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Page 15 text:
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M .ll£Y0i ®f 191i Some Stu6ent Oralis DEARLY every one who tries to portray contemporary college life falls into the error of tliinking it maj ' he done by a few bold strokes of the brush. Thus r lind Mr. Walter Lippnian asserting that the American college student has the gravity and mental habits of a Supreme Court Judge. Conceived as a subtly worded case of contempt of court, this sentence rises to the sublime heights of blasphemy. As an attempt at careful exposition it sinks to the ridiculous. Still I have known some few students who were grave, — con- genitally so, it seemed to me. Others developed this trait occasionally, — during ex- aminations, for example, or when brought up before the Dean on a matter of discipline. Former President William H. Taft has attempted a composite photograph of the American student whom he chides severely for his lack of physical discipline and of erect bearing, his indifferent manners and slouchy dress. Indeed, a few years as Kent professor of law at Yale seem to have made our erstwhile conservative chief of state a decidedly- radical reformer of college abuses. Could anything more abundantlj ' estab- lish the need of prolonged, detailed and merciless muckraking in this held? And yet college men as a rule are not slouches, nor is slouchiness by any means the chief of college vices. So far as manners are concerned students have always im- pressed me as being quite as much above the average of young men of the period as we have a right to expect. A few of them, it is true, are somewhat flashy in their ap- parel although not so much so as the ubiquitous advertisements of the makers of col- lege clothes would have us believe. But this is a minor matter, as is also the occa- sional slipshod character of the student dress in the semi-privacj ' of the campus. The one serious charge in Professor Taft ' s indictment, that of a lack of physical discipline, can scarcely be sustained. Contrast the trim, erect, athletic undergraduate with the greasy-ej ' ed, stoop-shouldered, bow-windowed business men, successful and tired, who ever since graduation have been leading sedentary lives, eating, drinking and smoking too much, and indulging little or not at all in vigorous sports. Indeed. I have always found alumni reunions rather painful affairs because of the rapid phj ' sical deterioration apparent in the classes which have been out five, ten, fifteen or more 3 ' ears. They remind one of ladders descending sharply, rung by rung, from perfect youthful health down through neglect to open graves. And Mr. Lincoln Steffens also generalizes too readily about undergraduate life. He writes, — yea, he even italicizes the statement that CoUcfic stiidriitx Jian- too Diiirh rcrrrriiir. He knows this of his own knowledge. It was true of himself, he avers. Nor, assuming the truth of this autobiographical statement, does he seem to suspect that he must have been a most unusual student, a veritable white blackbird of the campus. Reverence! ' e Gods! Reverence for whom, for what? For Prexy ? For their particular Profs ? For the old Grads? For Lit, for Math? For anything else in the whole divine order of the universe? Living as they do in a keenly critical atmosphere it would be surprising indeed to find much of this qualit} ' , — whether 5 ' ou consider it a virtue or a vice, — among undergraduates. And yet some reverent souls there may be still among our students, a few even in the faculties. Let it be confessed, however, that most of the influential college professors of the period can with difficulty be brought to recognize any authority except that of the more recent text-books they themselves have written. Doctor Taft came, and saw, and now views with alarm this tendency on the part of certain professors, presumably at Y ' ale. Surely, then, it must be more than common elsewhere.
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Page 16 text:
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THE ymitrm ®f nm For my own part even after teaching twenty years minus Sabbaticals, it seems an extremely difficult matter to characterize the undergraduate world. Experience has convinced me that students are the most variegated and inconsistent, as well as the most lovable, species under the sun. They reflect all the virtues, somewhat magnified, and all the vices, somewhat diminished, of the American life of which they are a part. Without fear of successful contradiction, however, I shall maintain the thesis that the American college students generally are not given to over-studiousness. In so doing, permit me to apologize to the earnest and considerable minority who work con- scientiously and purposefully, often acquiring more in two years than most of their fellows do in four. And as a professor, responsible to that extent for college evils, I accept frankly the heavier end of the burden of this criticism. Laborers, says Mr. Steffens, especially the lowest, most troublesome class of least ' educated ' labor, the I. W. W., are way ahead of college men. Ah, but the col- lege man has already solved the labor problem for himself. Why should he protest, strike, resort to sabotage or other direct action? Counting class-room and laboratory time and all work of preparation the student who puts in an eight hour day is the ex- ception, so exceptional in fact that unless he conceals his industrjf he will certainly be dubbed a greasy grind or dippy stude. In most colleges of arts a six or seven hour working day is nearer the average. All yellow newspapers to the contrary not- withstanding, breakdowns from overstudy are the rarest of undergraduate occurrences. Xearl} ' always alleged cases of this sort will be found to be due to other causes — occa- sionally to dissipation, but more frequently to inherited taints, or to overwork outside of college coupled with physical weakness. Provision for puljlic recreation is now admitted to be part of the problem of con- structive statesmanship. The college student solved it for himself long ago. With his short working day he has ample leisure for this purpose. And he devotes himself to it with passion. Here no discipline is too hard, no coach too severe. As agencies to de- tect latent physical qualities, to develop them to the utmost and to exploit them to the greater glory of Alma Mater, American colleges lead the world. Substitute intel- lectual for phj ' sical in the preceding sentence and ponder the result. In other uses of his abundant leisure the student is not so successful. Let George do it might well supplant the classic inscription over most dormitory entrances. Some of the undergraduate residents more than live up to the equivocal title of this kind of housing arrangement, significantly sacred as it is to our colleges and univer- sities. And in addition to dormitories the facilities afforded by the back seats of large lecture rooms are thoroughly appreciated. Comparatively few students ever read for the pure love of reading, or, after graduation carry a liking for literature out into the world with them. P ' ather as he writes the checks, and mother as she writes the good advice, are blissfully ignorant as to the amount of time sonny manages to consume in mere vacuous fellowship. Soothed by the everlasting tinkle of the mandolin, stu- dents are wont to smoke or dawdle intermina1)l3 ' either alone or in each others rooms. And they have a Gargantuan ap])etite lor social frivolities of the most conventional and stupid sort. College men pride themselves upon their loyalty, and justly so. It is one ot the finest and most fervid of their virtues, the glamor of which lasts to the end of life. Not for worlds would I have it otherwise. Yet there is a certain narrowness in the stu- dent ' s devotion to class, fraternity, and to team, even to the college itself. Retaining all their love for these idolized institutions would it not be possible to develop a more intense interest for the great causes which, in our t nne more than any other, are bat- tling for supremacy in national and international life? In science, art, literature, and social politics there are always issues? discoveries, movements, which should evoke vigorous partisanship among undergraduates. Why should they not set themselves resolutely to the tlireshing out of the real questions of the day in both the academic and outer world? But, as Mr. Walter Lippmann maintains, it is indeed true ol the American college student of today that his ' wild oats ' are rarely spiritual. Superlatively amazing, also, is the lack of leaders and leadershii) in undergraduate affairs. With ample leisure for this purpose and with plenty of fine human material 10
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