RAPID TRANSIT EDUCATION

A dignified educational controversy arose at the recent Amherst Alumni conference, led on one hand by President Hopkins of Dartmouth and on the other by Dean Hawkes of Columbia. Are four years in college a waste of time? Would it not be better to convert the college into two year advanced preparatory school, concentrate there on cultural development, and then send a south law school, business school or architectural school? No, said President Hopkins, as one might expect. Yes, said Dean Hawkes, equally consistent with the institution he represented. The junior college and the professional school of a large university, said he, will be the education of the efficient future.

This gentlemanly argument was really not concerned with the proper disposition of time to achieve a given end. These two educations are aiming at different results and, properly enough, approve different methods. A four year college course intends to develop the student's cultural background. It may succeed only to a deplorably small extent, but that is the intention behind it, and its eminently valid excuse for existence. On the other hand, the type of education which Dean Hawkes champions concerns itself more immediately with a profession. On the ground that an attorney or business man must be fairly well informed--fairly is good enough, it seems--two years are allowed him to humanize himself; after that, he becomes a specialist preparing for his profession.

To realize what the latter method omits, one has only to consider what a great development and often, what a radical change takes place within a student after his Sophomore year. Very often, a student does not realize the purpose or importance of his college career before this time. Nevertheless, the hurry of American life is beginning to tell. Johns Hopkins University has already abolished Freshmen and Sophomores. Chicago University is considering confining itself to graduate activity. Thus, Dean Hawkes is in line with contemporary tendencies. But those undergraduates who are now enjoying the old-fashioned process will appreciate the immense advantage that is theirs, of growing slowly, especially when so closely connected with the acquisition of a cultural background is the important matter of finding one's self.