Westminster College - Blue Jay Yearbook (Fulton, MO)

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,M l. LL: .,, f i rl lf in , N!! ,, ll r 4, ily 25-S:-Ewa , . 1, fl w ll 2 E l l v 1 1 1 4 Nl l i 53 ll V V E from home, and when he remembered that England could be lost in Texas, while this a country of magnificent distances. Perhaps this reason, added to others above indicated, accounts for the fact that the trend of popular favor is now toward the small colleges which, a few years ago, were threatened with ex- tinction. In closing, it may be well to remind the reader of what the late Dr. Gray, then editor of the Chzkzzgo Ifzierioff, prophesied on that subject: H It i.: said, 'The little colleges must go.' Well, if they ever go, which God forbid, they will take the brains and the consecration of the country along with them. They have furnished nearly the whole of it, up to date, and they are going right along at the same ratio. They are not going any more than the churches or homes are going? By way of fuliillment of that prophecy, let us quote Andrew Carnegie, who in March said: H I think a young man who goes to a small college receives a better education than at a larger one. Sport is too generally taking the place of valuable knowledge at the big collegefl J. J. R. .Iva-wx N l 12 ,

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not for the temptations of the great city into whose bewildering labyrinths the college eyes cannot follow the student, the separated college of the great city university would be as wholesome a place for the young as the H small college in the small town. Another difference in favor of the small college may be found in the instruc- tion. In many institutions there is a tendency toward committing the less im- portant work to younger, inexperienced, and cheaper men. Too often this is the policy of the college toward its preparatory school, and of the University toward its college. Especially is this the case when the enrollment in a university col- lege is large, making the classes unwieldy, either each student must be seldom called upon to recite, or the class must be divided into sections, some of them taught by assistants. In the small college, the student is examined at every rec- itation, and in small colleges that have a reputation to maintain each student daily comes into Contact with experienced teachers, for even the preparatory classes are in charge of the college professors. The care of the students' habits, so impossible that it is seldom attempted where many hundreds of students are congregated, is a matter of grave concern to the Faculty of the small college and also to the citizen, whose business prosperity is to no inconsiderable degree inter- woven with the welfare of the institution. Let us add to this, that all the so-called small colleges are denominational, not in the sense that they inculcate the pe- culiar doctrines of any sect, but in the broad sense of christianity, a divine Savior, and inspired Bible, its Faculty composed of avowed Christians, its brief chapel service daily pointing I-Ieavenward, its teaching of science never attempting to shake a reverent faith. Would that as much could be said for the Faculties of great universities. ' A But, it may be objected in this day of commercialism, the men who teach in small colleges are not so well-paid as the Faculties of Universitiesg therefore they must be of small calibre. That depends on what kind of men have the appoint- ing power. No one would expect a purely partisan governor to appoint theubest or the brightest men to positions paying best. Is there any doubt in the minds of intelligent men that some educational institutions have gradually been so di- verted from the great purpose for which they were founded that the very founders, could they rise from their graves, would be deemed too small and narrow for positions in institutions that bear their names? The writer often wondered why no attempt had ever been made to establish in America something like the English Universities-say Oxford, a collection of small colleges, each having its own Faculty, its own students, its own discipline, 90 to 200 students in its own classes, but all students being required to pass ex- aminations before a committee representing all the colleges, all students having the advantages of the university museums, debating societies, lectures and li- braries, inspired by university traditions, stimulated in athletics and scholarship by rivalry with sister collegesg the collective colleges having their police regu- lations and officers to enforce them. And this wonder ceased when he read that not ten per cent. of. our college students ever attend a college a hundred miles Il

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