Evening star., 1927-04-14

An editor became famous ana gained
gubernatorial honors by propounding
query as to what was the matter
with Kansas. Then he became pro
fessor in a floating college, and he Is
now trying to explain that there was
nothing the matter with that college
nothing, except that foreigners OBJ
iected to it's American impoliteness
and could not understand American
customs of unchaperoned goods wan
dering around the world in company
with youths who had never been in
troduced to their parents"
A father of a young man who grad
uated from a Western college a short
time ago complained that his boy had
me home "a regular snob and that
il took a year of hard knocks to cure
him."
Other parents are fearful of the in
tluence of college life upon the reli
gious and patriotic ideals OF their
children.
* \ X
There is now a meeting of a com
mittee of leading educators in session
at the headquarters of the National
Education Association in Washing
ton. preparing program for next
years session of that association, and
one Of it's chief topics will be, what
Ais Our Colleges?"
The first line Of defense of the col
leges and universities is that they are
overcrowded, but that defense is at
tackled directly by the most promi-
nent members of the above-m
toned committee.
DR.. Frank d. Boynton, superintend
S~F fntn
that the teaching load" of many
professors is less than 10 hours q
week, with a Student load" Of from
9.5 to 13 students per professor. Yet
the colleges complain that they cannot
admit all applicants, graduates oi
high schools, because they are "over-
crowded" SO they denied admission
last September, to 15.196 applicants
DR.. Boynton states that college
plants. particularly in the East, are
undergoing little or no expansion
mo new colleges are being founded,
he declares.
Yet American youths are demand
ing greater facilities for higher edu-
cation than ever before. When this
Government was founded, the aver
age schooling consisted of 80 days;
by 1840, it reached an average of 20S
days; in 1870. 1t was 582 days; IL
1890, it was TO days, and in 1920 il
| averaged 1900 days.
In 1870, 20 per cent of the popula
tion could not write in any language
| in 1900, 1917 per cent, and in 1920 th'
number was only per cent.
In 1890, there were in high schools
only 357,813 pupils, while in 1924
| there were 3,741 ,087. With thesyearly
crop of eligible college freshmen
| grown tenfold, the colleges find theil
easiest way to meet the embarrassing
| overdemand for college advantages
is to bar entrance by technical exami
| nations, refusing to waive eXamtna
tions of graduates from high schools
whose standards are not inspected ant
approved by college committees, al
though all the teachers in the higl
| schools may be college alumni. il
addition, the colleges now give tn,
| applicants personal inspection as t
| fitness, based on psychological tests
Do the students appear to have initia
| tive? VIII they develop control owe
men? Have they physique? If not
they should not seek higher education
but, like Abraham Lincoln, go back t.
splitting rails.
"One trouble" says DR.. Boynton
rs the lack of such types of profes
sors as Asa Gray, and the substitution
Of the class l call Charlie Chaplin pro
fesors'-young men with eyeglasse
and little hirsute adornment unde
| each nostril.
"And the parents wonder at TIL
demoralizing influences of some col
leges! Why, l could name a woman
college, where this happened: A mod
est young girl was sent there from
refined home. The professor of socia
economies invited her and severa
members of his class to his home OF
Sunday afternoon, and the first thini
that occurred there was the act o
his wife in bringing out cigarettes an,
Offering them to the girls, including
her own daughter. When this young