STUDY IN THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM 573 



his easy-going methods is simply a bald statement of the truth? Is 

 there no danger that some of our students and faculties may desire to 

 bear the reputation of scholarliness without paying its honest price in 

 hard work or in unpopular justice ? One is tempted to point out in this 

 connection the grave injustice that may be done by over-tolerant college 

 authorities to teachers of the strenuous type in their employ. Some- 

 times it would almost seem to be the explicit belief of these easy-going 

 presidents and heads of departments that the function of the instructor, 

 be he never so promising a scholar or so skilful a teacher, is to spend 

 his time and energies in a vain attempt to cajole illiterate and con- 

 temptuous "gentlemen" into the absorption of microscopic doses of 

 learning. To be sure, small wonder should be aroused by the fact that 

 bloodless pedantry and academic priggishness meet with ill success in 

 their contact with lively undergraduates ; but, in some institutions, 

 men who are neither prigs nor pedants must either descend to the 

 "popular" level or else court disaster. Some of these mistaken ideal- 

 ists may begin their teaching with a fine ambition to make their courses 

 count, perhaps even with the knowledge that trifling was rampant in 

 their own student days and the determination that it shall not dis- 

 grace any of the classes for which they are responsible. And yet their 

 training, their enthusiasm and their ideals are likely to be unappreci- 

 ated even if they are not positively unpopular; they must either forget 

 these things and drift with the genial majority, or fight a discouraging 

 battle on the side of a minority disliked by colleagues and students. 

 Perhaps it may not often occur to candidates for college positions, nor 

 to heads of departments seeking instructors, to determine whether this 

 lack of harmony exists ; but it is quite possible that an honest agreement 

 in regard to the question whether one is expected to teach or to amuse 

 might prevent a certain number of misfits. 



Secondly, if the ideal of a college is to be anti-intellectual, or even 

 a policy of compromise, it is only fair that the fact shall be squarely 

 and publicly admitted, so that ambitious parents and conscientious 

 students shall not be deluded. It is merely honest to define our posi- 

 tion; if we are conducting a country club with practically optional 

 opportunities for intellectual development, the public should know it. 

 Such institutions should advertise along these lines : " Blank University 

 offers to young men of good disposition four years of pleasant life, com- 

 bined with social and athletic advantages. Any who are so inclined may 

 attend some of our large assortment of easy and attractive courses; 

 and, if, in addition, they will do a small amount of work, the bachelor's 

 degree will be conferred upon them." With the ideal thus frankly de- 

 fined, the situation would become clearer, and we could leave institu- 

 tions of that sort to conclude for themselves whether the social by- 

 products of an unintellectual college life really warrant the four pre- 



