THE PRESS

The charge that college students do not do any more thinking than is absolutely necessary is practically as old as education itself. In fact, there are those persons among us who claim--and, it must be admitted, with no little reason--that many students do not even do as much thinking as is absolutely necessary. The colleges themselves now recognize this condition and in virtually every one of them there is being conducted a campaign to persuade young men and women to look upon study not as a memory exercise but as an opportunity to do some independent thinking. As for giving students time off from their studies, that has been done, too. But it will be noted that the proper safeguards are invariably in evidence. Only those who maintain consistently high standards in their classes are allowed to enjoy the new freedom and they are allowed to keep on enjoying it only so long as they show that they do not abuse it.

Whateven the verdict of the experts, there is still, a great deal of virtue in the old-fashioned variety of study. It is easier to sit in a comfortable chair and let the mind roam to the far reaches of a subject than it is to attempt to learn formulae, memorize passages from the great authors of the past or dig deep into abstract principles. But the former is profitless unless it rests on the firm foundations of the latter. It is true that the great inventions of the age are the children of imagination, but the automobile, the flying machine, the telephone would never have come into being if the invention had not possessed, in addition to imagination, a firm, sure knowledge of the laws of mechanics, electricity and physics. In the present agitation for intellectual liberty, there is danger that the fundamentals of learning may be lost sight of. The Quadwrangler believes that colleges are not unmindful of this danger and are guarding against it. They will do well if they do not pay too much attention to pleas which will certainly result in unrest and may result in changes in educational methods which we will later regret. By all means give the gifted and serious students the freedom to develop their individually and mental powers. By all means, too, reserve it for the gifted and serious. --The Quadwrangler in the Boston Transcript.