GENERAL FLEXNER

An article in the Times announces the publication of Abraham Flexner's "The University in a Changing World" and quotes several starting denunciations of American colleges which Mr. Flexner makes no attempt to qualify. The writer asserts that American university students, though two years older than their European contemporaries, know less and their cultural interests are so limited as to be accidental. Mr. Flexner further asks when will university presidents coase to be noise personages and be proud to remain academic aides?

Just what Mr. Flexner means by an American student knowing less than a European is difficult to understand. If he means that Europeans have a greater knowledge of classical languages and literatures, he is very probably right, since in most cases, the classics form the basis of modern European methods of education. This influence of the classics, moreover, does broaden the "cultural interests to some extent. But in the matters of practical knowledge and general accumulation of facts the American student is easily the equal, if not the superior, of his European contemporary. The varied and diversified program demanded in American colleges is partly responsible for this. As regards university presidents being noisy personages rather than academic aides, Mr. Flexner has again generalized from a few cases in recent years which have gained publicity. How noisy they are may be reckoned by the amount of attention the people at large pay them.

Assuming these accusations are true, Mr. Flexner has evidently not paused to consider why so many European students come to American colleges each year. They must know Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, or Southern California to be "inferior in solidity to the secondary schools of England and the Continent," yet still they come, and object violently if refused admission. Not long ago an English schoolmaster declared the present English youth to be dishonest, lazy, and irresponsible. It is only a short step from such a general remark to Mr. Flexner's broad assertions concerning American students. Broadly aimed flank attacks of this kind upon the universities and colleges of a nation soon fall to pieces if the writer's assertions are rigidly tested. Mr. Flexner can however be satisfied that he has given the educational system a stern diagnosis and criticism that is necessary for the continued health of the academic body.