IN NEED OF YOUTH

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 31, 7 February 1927, Page 15

IN NEED OF YOUTH

EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS

AN AMERICAN OPINION

stiirWSreat<!f * CO-°Perati°n between of ttl %J n + factdty > of the first two years of college work SXrt 1?. hoUsine «aai&n!&2 system_ for admission of students into cated by Dr. Clarence C Little fan ldbeL° f S* ™™**« SS& Federating f°a National Students Jeaeration of America recently, rePo« t!i he "fustian Science Monitor " tio^l 6I alm°St 300 years of educataonal experience in this country, we find o U r Se i Y es still trying to obtain satisfactory relations^ between fc Li?rt y «25. a students," asserts Dr. Little. "There are many members of the faculty who do not wish any conand &1 or, seeond-year students, and many who have lost all interest m uninformed minds." Dr Little also criticised faculty men for believing they needed superior representations in joint committees. "This is an admission Tf weakness," he said. "Civilisation has been m the hands of old men and m- yimtlt Ot "blasted. The political and religious systems are old and need youth." Dr. Little admonished the student delegates to think and think hard" about what they could do. "Above all use this time of your lives while you may. If you do we may be able to say America has a future" Ke-organisation of the first two years ot college to include the first course in engineering and education in the literary college was advocated by the University of Michigan president. He advocated holding students to approximately five fundamental courses in their freshmen ana soPhomore years instead of the 30 or 40 now offered.

This, he said, would permit them to get through the first two years wathout grades and subjecting them to an examination at the end of the sophomore years to- determine whether the spark, which will tell whether they should go on, has been lighted. If theij interest has not been aroused they should not be permitted to finish, he holds. Housing conditions were discussed by the speaker, who said that the faculty icnow too little about what the student does during the 18 hours a day wheiuhe is not in classes. Dr. Little advocated dormitories holding between 300 ana 400 students with faculty proctors who are interested in the students in each dormitory. Dr. Little has constantly advocated athletics for all ana recently suggested two football teams to represent each university. He said, "Athletics for til is one of the most talked of and least practised ideas. Intercollegiate „ athletics must become human if they are to survive." While the University of Michigan president has installed a new admission system at the western school, he still asserts that "we need a bettor system of admission which does not consider merely academic standing. It must include an effort to learn whether the prospective student has the elements of leadership. We must try to see boys and girls as long as possible before their coming to college. Admission by higher standing merely -will kill youth." "We have been treating the student's mind as though it were a ba<*. We teach the student to load in the facts with the least possible effort. If the student can unload well at es--aniination time, he gets a pass key to the intellectual garret of Phi Beta Kappa and is tola that he should teach," declared Dr. Little. "We are not_ ready for an educational system which, is human. Beform ia harder now than in the old days."