EDUCATIONAL TRADITION

Urging in the current "American Mercury" that college studies be applied more to the unpleasant realities, Harry Woodburn Chase suggests that they be "devoted to really learning something about the world," a world which Mr. Chase sees in terms of the problems of contemporary life. To him such subjects as economics and biology are the cream of the curriculum. But while man's income and digestion are of major importance, the tradition of higher education has been to concentrate upon celebration.

The public schools are getting themselves industriously, if not successfully, to fit youth to social existence and to stereotype reactions. To instill a certain tolerance and awareness of individuals, rather than of groups, might very well be considered an honorable goal of the University. Let it be granted that the average college student is lamentably ignorant of political problems in their detailed aspect, but most certainly he has heard of them if he reads only the newspapers. There are plenty of persons who know far too much about their immediate difficulties and are busily enlisting the support of their neighbors for various plans to end poverty, sedition, war, or profits. From Ogden Mills to Earl Bowder the contemporary scene is peppered with eloquent men on soap boxes. It might seem that a certain intellectual perspective and depth of thought rather than an opinionated familiarity with the facts would supply the better approach to the problems of the century.

Many thinkers have not been able to explain knowledge of the world with Mr. Chase's facility. Educators, moreover, persist in teaching what he would call the impractical arts but the students versed in this learning and training by its discipline are not likely to approach current problems with the confidently preconceived prejudices of many of our realists. If intellectual understanding and unbiased thinking are the products of such an education it is the kind of training modern youth desires.