ACADEMIC OVEREMPHASIS

American colleges have been running the gauntlet between savage attacks from many quarters during the last few years. Dr. Flexner's comprehensive survey simply represented the climax of widespread dissatisfaction with university practices. An admirable explanation of the conditions is contained in an article called "The Unintellectual Boy," in the current Atlantic Monthly.

The Atlantic writer supports the rapidly growing group of educators who insist that far, too many attempt to go through college. "The public must be made to understand," the article runs, "that individuals differ as widely in their educational needs as they do in their physical appearance." The popular fallacy that every man should go to college, that unintellectual, though not necessarily unintelligent, men ought to have academic training is doubtless at the bottom of the inconsistencies of some college curricula.

If the distinction were generally recognized between persons whose intelligence runs along practical instead of theoretical lines, fewer would go to college under the artificial pressure of public or private opinion. Colleges would be freed from the necessity of adjusting the standard of many courses to a rather low average. Courses in "Drug Store Practice" and "Laundering Methods" could be relegated to some distant limbo. What is equally important, the unacademic men could engage in some educational activity suited to their needs.

In spite of constant protests from prominent educators, the college degree mania is slow to weaken. Its futility seems obvious enough, but "the obvious" is not always considered. Popular illusions are often stubbornly held. Not until many more pages have been devoted to the explanation of the fact will it be realized that men who could never succeed in learning are quite likely to succeed in life.