724 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 802 



over-emphasis of the college home to a 

 substantial abdication of all home func- 

 tions, and to an even greater over-empha- 

 sis of class-room work and grade examina- 

 tions. First the state universities, Avhich 

 now contain more than one half of all 

 students, decided to build no dormitories. 

 Then new private colleges, like Cornell, 

 were founded with no provisions for dormi- 

 tories or any other institutional connection 

 with the home plane. Finally, the older 

 colleges, like Amherst, which had been 

 strongest in their early religious and home 

 life, gave up building new dormitories and 

 even needlessly tore down some old ones. 

 The reason for this is evident. The new 

 college, the new spirit of learning, espe- 

 cially the new-born elective system, re- 

 quired constantly more money for new 

 buildings and a larger faculty. Hence it 

 was argued that the American college 

 might well abandon all exercise of its home 

 functions, and concentrate upon the cur- 

 riculum. The unwisdom of thus abandon- 

 ing instead of remodeling the home plane 

 has long been apparent. 



The words of the Psalmist have been 

 changed in the college scriptures to read, 

 "When my alma mater forsakes me, then 

 the students and alumni will take me up." 

 After the colleges had abandoned the home, 

 but only thereafter, the students revamped 

 the college secret society, and called it a 

 fraternity, and with the aid of the alumni 

 set it to building college homes. To-day 

 these homes house more students than the 

 college barracks, but together the homes 

 and the barracks do not shelter one quarter 

 of all the students. But the college as such 

 has lost all organic control of the home 

 plane and its formative and educational 

 powers; and in determining diploma 

 values, relies more and more upon the 

 artificial and educationally ineffective col- 

 lege statute and ordinance and marking 



system and examinations for promotion 

 only, and ofScially not at all upon those 

 moral qualities which are learned only in 

 the home. If a well-fitted student fails or 

 falls behind in his course, it is probably 

 because of shortcomings upon the home 

 plane, which the college meets by a little 

 greater activity upon the statutory plane, 

 by harsher marking and stricter examina- 

 tions, rather than by a reformation upon 

 the home plane where the real trouble ex- 

 ists. 



Turning briefly to the college community 

 life, we find the same kind of error upon 

 the part of this nourishing mother. About 

 forty years ago, and after the college had 

 abandoned its home functions, there began 

 a steady growth upon the college com- 

 munity plane, which itntil then had not 

 existed. By the college community life I 

 mean that part of the general student life, 

 outside of the curriculum, which affects 

 the student body as a whole; the twenty- 

 seven or more well-defined college activities 

 in which there are intercollegiate records, 

 or in which, as in dramatics or the musical 

 clubs or college journalism, there are pre- 

 sumed to be gathered the best talent which 

 the college holds. The educational value 

 of the college community plane is very 

 great, and with many individuals even 

 greater than that of the class-room. Emer- 

 son said in his essay on culture— please 

 notice that it was in his essay on culture— 

 "You send your child to the schoolmaster, 

 but 'tis the school-boys who educate him ' ' ; 

 and he continues a little later, ' ' One of the 

 benefits of a college education is to show 

 the boy its little avail." A large part of 

 the college education and training is gotten 

 on the community plane. It teaches a man 

 how to handle himself and his fellow-man 

 and how to apply what he knows. This is 

 the only plane where there are well-under- 

 stood and universal intercollegiate records 



