HOBSON'S CHOICE

The celebrated David Crockett chose for his motto the now familiar maxim; be sure you are right, then go ahead. And despite its triteness this slogan might well adorn the banners of educational reformers. But the question of just what is right is distressingly difficult. As usual the most apparent aspects of the problem have been attacked first, with the result that evils of the American educational system have been attributed almost solely to defects in the methods of collegiate instruction. Dean West of the Princeton Graduate College has, however, broached a problem which seems to pierce directly to the heart of the educational difficulty.

He suggests in brief that "the first place for attacking the problem of reconstructing college education is in the secondary schools"; and he cogently argues that "American colleges today are greatly hampered by the uncertain nature of the student's preparation, so that they are not free to create a really academic college education built on dependable preparation in essential subjects."

The function of a college has been defined as the production of college trained minds, whereas the function of a university is to afford those college-trained minds the opportunity of acquiring a more specific store of actual knowledge. And indeed this analysis seems a fair description of the present system. What Dean West recommends, however, is the relegation of this function of training minds to the preparatory schools. The college would there-upon become less of a disciplinary institution, and more a place of acquiring real education. The helpless feeling which is common to many Freshman during the first months of college life is perhaps the best argument for Dean West's proposal.

Doubtless the private preparatory schools of the East have closely geared themselves to collegiate requirements and methods; but this is certainly not true of the majority of public high schools, and since a large proportion of the entering classes does come from public rather than private preparatory schools, it is imperative that some step he taken which will tend to coordinate the functions of the high school and the college. There are then two alternatives for the preparatory schools: either they will assume the initiative and send men to college adequately fitted to undertake the first year of college study, or the college will so devise the first year curriculum that only those men can survive who have received adequate training, forcing the preparatory schools to play the part which an advanced educational system inevitably demands.