to the community that gave
them birth and are at all times ready
to assist so far as possible with any
education problems we may face. al
though they are obliged also to rec
ognize their obligation to bencfactors
outside our bounds.
Whether there Is any limit to the
amount of formal education we shall
deem 1t wise to give to constantly
increasing numbers OF our boys and
girls the future alone can tell. Ger
tainly there has been nothing to In
dictate any cessation Of formal. edu-
cational expansion in the experiences
of the last hundred years. With enor-
nous energy and expenditure In the
first half of the nineteenth century
we developed tine free public school
universally throughout our land. In
the last half century the free high
school as it was long known came in
to its own and now is, taken for
granted by all ambitious boys and
girls. II these are reliable indica-
tons the enormous increase in the
enrolment of our colleges and Uni
versity during the last quarter GEN.
fury seems to promise a college edu-
cation for a greatly increased num-
Der of our boys and girls. Citizens
seem to ponder as they find a lack Of
earnestness in purpose in certain Of
the products of our schools of higher
grade. There seems also to be some
difference of opinion as to the extent
to which unitarian values are IN
creased by their advancement be-
yond high school grade. These are
not hoaUauoy. fhfrc "a ~, 1ffncfod ho-
yond the expression Of an occasional
doubt.
The former president Of the Univer-
sity Of Maine and the acting president
today have both strongly emphasized
the futility Of college education for
boy or girl who is not prepared to
avail themselves Of the opportunities
1t offers either because of lack of
earlier training OF because of a lack of
appreciation of its meaning in their
life. All may agree in this stress as
sound and right. 1t will however
mark the decadence OF our national
ambition If any such barrier shall long
suffice to hold back our boys and girls.
How Far at Public Expense
1t seems altogether likely that we
must seriously consider how far lib
eral education shall be continued at
Po'AAN SAPCiiSC~. OCyOHu uASu 6CHOOl
grade. In this State it has never been
considered as anything other than a
State problem but 1t has already been
recognized that any such expansion In
our colleges as has occurred in the
last half century in our high schools
must mean considering the establish
ment of junior colleges in various To-
calities throughout our State to give
the first two years of college work.
This project was seriously discussed
at the meeting of the Maine Teachers
Association In Bangor two years ago,
and was urged as the next almost nee
essary development in the SUPER
structure of higher education in its
development along normal lines.
The other Maine colleges are rather
definitely limited in their enrolment
both because of their facilities and
their funds and also because of the
recognition Of the impracticability of
giving their kind of an education in
an institution much larger than their
present size.
great wid-western University of
several thousand students with its
necessarily metropolitan features is
not likely to develop citizens who will
look with longing upon the pastoral
life of Maine
If in this half century the State
shall recognize an obligation to fur
nish a college education to anything
like the number of students for whom
1t has recognized the obligation to fur
nish a high school education in the last
half century we shall be enrolling in
our colleges for liberal education
over $4,000 of our boys and girls at an
expense to the State Of over $500, 600
each year, judged by present standards
alone. This presents a profound edu-
cational, social and economic problem
and may as well be faced with open