570 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



be real students." This is the view which — possibly unjustly — we are 

 apt to associate with the typical Oxonian frame of mind ; and it is by no 

 means wholly indefensible, especially when contrasted with its Con- 

 tinental opposite of young pedants who, in spite of much learning, may 

 be arrant fools. 



It is to be feared, however, that some of the commonest reasons for 

 loose dealing with idle students are not particularly creditable. The 

 least deplorable, perhaps, is an uncritical good nature, weakly consent- 

 ing to allow the deficient student to continue his life of delightful indo- 

 lence, and cheerfully indifferent to the effect of leniency upon the de- 

 linquent and his fellows. Perhaps, too, this attitude is not always easy 

 to distinguish from lack of courage in those for whom popularity is 

 the first great test of professional success. Now popularity, honestly 

 won, is among the most precious things in the world. When coupled 

 with just severity it is an ideal attribute in the college professor. But 

 popularity in the man who is also notorious for " snap " courses, or who 

 is always "on the side of the students" in matters disciplinary and 

 scholastic — on the side of the undesirable students, that is to say — this 

 sort of popularity will bear a deal of scrutiny. 



Toleration of poor work is sometimes due, furthermore, to a desire 

 to keep up numbers; we must retain enough students to pay our bills, 

 and we must not let our " competitors " get ahead of us in size. Either 

 of these motives is unworthy of gentlemen and scholars. To be sure, 

 financial habits of mind may be strong in boards of trustees, but the 

 merest business sense should teach us that the last place- to economize 

 is in the quality of our finished product. If we can not save or other- 

 wise secure enough money to make us independent of the tuition fees 

 of those who ought to be dropped, then let us by all means redeem our 

 credit (monetary and moral) by a small increase in the per capita 

 charge : a very little arithmetic will prove that a ten per cent, addition 

 to the fee charged each student will enable us to dispense (if need be) 

 with nearly one tenth of the student body, without reduction of income. 

 The "competition" argument is one that it is difficult to discuss 

 politely. Upon what basis, forsooth, are we " competing " in this busi- 

 ness of education — upon the number of men that we manage to keep 

 enrolled, or upon the quality of the education acquired by those hon- 

 estly entitled to attend our courses ? Can a self-respecting college aspire 

 to a "success" that is measured by an increase in numbers, which, in 

 its turn, may be due chiefly to a low standard ? Is there anything more 

 honorable in educational "competition" than wholesome and coura- 

 geous pruning ? 5 



8 "Every fall we hear that this college and that has made great gains in 

 numbers. And yet we have no idea whether there have been gains in any vital 

 sense until we know first, what proportion of those admitted are qualified to 



