356 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



example, that more of these preliminary or preparatory studies are dis- 

 posed of before entering the professional career. Further, in the mas- 

 tery of languages the foreign student seems to have, whether from in- 

 heritance or local conditions, a readier facility in rapidly acquiring 

 usable command of these subjects. But with all this granted, is it 

 quite sure that we have found a real cause, or merely an excuse for 

 existing conditions? It is a condition and not a theory which con- 

 fronts us and we can not afford to confuse the problem by any false 

 lights, however alluring such a method might be. 



However, it is not so much in the matter of actual difference in the 

 relative status of these pupils in school achievement at a given age. It 

 is rather in the matter of attitude toward things scholarly. One has 

 not to go far into an inquiry to assure one's self on this point. Again 

 and again has the writer heard and seen such expressions as " Don't let 

 your studies interfere with your college duties," " fraternity is more 

 important than scholarship," " only grinds pay any attention to marks," 

 etc. Furthermore, it is rather evident that comparatively few give 

 especial effort to achieving scholarship honors, such as prizes, Phi Beta 

 Kappa, etc. Only rarely does one notice any emphasis in college 

 papers of fellowships, research achievements, etc. One misses the eager 

 passion for scholarship for its own sake which forms so dominant a 

 place in the educational history of earlier days. The impression can 

 not be escaped that the student attitude the country over is rather dom- 

 inantly as intimated above, though it may be more open and avowed in 

 certain sections than in others. " Stover at Yale " is not pure fiction ! 



Various attempts have been made to find some adequate explanation 

 of this condition. For example, the dominance of commercialism has 

 been assigned as a factor in this attitude and is involved in the scholarly 

 decline. Let it be admitted that in this there may be a grain of truth, 

 yet it is wholly inadequate as an explanation. We hear it over and over 

 again that scholarly ability has a distinctly commercial value. Now if 

 this be so then one ought to find a growing importance attaching to the 

 highest possible standards of scholarship and educational achievement. 

 But the obvious lack of just this is the very problem which confronts us. 



Again, one finds emphasized the dominance of athletics, and the 

 social dissipation in college affairs as responsible for divorcement of the 

 more serious and primary considerations. And these express an un- 

 doubted element of truth ; but again they are not the whole of the mat- 

 ter. They are but symptoms ; the real trouble lies deeper and must have 

 more critical concern. 



To the mind of the writer the root of the trouble lies in our present- 

 day educational methods. And one of these involved is what may be 

 called indiscrimination. In our zeal for education we have been dis- 

 posed to regard it as the one panacea for every social and civic ill. 

 This is emphasized in such phrases as " education the foundation of 



