102 SCIENTIST 



easy for qualified boys and girls to attend schools which 

 are primarily designed for college preparation. Others make 

 it very difficult. Sometimes the best solution for the ambi- 

 tious student is to go to live with a relative in another 

 school district. If such a relative doesn't exist, the student 

 may be able to arrange room and board with a reliable 

 family in return for doing odd jobs and chores around the 

 house. One or another of these patterns was, as a matter 

 of fact, the usual way for a bright boy or girl to get a 

 good education a generation or two ago before high schools 

 of any sort were as widely distributed as they are now. 

 Finally, there is the possibility of attending a good board- 

 ing school. The opportunities in this direction may be a 

 good deal brighter, especially for boys, than most people 

 imagine. To most Americans the private boarding school 

 is likely to seem remote from the reahty of everyday life, 

 snobbishly available only to the children of the very rich. 

 It must be admitted that there is some truth in this, espe- 

 cially as it applies to the "name" schools in the Northeast 

 and a few on the West Coast. Much more commonly than 

 is recognized, however, even these name schools are anx- 

 ious to help promising young boys with limited financial 

 resources. Not only do they feel a responsibility to make 

 their excellent facilities available to those who can use 

 them most effectively, but they are often as aware as their 

 critics of the dangers of limiting their enrollments to rich 

 and fashionable families. Such schools as Exeter and 

 Andover, for example, have always prided themselves on 

 their democratic outlook. Over the years they have ac- 

 cumulated substantial scholarship funds to meet at least 

 an important part of the expenses of students unable to 

 pay their own way. Several of these schools send admis- 

 sions officers on extensive trips throughout the country in 

 a special effort to find exceptional boys whose needs are 



