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Show IsThis The Hig her Education? O 0 0 O O 0 0 0 0 0 0 O 0 o i Student Says Universities Varnishing Plants' jpx- r 1 V Y MeEST 1 rrn Hm W 1 jl vw yj '-u lira w . i SvoXl v w I feci I want to million a remark once nuule by Bob Ini:ersol. lie paid, in substance, that colleges wore places w'here pebbles wpre poiisheds ami diamonds dia-monds were dimmed. And, us usual, he was ritht ! (Copyright! 1D20, NEA Servhle. Inc.) w i V s - Left, Tliuinas V. Ihinnui, writer of tlie aceoniiian.yEi;g crilii'i.Mii of tmiversity life. Above, a pae from "The amiias," student publication at the University of Southern California. Cal-ifornia. Uranding the material as "shady," university autliorities expelled ex-pelled tile four students responsillie. Editor's Note: Thomas W. Duncan, a senior at Drake University, Des Moines, la., recently elected "student philosopher" of the school, has aroused much .comment recently by writing for his college paper, The Delphic, a biting criticism of university life. Accordingly, NEA Service Ser-vice asked him to sunmiurize his views ou modem coiiego life in a special spec-ial article, and that article is herewith presented. To show that Mr. Duncan is not a student who has been soured by being left out of those college activities that he criticizes, the following excerpt from a letter from him is printed: "This story is not written by an outsider looking in: ralher, by an insider looking out. For, here at Drake, I have been connected with the radical group, also vilh four fraternities one of them a local social, one a local dramatic, and two l.atii n.tl professionals. This is not a sour-grapes attack ! "I have represented lay ioi!'e:' on the varsity debating squad. I have served as Delphic editor f.a- over a year, and now I am Delphic columnist. I have known four ' ;i,:- :!. i--. hot dances, etc. In other words I am just the ordinary coil-.e ;t:::i ai.'' By THOMAS AY. DUNCAN. Written Exclusivity for NIC A Service Ser-vice aod The Evening Herald. If William Shapespeare were a student in a Jnodern American college col-lege he would bo politely snubbed. . If Shelley were vo enrole tomorrow at any on of our middleweslern uni-vrsities. uni-vrsities. every fratruity would pass him up as "queer.' Lord Hyron would lie booted from the campus before a week had passed, and I doubt very much if Swir'ti or Yoltaire would be allowed to attend classes more than three days. i The self-termed "ideal college student" stu-dent" of today must not be unusual or extraordinary if he expels to remain in the favor of his fellow students. He must be ordinary to the nth degree: lie must be excruciatingly excru-ciatingly normal. Inded. if he is just a trifle subnormal lie is much more likely to ' make" a good fraternity. fra-ternity. He must believe implicitly that the varsity football squad is composed com-posed of young god that the half-bakd half-bakd opinions of bis inU'iK-tors are final, that the "ole sehm I spirit" is "great stuff," and above all, that his fraternity, his group, his university uni-versity are above eriticsini. The university of today is an immense im-mense varnishing works where one learns to dance-, play bridge and poker, carry a load "f alcohol grace fully, and, incidentally, to invent clever excuses for undone work. It is a convenient place to which John and Mary may mi from East liulter-ville liulter-ville in order to have the rough edges and sba ip corners smoothed down and sandpapered. John dons a pair of wide pants, n ! checkered necktie and becomes "col- legiate." Mary learns from the "ac j rives," the preferred "line" of her j sorority, the proper fork to use, the technique of a moonlight date, and her education is complete. When She 'Test." If her sorority "pels," she '"pels'" anil the male half of I he campus mws her as "a hot little number" : I if her group refrains from "pelting" for jMiliey's sake, she remains slightly slight-ly aloof when her boy friend crowds a bit too close ami she is known in fraternity halls as "a dam' good all-I'niiiiil all-I'niiiiil girl." Of course she smokes a nd now a ml then sips a bit or 'hront-scoivhing hooch from a silver hip fhisk il is a very ordinary procedure pro-cedure and. in fact, expected. . . Now. to i he sophist i cat ed miinh these things are not a bit shocking. Hut here is the hitch: Mary considers consid-ers herr-"If a "college student" ami is so considered by other. John readily admits that he is a "college ! si ndein." ! I'lh'k in East 1 'ut i erville ji-ipa and .mania are proud to refer lu their off-1 . -..n::..:: a.; "col lege studvllN." T;c re. 'ill is a nusiioiuer. John and Maty are no more students than Henry the Eighlh was a woman hater. John and Mary are ncvely collegia tes, certainly no. ' si:oe:it.-." John can tell you all a bout the works of Zane Grey a nd Mary is well acquainted with the current ' Confessional" literature, but neither neith-er knows nor cart's a whit ah.mt Henry Mecken, Car! Yan YeVhccn. Edgar Lee Masters. Joseph Conrad Sinclair Lwis, Itabelia : Ecu Joh::: son, James Branch Cate 1. John Keats, Kobert Herrick,. Tlnpert Broke, etc, etc. To speak of Orelg. Wagner or Chopin is to open oneself one-self to the danger of being classed a "high-brow." Rodin, Aubrey, Beards-ley Beards-ley and Sargent are unknown. . . . There are, of course, the outcasts the thinking minority. , Circunu stances force them together. Invariably In-variably thy are known as "the radicals." Some times they are rebels it is true, but the college rebel is not possessed with a nefarious nefar-ious heart. He merely wants to poke, into other things for himself cut-and-dried pedantry is obnoxious to him. Ie:r. 'cos Are Kasy. It is not at all difficult to oh rain a degree from the universities in .middle America on the contrary is il a'most uubeliveably easy. like stray curs into tin; sausage machine our young people art; tossed into t he college almosphre ; like the dogs thy must needs conform to the s;eel lines of tile machine: and, like tiie dogs aiso, they emerge from the machine at lite end of four years in ' slrings of nice little link sausages! all alike, hopelessly alike. j The courses in a modern middle! western university are designed for the dumbell. The obvious is always insisted upon. Simple, patent, facts are emphasized. And these gullible youngsters, these Johns and Mary. labor under the dlision that they a re becoming educated, cultured. One can hardly blame the poor' professors. It, is what John a nd Mary wish, what their parents wish. Classes are meant to be only slight, unpleasant interruptions in the social so-cial whirl. Over half of the people in our colleges col-leges shou'd not be there. They have neither the inclination nor the capacity for a rigorous course of st inly. Our universities need a general house.lcaning. They should be (da red of t lie rubbish of at hlel ics, fraternities and sororit ie.-j and four o'cl'ir-k da t es. Then, perhaps, we should have educational institutions momparable to such old world universities uni-versities as Cambridge, Oxford and Heidelberg. Until then, the modern college slude.it will remain a dult. |