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Show REAL LIFE AND THE COLLEGE GRADUATE Tho time is again upon us when the men of experience and wisdom, selected by college faculties fac-ulties to advise and condole with their graduates, will tell those young hopefuls what they are going to bo up against, when they enter upon "real life." There is no more curious comment com-ment upon modern education than this. The persistence of the belief that the cloistral atmosphere at-mosphere still enshrouds the col-lego; col-lego; that the college student is concerned, during his college career, only with ideals and theories; the-ories; that he is instructed by impractical book-worms and re cluses; that "tho world" is lying in wait to do for him when he comes out, all this can be accounted ac-counted for only upon tho assumption as-sumption that tho belief is to somo extent true or that the modern mind is almost hopelessly hopeless-ly slow to adapt itself to changed conditions. Tho strangest thing of all is that most of those who hold to this belief seem to think that these conditions aro much as they should be that the college col-lege man should bo trained to some vaguo scholastic sort of existence ex-istence while in college; should bo subjected to a regimen such as on tho whole to unlit him for tho lifo he must enter after leaving leav-ing college, so that he will be up against it good and hard when ho enters "real life." Indeed the constant use of the expression expres-sion "real lifo" must imply that college lifo is unreal lifo. And tho no less constant intimation that he will bo "up against the ronl thing" when ho gets out, that he must learn tho real business busi-ness of living after leaving col-lego. col-lego. I In fact, much of what is said on commonebmont 'platform to' collego graduates is either the' sovorest sort of satiro upon the colleges; voilcd insult to tho intelligence in-telligence of collego teachers and students; or, if true, such truth as should lead us to pity collego graduates as tho most unfortun-ato unfortun-ato of mankind. In any case conditions call imperatively im-peratively for a reform of tho colleges, of tho ideas of commencement com-mencement orators, or of the attitude at-titude of thoj)ublic at large toward to-ward tho colleges and their graduates. grad-uates. Educational Reviow. For tho conditions complained of, no ono is to blame but the colleges themselves. They not only permit and encourage tho studonts to concoivo tho notion that tho college is tho only place which knowledge is to be had, but tho faculty and regents invariably in-variably use their efforts to place the college graduato in a class by himself, or rathor, in a class where nono but collego graduates are permitted to enter. Laws aro urged which make it virtually impossible for any but tho fellow with n sheepskin to enjoy the blessings of freedom. free-dom. Knowledgo is no longer tho object which should be desired, de-sired, but rather the attendance 1 at college is the standard by which "educators" guage one's qualifications, Tho result is that when the college graduate is turned loose in tho business world he finds that common sense and not ego-, tism is what is required, and ifj he succeeds he must revise his education. The sooner colleges learn tho truth, the better it will be for those who attend" them. |