Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-09-25
PRACTICAL WORK URGED
-, in u. S. COLLEGE COURSES
Banking and Farming Cited as Desirable
in Curricula-Proper Education as
Means of Lessening Crime Discussed.
By WILLIS j. BALLINGER.

TINE seamiest side of our youth
problem today is not petting
parties, hip TASKS and booze.
Il wild parties and divorce
splurges-the ammunition for
sermons and eXhortations from elders
The paramount problem is taking the
automatic out of youthful hands and
steering clear Of electric chairs. hang
mans nooses and prison bars increas-
Ing hordes of juvenile waywards.
recent student of crime says that
SO per cent of all crime in the worst
country of the world is committed
by boys under 25 years of age, and
that to divert this growing army of
crooks from its annual occupation of
taking more out of the pockets of the
Nation in dollars and hard cash than
the pestiferous income tax collector
does, jobs must be found for thou
sands OF boys who. under our misfit
educational system, takes up life Of
crime because IL offers the most i'm
mediate means of livelihood.
Authority on Education.
mentioned this statement to Mabel
Monster. a lady who has been con-
nected with reform movements in ed
ucation for a number of years.
Miss Monster is one OF the fore.
most authorities in the country on
progressive education. She has been
active in the field of educational re-
form for a great many years and only
recently added new laurels to her ca
raer by sponsoring a national poetry
contest among school children. From
the contributions received she COM
piled an American Anthology of Jul
3V-1rf vtrl,s hoe hnN,,
lished. She was amazed to find the
latent talent among young school chill
dren and more than ever convinced
that our present educational system
does not afford sufficient outlets for
originality and real creative work
among students. Her mission has
been to save American education from
the evils of Standardization and TO
keep alive the precious qualities of
originality and initiative in young
minds which would otherwise wither
from assaults of learning by rote and
examining for examinations.
Education for Work.
1T is one of the worst faults of our
present educational system that it
does not equip boys to earn living"
Miss Monster replied to my remark.
ton should be to enable a boy TO
make living. Educators have
harped consistently on the idea that
education should be primarily for the
purpose of making a life rather than
a living, and have decried the Sug-
gestion that education should have
any intention of equipping a boy to
make money. In consequence many
boys have taken as little of educa-
ton as the law required and then
set about making a living. Education
under this theory can only be af-
forded by the few. And as long as
our colleges keep their curriculums
SO limited in the opportunities they
offer to young men and women just
so long will thousands of boys be I'M
equipped for making a living.
Our educational institutions need
to be greatly expanded in their in
terests and in the opportunities they
offer to young people,"
do you mean that they should
take in more students?"
Certainly we should have more
education in America, and particular
~ in the ranks of college graduates.
DO you realize just how limited a col
lege education is in America? On
June /, 1920, there We're only 358,026
male graduates living in the United
States. The tendency at present is
TO cut down the numbers applying for
higher education in America. What
should be done is to enlarge the in.
terests of our college"
College Course Expansion.
Would you put in more courses?"
/ queried.
? "a university" replied Miss Mont
sier, used to be place where only the
mind was used. The courses offered
were very limited. A hundred years
ago the student going to Yale was
given such abstract courses as Pres
ident Clapp on the WILL 'Wollaston's
Relative Nature Delineated.' Greek
Testament and Euclid. Since that
date we have, of course, expanded
our college courses a great deal, but
not far enough. We have not yet
reached the point where a person
going to college is taught to use his
hands and feet if he desires that kind
OF training, as much as his mind.
For instance, there are many boys
who like machinery and would be
perfectly happy to become master me-
chanics. Others are interested in avn
alton; others in physical culture;
others in banking, in accounting. in
farming, etc. Today a young man
who goes to college and wants to be
a banker gets his training for bank.
ing after he quits college-not while
he is in college.
"A modern university ought to take
notice of such interests and should
make it possible for a boy to study
courses pertaining to banking al
most exclusively while in college, so
that he would know all the particulars
pertaining to the banking profession
when he came out. AS it is today a
boy must get his banking or farming
experience in the bank or on the farm.
Old School Methods.
THE advantage of education should
be to give a future banker or farmer
q long-sighted viewpoint of his