In Theory

Haverford College, in Pennsylvania, the oldest of the American Quaker colleges, is preparing to celebrate its centenary, and the addresses made at its convocation ceremonies are significant of a trend among American educators. "The country needs an exhibit of quality rather than quantity in education," said President Comfort, announcing a new program which will give every older student the individual attention hitherto reserved for honors students, and the address of President Lowell of Harvard echoed the thought.

"Too many men go to college without any real fitness for higher education or capacity of profiting by it," he said, "and then waste the time of the teachers." There is no use in spending money to educate a boy whose attitude toward college is, "You are the educator; I am the educate. Educate me if you can." That is the problem which every American college and university is facing today. One method is to change the attitude of the student body toward their four academic years, to induce them to treat scholarship as seriously as they treat athletics. President Lowell thinks that a change is already obvious, and it is striking that he says "more obstacles have been found among parents and alumni than among the undergraduates themselves."

Dozens of American colleges and universities are searching new paths. The great Western state universities are perforce tending to emphasize the utilitarian aspects of education which a mass electorate immediately recognizes. In the East the experiments, including the house plan, at the great universities, have held the spotlight of public attention. But the work of the smaller colleges which, as President Lowell says of Haverford, have been beacon lights on the road, sometimes go unnoticed. We forget that Harvard and Yale and Princeton made their national fame and established their enduring glory when they were no larger than Haverford today.