St Ignatius College - Ignatian Yearbook (San Francisco, CA)

Page 22 text:

l 1 JUNIOR LAW. McDermitt, J. L. Kelly, R. Coffey, E. H. Perry, F. J Pieruccini, E, W. Fitzpatrick, E. I. Varni. E. J. Holcenburg, S. J. Childress. H. H. Halpln, T. J . Delaney. E. Castel, L. Scott, E. Elliott, J. F.

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SENIOR LAW. Brotherton, R. E. Fitzgerald, J. J. Davey, L. Van der Zee, H Doyle, J. Dibert, H. Nolan, H. W. O'Donnell, E. McCullough, C. J. Schmidt, H. C. Stockfleth, G. A. Gracia, M. E. Copestake, J. L. Presho, W. Ainsworth, F. H. Conklin, M. Ohland, C

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. THE DIGNITY OF THE SMALL COLLEGE 17 struction. Each student 's personal difficulties are smoothed out, his questions answercdg his faults correctcdg there is in the small classroom a spirit of co-operation. Let us look now at the large university. The students gather there for a lec- ture, not in a classroom, but in an auditorium. There are from one hundred to one thousand assembled. The lec- turer steps on the platform, delivers his lecture, and retires. The whole affair has been of the same general aspect as a theater performance. Has the student any difficulties? They must remain unsolved. Has he any questions to ask? They cannot be asked. Has he any faults to correct? They must remain uncorrected, for the lecturer knows but few of his pupils. Judge Buffington speaks these apt words about the situation: You may charge two wires with any amount of voltageg so long as you keep them apart there is no resultg but bring them together, and light and heat and power flow from one to the other. So you may put ever so learned ia professor in the chair, and ever so bright a pupil on the bench, so long as you keep them apart there can be no educational result. Only as they are brought into contact can the one affect the other. Separate professor and student by numbers or methods or any other barrier, and personality cannot influence personality. Herein has always been the chief glory of the small college and will ever be. No univer- sity classroom with its crowds, and no over-grown college, can accomplish for character-building, for calling forth the utmost that is in each student, and for training his individual powers, what the small college has done and is doing. XVe are not surprised, then, that the late Commissioner of Education, Claxton, reported that sixty per cent of those who enter the universities drop out before the beginning of the Junior year. In the small college, however, when a student feels that his professor is his friend, and one deeply inter- ested in his progress, he quite naturally conceives for him a friendship which does 'not lessen his respect, and a respect which does not lessen his friendship. NVith such relations of