Evening star., 1927-09-04

V1 rolled in American colleges
l i in a few weeks.
In Washington alone siS
or seven thousand students will b.
in attendance at the four STANDARD
institutions of higher learning.
This is less than half of l per cen
of the total population-but it rep
resents. nevertheless. no inconsidera
BILE investment of time, energy ane
money.
What are these young men ant
women in college for? What qualifi
cations have they to justify the ex
penditure in their behalf? What dc
they expect to get out of it? Viii
society benefit by educating them?
Particularly since the close of the
World War. these vital questions have
bothered American educators. More
than one college president, bolstere6
in his opinions by the new psychology
has insisted boldly that there ar<
altogether too many Students and tina,
many of them are not good enough
material to justify the expensive eff
forts on their behalf They have
stood out for more rigid entrance
tests They are tired of the vain and
thankless labor involved in trying to
transform sows' ears into silk purses
Research Program Planned.
This Fall the American Council on
Education will start an intensive re
search program throughout the Unit.
ed States in an effort to determine
what justification there is for such q
position. This research will continue
for three wears and has been financed
by John d. Rockefeller, Jr.. to the
extent of $4,000 a year. Out of 200
American colleges. SO already have
agreed to cooperate.
The average college community, of
course, is somewhat like any other
community of comparable size. 1t in.
cludes good and bad material Some
young people go to college because it
is considered proper in their social
set. Others attend because they think
scholastic life is easier and pleasanter
than life in industry. Some go to
dance and drink. Then again. many
attend at considerable personal sacri.
flee because they are ambitious. in.
dustrious and high minded
The research will attempt to deter.
mine which type are in the ma jority.
1t will try to devise means of wedding
out the unfit. If enough of these are
found to Justify the effort. 1t wants
to eliminate the colleye-educated mo.
ron-if there is such thing.
But how can man or woman be
rated?
The mere ability to pass standard
college entrance examinations. the ex.
perts admit. means very little. These
simply indicate that certain mini
mum silt of information on various
subjects has been accumulated i'm the
individuals memory They tell next
to nothing about his character. his
will or his native intelligence.
Then there are various intelligence
tests devised by. the psychologists
such as the well known Army alpha.
which aroused more or less antago.
nism when applied to soldiers during
the World War. No subject in science
is viewed with more cynicism-afl of
which may or may not be justified.
Four Features of Test.
The American Council on Educa tion
will try to get to the bottom of this
situation. The effort will be directed
along four lines. as follows:
|. To devise a model personal rec
ord card. to be used by all colleges
for all students
nent tests to determine Just where
student stands in different subjects.
.. To devise rating scale for per-
sonality measurement
T. To supply students with voca-
tlonai monogramS which will helm
them to select intelligently the career
which they wish to follow after they
leave college.
The vaguest, but perhaps the most
vital of these objectives, is the third.
How can the personality of a man or
woman be rated-personality being,
construed to mean the individuals
whole makeup? The personality of
any individual might be defined as
the collective response of a unique
mentaI and physical organism to all
1ne stimuli of that organisms past
and the comparative status of the re-
suit in the society into which il has
been thrown. Intelligence tests try
to do something of the sort, but nee.
essarily each test is quite limited in
lts scope. One sort of personality
might make an excellent collector of
carnage. Another sort might make
an excellent army officer Still another
sort, which would make an extremely
low showing in any test to determine
capacity for collecting garbage or
commanding soldiers. might be the
ideai Tor great poet.
Musicians Mathematics.
In the Library of Congress there is
an interesting manuscript-the con-
versation book of an elderly German
gentleman, who was stone def. He
used to conduct his conversations by
writing a question i'm this blank book
and handing it over to his companion
to write the response. Now this man
had employed a servant girl four
months, at salary. ! believe, of six
marks a month. He wished to dis
charge her and pay her off. He tried
to figure out in his conversation book
how much he owed her This required
multiplying six by four. The gentle
man couldn't do it. He could add, how
ever. So he set down four skies i'm
a vertical column and added them.
The result he obtained, as / recollect
II, was A. Such a performance, in any
elementary school intelligence tEst,
would entitle the student to very
low rating and certainly such moron
would not be considered good college
material.
The German gentleman's name hap
pened to be Ludwig Won Beethoven
and hardly any American college
would care to eliminate from It's
student body exactly this sort OF ma
terial.
David A. Robertson. assistant di-
rector of the American Council on
education and secretary of the re-
search committee, gives another IN
stance. A young man In one OF the
larger American universities early in
the last century wished 10 be a
preacher. He had a peculiar speech
defect which he never Overcame en-
tirely. For some psychic or physical
reason he talked so rapidly and ran
his words together so badly that
great deal of what he said was unih-
telligible Otherwise he had a good
mind-but in almost any possible test
of personality he would have been re-
jected by a theological seminary en-
gagged in turning out material for the
pillnif