POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 87 



years is a barely sufficient period for a proper technical course. But 

 what are the conditions? As has been said, the active members of 

 organizations are required to maintain respectable standing as students; 

 during football season, a member of the team can do very little studying, 

 as he has no time; even if he should have time he could have no dis- 

 position. His attention is distracted too often by the necessity of 

 nursing bruises, of repairing other damages or of seeking rest for a 

 time in the hospital. Other organizations do not require similar phys- 

 ical racking but equal waste in energy and loss in time causing similar 

 unfitness for study. In large institutions comparatively few individ- 

 uals suffer in this way, as there is no duplication on teams, but in a 

 small college the same men are on several lists, so that the football hero 

 of Xovember may be a brilliant star in the glee club during winter and 

 a mainstay of baseball in spring. Yet with few exceptions these men 

 make good all their losses and gain their degrees in technical schools 

 quite as well as in colleges. Far be it from the writer to say that the 

 course has been adjusted deliberately to meet the necessities of these 

 champions; but the fact remains that these men to whom study, in the 

 true sense of the word, is practically out of the question during a con- 

 siderable part of the college year, do succeed in completing the course. 

 It is certain that neither the college course nor that of the technical 

 school requires four years of study for its completion — though it ought 

 to. And it may be remarked parenthetically that this is equally true 

 of the constantly lengthening period demanded by secondary schools 

 for preparation, since in those schools also the advertising value of 

 interscholastic contest is appreciated to its full extent. The require- 

 ments for entrance to college courses have been increased so little dur- 

 ing the last forty years that a city lad of ordinary ability ought to be 

 ready to enter college by the time he is sixteen years old. 



If intercollegiate contests are to be continued as a part of college 

 operations, simple honesty requires that a change be made in the ar- 

 rangement of studies. Men who wish merely to learn, who have no 

 ambition to shine in athletics, glee clubs or other organizations, should 

 not be compelled to hang around college or technical school for four 

 years. They should have the opportunity to finish their work in 

 proper season and to avoid the loss of a year or of a year and a half 

 at the critical period of life. The college circulars should be very 

 clear in explaining the conditions, so that parents might be able at the 

 outset to decide in which division to place their sons. Those who are 

 willing to have their sons ' get through ' as well as those who desire to 

 have their sons receive a generous intellectual training would make 

 their arrangements intelligently and there would be no longer room for 

 complaint. 



