Judge — October 8, 1927 — page 15: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Editor, Norman Anthony Associate Editors, Richacd J. Walsh, Is the College Improving Its Product? Gain the colleges are swamped with students, Ac and otherwise. The college idea has gained such momentum since the world war that it now sweeps along hundreds of thousands who have no clear idea of what they want. Many of them will get very little, and to no good purpose. A vast number will plug along through a curriculum cluttered up with relics of the period when colleges were planned chiefly to train clergymen. Another vast number will pursue studies which are primarily voea- tional. The great majority will*be bored by lectures. terrified by examinations, misled by marks and muddled by systems of discipline which are too lax in some respects and too rigid in others. Here and there are intelligent departures from academic tradition. Meiklejohn at Wisconsin is e perimenting with the tutorial system and research ap- plied intensively, with neither lectures nor recitations. At Swarthmore juniors and seniors who stand high in their work are set free to study in their own way, under no compulsion to show up in the classroom, and with examinations only at the end of the year. In California the junior colleges, offering only two- year courses, are sorting out those boys and girls who really have no business to go,any further. By con- s devoting its masterly energies to post-graduate work, combining research and practice with teaching. At Antioch study is alter- nated with actual paid-for work in shops and offices. In various places freshmen are offered “steering courses” which give a broad view of knowledge. These flashes of light in the murk have been ignited by teachers and administrators. There is pitifully little evidence that parents or alumni take an interest in the real work of college. For every hundred who are concerned about social and athletic matters, there is hardly one who informs himself or makes himself heard about college education. So far as outside criticism is concerned, the colleges are sitting pretty. With thousands waiting to get in and every room full, there is no cry from the cus- tomers for improvement of the product. They'll take what they can get. The general policy of the colleges is to make improvement less in the processes than in the raw material, that is, to lift the entrance stand- ards and thus obtain a higher grade of youth. Youth and its parents ought to retaliate with a demand that the standards of instruction be lifted accordingly. Phil Rosa, Jack Shuttlewort JUDGE Dramatic Editor, George Jean Nathan Three Long Hushes! A untoward incident marred the close of an other- L% wise gorgeous baseball season. Mr, Cornelius McGillicuddy of Philadelphia went and had a fan arrested for disturbing the peace. The young man had come day after day to sit in the bleachers and bawl out the home team for errors and oversights. He got on the nerves of several players. He broke the morale of the entire team. They gave him gifts of little-used balls in the hope of keeping him quiet, as one presses candy upon a crying child. Still he lifted his mighty voice in exhortation. When the cops grabbed him at last, he protested that nobody was more anxious than he to see the Athletics win, and that he chided them only out of his great love. But Connie Mack insisted that he was just a mui Is this part of a campaign to deprive the averag American of his ancient right to take his sports not only vicariously but vociferously? Golf galleries have become so cowed that a man whose breath wheezes while the champion is choosing his club is in danger of being tarred and feathered. At the Forest Hills tennis matches Bill Tilden several times had to pause in mid-service because the audience was audible. Will Rogers has told of his ostracism in England after he let out a yell at a cricket match. That is all very well. But if they start fining base- ball rooters for disturbing the peace, the next thing will be jailing football cheer leaders on the charge of inciting to riot. * * * Pervrows. the danseuse, thinks that modern dancing won't last much longer. She says it has no tech- nique, no beauty and little skill, has almost driven good manners from the ballroom and has no attrac- tion for the spectators. It does not increase the ver- satility of the dancer, because nine out of ten steps are the same, and since one often dances with the same partner all evening, it does not “foster the flow of ideas and conversation.” This is a sweeping indictment, but it overlooks the fact that people do not go to dances to talk, think, entertain spectators, exhibit good manners, become versatile, cultivate beauty or master technique. They go just to have a swell time, and by the curious standards of our day, they succeed. Which makes it a safe bet that the modern dances will become not less, but more so. ance. age R.J.W. comicbooks.com