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Show WRITER DECRIES MODERN IDEA OF FORCED LEARNING "Never regard your study as a duty," said Albert Einstein to the Princeton students, "but as an enviable en-viable opportunity." . Quite true! But how shall the student know this, if we persist in treating the university as a school In which tasks are assigned as a burden, bur-den, and punishment Is meted to those who do not do them? If study Is an opportunity, the only penalty for not taking advantage advan-tage of that opportunity is failure to reach its goal. He that does not learn has thereby lost learning, just as he thnt does not eat has thereby lost nourishment. Why should It be anybody's task to force learning on him? If he does not want It, that Is ; his verdict that he has no use for it. Probably he is right. Primary learning, for children, Is a duty. They do not know why they need It, and they may not want It. But, since they will be a burden to others when they grow up, If they do not. learn, we have laws to compel com-pel them to go to school, and we hire taskmasters to make them study. But not higher learning. Nobody needs that unless he does need It, and he Is the best judge of that. The university should offer learning to all who wish it and are able to receive It. Why force it on others or think it anybody's business but theirs whether they choose to take it? San Francisco Chronicle. |