YOUTH IN AMERICA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20491, 17 February 1930, Page 6

YOUTH IN AMERICA.

EDUC||

(NAL SURVEY.

UNIVERSITY STANDARDS.

NEW ZEALANDER'S IMPRESSIONS."

(By "Walter J. Hull. M.A.. of the Victoria University College.)

The class distinction into the quick an<s the dead, which applies generally in America, i:i hardly true in. the colleges.! Ttie typical student appears to be neither so ! fast nor so serious a worker as is hi». brother in industry or commerce. That many of the universities demand a high standard of scholarship, preceded by heavy courses of study is true; that a degree will be automatically conferred at the end of a period of years-in residence, and that study should be regarded as a means of filling in what little time is unoccupied by sport, jazz, and theatre parties, are beliefs that many American students confidently hold.

There is a great' demand for college education i:n America to-day. So much so., that it is sometimes found necessary, ( to register years in advance at reputable inntitutions like "Hamilton, Williams and Princeton.' College presidents are complaining, however, that many attending college will not benefit thereby. The : foundation upon, which the profeusor. has to build is often a shaky one. t We did not see much ,of American high schools, but our acquaintance with the college " freshman:" led us to conclude that much of the teaching is poor, , that) there is little insistence upon exactness, and that, often, their product is a superfc> ? example of blissful ignorance. Standard ol Scholarship. Students know little, if anything about American Government": often theii; professor knows little more. It is possible that both have a far wider ranga of knowledge regarding the condition of the local stock market. I doubt whether geography has a place in the high school curriculum. One student asked us in which part of Victoria the town of New; Zcialand might be situated; another believed it to be near Alaska; a third had % confidently anticipated that we should be> either brown or yellow in colour. S Al't'er our haka—which one paper, de- > scribed as the " Woof and boom of the Nijw Zealand bushmen " —it is probable that doubts as to our racia! origin still -J exist. . -| t In • respect of the standard of scholar-, ship,' tho ability of the staff and tha type of student, there is remarkable diversity. Of the thirty institutions, we visited, there are some eight which would be' comparable with leading ( British uni- jf versities. These include , the universities • of Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, and Brown, and the colleges, Hamilton, Bates, Williams and Dartmouth. These | institutions have on their staffs some outstanding men, many of whom, including Moon, Hayes, Dewey, Thorndyke and • Munroe —all of Columbia—have inter* national reputations. Princeton and Wil« liams are fashionable institutions, situ* ated within easy distance of New York, and many of the students here are th» sons of America's leading public and commercial rae:n. Harvard appears to demand comparatively high standards, - and its Law School has easily the greatest reputa* tian in the country. At the four j mentioned, there is a camaraderie, a col* - * lege spirit; and an- affection for Almai ■ Mater which strike the visitor .very] forcibly. ._ .. ' "Debating Institutions." i Hamilton, Bates 'and Boston Universities \ ai-s generally • regarded as the most suc-» cdssful "debating" institutions: they have! reputations which they appear to liv* up to. Included in the former team waa : a brilliant whose skilful rebuttal carried the> audience with him: while that latter provided the best debate of the touif —a debate replete with humour and skilful repartee,, nnd successful parry and thrust,, with the decision in doubt throughout. . , American college life reflects the gen< eral diversity- of the racial origin of tha . piiople. On many programmes the listi oj; debate professors, coaches, and man- ' a||ers contained at least 50 per cent.! '■foreign' 1 names. The Germans, in par* i; ticular, have contributed very largely t(s j what hntlei culture America nas to show, the worUd. Very many of the institutions 4 oil learning have been founded under the p auspices of the Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian, Churches* bat, except;, for a briei chapel service, which almcst all can attend without offence to their own particular faith, there is little to remind one of their origin.

Position of Professors. The college professor is' called, somw times, "pirofessor," sometimes biat morti often "Dick" or "Joe." His social position riiifes a little higher than that of al clergyman,, .but remains a little lower than that of the bootlegger. A few of the pro-«-fctssors whom we met were redolent of '' quackery—for instance, the occupant- of cnair in oratory wlio gives special, exert ciises to his unfortunate students in vowel! production through the nose ! at- the other extreme, we have W®odrowi Wilson, who was president of Princeton; before becoming President of. the United! .. States, and /Murray Butler, president? oft Columbia,. with its twenty-five thousandth students, who may, perhaps, be the chiet executive some day. At th<» women's colleges—Vassar, Wells and Seton Hill—we met a veiy fine type of girl, but the "co-ed," in the mixea colleges in the east, has little to recommend her,, and her attractiveness ana beauty am mainly mythical. What shj lacks in beauty, she makes up for with) pencilled eyebrows and bedaubed lips* §he is fonder of "dates" than of study, and is by no means as devoted to games and the fnjsh air as the girl undergraduate in New Zealand appears to be. However*! in the west, where the universities aral; partly Stite controlled and where the** male prejudice against admitting ( Women|| to the universities is absent, the "co-ed-' is a verv much better type. I believe. • £ Lavish Expenditure. > $

Expenditure upon university education, is lavish. Very many colleges are ofl superb architecture with costly chapels* libraries, laboratories, and gymnasia. many places, the college campus consists cf: hundreds of acres of well-selected and well laid out land, beautified in every pos* siblo way. Money is spent freely uponi sport, ar d every scientific device • isj > brought lb bear in order to make the bum! bte fit, and to help the "grid" squad Mi rictory, but the number of students who|i take part in games is, surprisingly small* and often the footballer, who i» forced tq train as iriany as four hoars a day, 4 the average, and to become, for the timet being, a specialist, pays scant attention tc( study during the season. . The sizo of some American is bewildering. At Temple Columbia (New/York), and Stanford (new San Francisco), one can walk for ■through ,-.streets filled with university buildings, and, in the two last-named, tpj* r.taff alone is well in excess of six nun* r'lred '■ • ' If--' ' If tho intellectual standing and contrwj | tiution to culture of American umveisi i_ were in proportion to the wealth of I endowments, they would lead the w * Many of them are raw and crude, '' ?! g; ever, and these contradict an oft-q <*: motto, "Sapientia magis auro desiaewi . a * da " • _ •V I