Evening star., 1935-09-08
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who preach social welfare. At the
present time Uncle Sam has allotted
$50, o,oOo,0 900 to be advanced to college
students this year. Some OF these
young Americans will get their f1rSt
taste of communism within college
halls. Instances may be rare, but
they are existent nevertheless, the
professors say.
As a specific problem in the field
Of education. the professors point to
the land grant colleges and univer-
stiles, of which are some 200 in the
Midwest. These institutions are said
to be mostly influenced by their own
departments of agriculture. Some
of the most important appointments
to the faculties, lucrative posts all, are
directly due to the agricultural mind
the professors say-whereas, appoint
ments to all college faculties should
be made on the basis of minds con-
versant with all the elements OF a
rounded education.
Where the opposite is true, where
the president of a college fails to
bring in diversified talent, students
come out lop-sided Their only SAL
walton is to be placed under the tute-
lage of professors free from narrow
influences. Fortunately, American col
leges contain thousands of such men
and women.
Where the land grant colleges are
apt to be unduly influenced by the
agricultural mind, its natural domi-
mating influence. other colleges and
universities have as their outstanding
enemy the political mind. Another
danger is the appointment of college
presidents trained only in one subject
as, for example, chemistry. These
professors say, such man is liable 20
lay too much stress on his own SUD-
ject. to the neglect of others equally
or more important. They clamor
loudly for men we'll versed in all the
activities of educational life. In TAX
ing their stand against the old order
in this respect, they advocate the ap-
pointment of philosophers as college
and university administrators.
EACT of the matter Is, philosophers
are being called upon to change
the complexion of American college
life. They intend to provide new
means for an adequate general edu-
cation, claiming that all the provisions
necessary are now set up and func-
tioning for the training of specialists.
There are several plans-the Chicago
plan and the Cincinnati plan-de-
vised to improve on the old methods,
but the professors are not in agree
ment on the workability of any of
these. They take, rather as the core
of their problem, words uttered by
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who
said in speech not long ago;
The necessities of our time demand
that men avoid being set in grooves,
that they avoid the occupational
predestination of the older world, and
that in the face of change and devel-
opment in America they must have
q sufficiently broad and comprehen-
clNC NOllNCpI4Oll VI IAlC NO1lQ III "lllCII
they live to meet its changing prob
lens with resourcefulness and prac-
tical vision"
This the professors hold up as a
good sign-post for the youth of today
entering the colleges and universities.
All Of them are not. going to be spe-
cialists. Those who are going after
hA 1r4o Nrl,, IL
eral education, would do well to bear
the Presidents thought in mind-the
professors say.
The idea is to guide young men
and women into the channels of life
where they will serve usefully-a ben
eft to society and a profit to them
selves. Within the next four years
or before the present crop of fresh
men come from the academic halls
the new education, with its simple
innovations, will have advanced to a
point OF fruition. 1t just has to de-
velop because of the changing times.
Reduced State appropriations and
curtailed budgets have been the order
in the past six years of college life.
Some of these colleges have been re-
duced to sad levels. At least 10 of
them went out of business The de-
preston resulted in lower salaries for
professors. Old men were replaced
by inexperienced young men. Smaller
salaries drove many men out into
other lines of work. So, the colleges
have taken reef in their belts. Be-
cause of necessity many of the old
luxury courses must go.
Presidents, professors, and parents
are all in the same boat, so far as
certain economic strains are con-
cerned-and these three forces are
at last getting together in considering
the future of American college youth.
The parents, as one educator ex-
presses it, constitute the 1885 dynamo
that controls the educational system.
What the parents demand, says this
professor, will be gobbled up by the
administrators of our colleges and
place emphasis on the word gobble
At last, the parent is being recognized
as factor in education. The admin
istrator, be his school a college or a
university, will have no school unless
parents decide to send their sons and
daughters to him. The modern parent
cannot operate like the parent of Old
for the modern parent, as a rule, has
been through the mill
1t was the old-fashioned father who
said, my boy, fortunately, won't have
to go through what I did" That was
held up as some terrifying experience.
Still, the worst that can happen to
any man is merely test of his fiber.
There is an old proverb, Gold must be
tried by fire. The professors call at
tention of modern parents to this in
the event they want to shield their
offspring from the realities of life.
AS one professor puts it, The suffer-
ing of the 1885 child, devoid of 1910
opportunities, could never be so great
as the mental torture of the father
who does not want his son to suffer