DePauw University - Mirage Yearbook (Greencastle, IN)

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Cot-zducationz it Large eaningsn 111' FRPXNCIS QIOIIN 1X1'cCONN1E1'.1, Pl't'.YI'lI'C'lIl Dv1'z111af U llI.'Z't'7'SI'fj' YOUNG 1112111 recently wrote to tl1e office at De- x CQ 4 - . Vjfgg 'I 1'auw to learn 11ow l1e co11ld get a coeducatiou. It J s 1 llllil difficult to know iust wl1at the young 111 Ill ll lllllltl 1'v1dLntly l1e was 11ot pcipctiating a X yoke foi his lettei had 111 tl1e 111'1.l1xQ of sci iousncss fo r 'Gad Cuite likely 11e llilfl l1eard about DePauw as a co- 1 14111 1 educational school, and asked l11s question w1tl1out lllllllxlllg of what the word HCOCt1l1CZlt1Ol1U 111igl1t lllCfll1. XVhat does HC0CC1llC21110l1,, 111ea it 111911115 as the word is ordinarily used,--tl1e education ot young vith tl1e SZIINC COIIYSCS ope11 h. lt is to tl1e advantage 11001 i11 tl1is C11St0l1'1Zll'y se11se of tl1e word: tl1e 211111 of the college is 11ot merely to fit 111611 and wo111e11 for the particular Helds which tl1ey are to occupy, bllt to give them It general, fuiidaniental, cultural training. 111 21 W01'lfl bout as ,wmv women as 111011 Zlllil about as lllillly ll ll that tl1e CC11lCZ'tl.1Oll of either men or 11? Of course, we all know what lllCl1 and XV-0111011 at tl1e same institution, 1 to eacl1 Zllltl tl1e same classes ope11 to C216 of DePauw tl1at it is a coedueatioiial sc wl1ere there are a lllCl1 as women, it won c seei ' 1 ' I women would be incomplete w1tl1o11t an l1l1C1Cl'S1ZlI1Clll1g. .at 'cast 112 011161115 of life fiom thc standpoint Joti o a QCIICFZI1 way, of tl1e pr I 1111111 a11d XV0ll'lZlll. As a l1lZ11fCl' of fact. VCU' Cm-Cful 013501 Yel S. mlm said that tl1e general views of life wl11cl1 young people acqune 111 1 TC 1 be 111uc11 ll101'C helpful than tl1e cocdncatio11al school are api' if views wl1icl1 they obtain 'from tl1e 50110018 restricted to 011C sex or the mlm.. of mm-SC, 11101-C may be a great deal of tl1e I'Ol11Z1l1tlC i11 tl1e relation of 111C young man Zllltl tl1e young XV0ll'1Z1ll i11 college, but tl1e ro111a11tic aspect is apt to be 11111cl1 l1ealtl1ier wl1e11 tl1e yo1111g 1112111 a11d young 0101111111 are ineeting together day by dai' than wl1e11 they meet only upon social occasions. The social meeting is hedged about by all sorts of conventionalities, so tl1at it is 1101 possible for tl1e young 1112111 clearly to understand tl1e yo1111g woman or tl1e young NV0lllZll'l clearly to llllt1Cl'!-21211111 the young 1112111 if tl1ere is only a forinal social meeting. ln tl1e coeducational school, 011 the other hand, the young 111a11 gets a chance to see the yOll11Q wo111a11 i11 something else tl1a11 a party dress, a11d with so111e ll12lllllCl'S other tl1a11 l1er party manners. The y0ll11Q' woman, too, gets to see the young man about as l1e is. llc lllay look very handsoine at 10:00 p. 111. at the formal society function. but l1e may be a complete llunker at 10:00 a. 111., a11d tl1e yo1111g XVOIHZII1 gets a chance to find this out. lf IIOXV it be said tl1at 0110 objection to coeducational schools is tl1at so lllilllv 1T1Z1.l'1'1ZlQ'CS come from t11ese schools, all we C2111 say is that we do 11012 1ill0XV Zllly 0111C1' way i11 which young 111e11 211111 women C2111 001110 to a just lllll1Cl'S1ZlI1t11llQ' of o11e another tl1at is so comniendable as meeting day by day i11 the class room. it is 1101 of coeducatioii, 11owever, i11 this restricted sense that 1 wish to speak. Coiedncatioii literally means something more tl1a11 tl1is: it 111ea11s tl1e education of people 1'0,Q'C1111Cl', or i11 groups. Really this is tl1e o11e true kind of education, To be sure, tl1e selmlm- nmgt 11Z'tVC his 111011101115 when 11e withdraws to l1is study and to his laboratory. 'To be sure, tl1ere are some things that- C2111 only be

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found as men work as individuals. After all, however, we live in a world of persons. The results of the most secluded study are of value out in the world at large, and the man who is going to large must have a sympathetic understanding of his fellows. Wfc used to hear a great deal said in praise of the self-made man. A keen critic once remarked, however, that the trouble with the self-made man is that he is too apt to worship his maker. There is large force in this criticism. The man whose serve the world at training has been away from his fellows 'does not see things in true perspective. and his perspective fails simply because he judges too much by himself. He does not go to the outer edge of the circle and look back toward the center. ln college a man is not apt to remain self-centered for long. if he does not see his own faults speedily his fellow-students are apt to point them out for him. One great advantage of the close fellowships that obtain at college, the close fellowships, for example, like the fellowships of fraternities and sororities, is to be found in this opportunity for mutual correction. Anyone who imagines that the Freshman or the Sophomore is a timid. shrinking, homesick creature, quite likely has never known very much about Freshmen and Sophomores in the flesh. As a matter of actual fact, large numbers of students come to college thinking that they know a great deal, and one result of college training is to help them to see how little they know. lf'rofessors cannot always do this, because the newcomer is apt to think that he understands the problem as well as the professor. The needed corrective, however, is found in the actual contact with the fellow-students. The truth is that the scholar has to go out with the truth which he has learned from college, to apply that truth to the actual, work-a-day world. lie is poorly equipped for this task unless his associations at college have been of the intimate kind which enable him to understand pretty well just what sort of creatures human beings are. A cynic once said: A college educa- tion has two advantages: first, it enables a man to put up a good bluff: and second, it enables him to see when one is beingput up. Of course, if a man chooses to use the college education for the sake of learning how to befool people he can do so, but he has less chance of succeeding at that in college than almost anywhere else in the world. The contact with his fellows is so intimate and so close that they are apt to see through any attempt of the kind. Wfhen the attempt is seen through the rebuke is meted out very swiftly. llut the matter goes farther, even, than this: even if we do not receive definite help through being with a mass of students we receive subtle and unconscious influences which mold us when we do not suspect their presence. An engineer in charge of sur- veying on the western plains once said that his surveyors made very few mistakes in their calculations when they were working in groups. When, however, the Slll'VCyOl'S became widely separated the mistakes, strange to say, increased. This did not mean that the men corrected the mistakes of one another: it meant that the very 'fact that they were working together carried a sort of psychological atmosphere which kept them from the numerous mistakes that came when they were alone. However this may be with surveyors, it is certainly true in college that the very presence of others keeps students closer to the path of knowledge. Occasionally we are appalled at the opportunities for dissipation that come as large masses of students get together, and of course we must not min- imize the realitv of this danger. Over against this, however. must be put the fact that the social relation is a normal relation, and has its influences upon the mental processes of the student. Some of the things about college life that the outsider least appreciates are really among the most valuable assets of the college. Take for example the sense of humor that is developed in the or- dinary college man. This, of course, manifests itself at times in rather outlandish ways, but one trouble with the world is that so few people have a fully developed sense of humor. There are some arguments in this world that are logical enough as arguments: the only way to answer them is to laugh at them. There are some pretenses that look plausible enough from the standpoint of formal reason, but they vanish into thin air as soon as somebody begins