Judge — April 29, 1922 — page 18: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon by Raeburn Van Buren appears to satirize Vassar College education (note "VASSAR '73"). A tiny infant wearing an academic mortarboard sits among oversized books and military toy soldiers, suggesting the absurdity of attempting rigorous scholarly training. The juxtaposition of an infant's developmental stage with advanced education implies mockery of either Vassar's curriculum or its students' readiness. The exaggerated scale emphasizes the disproportion between the child and the intellectual demands presented. Without additional context from Judge magazine's era, the specific target—whether it's women's education generally, Vassar specifically, or contemporary educational debates—remains somewhat unclear, but the core joke ridicules the mismatch between student capability and educational pretension.