ases ause Letrime apolog rd wit t stand forest Even into t s. Tra al" shi as thing At firs the eir str We s were se it m at Ig for th e uppe Leed, nis next meal is coming from. He, if you lik does have time to worry about his soul. Nor the less, he worries about it very little. The used to be a good deal of fun poked at settl ment-workers who tried to read Dante an Shakespeare to slum-dwellers. I am not su that those misguided youths and maidens wh first carried Dante and Shakespeare into th slums were not right as to substance, howev wrong they were as to sequence. The on morally decent excuse for wanting to have little more money than you actually need feed and clothe your family, is your ambitic to have a little mental energy to spend things not of the body. The ultimate traged of the slums is that, in slum conditions, or can scarcely think, from birth to death, of an thing but the body. The upper-class peop who think of pleasing their palates instead relieving hunger, of being in the fashion i stead of covering their nakedness, are no mo civilized than the slum-dwellers. They are ap it is true, to become more so; for it is a strang fact that a family can seldom be rich throug [73] tuating in our country; and several genof it are not often seen. The people : now rich are generally people whose thers and great-grandfathers were fightheer existence. So we have the spectacle lominant plutocrats (no one will deny tocracy is the order of the day, both d in Europe) either mindful themf the struggle for existence, or in a having only just forgotten it. They are g to push their children into a race for le goods. And the more we recruit migrants who bring no personal tradith them, the more America is going to he things of the spirit. No one whose ng desire is either for food or for ars is going to care about culture, or ow what it is. And it is another misof our over-quickened social evolution e middle classes do not stay middleThey climb to wealth, or sink to indiNeither that quick rise nor that quick I period in which to cherish their own children's intellects. [74] except as h other men. We the college curr average boy or the colleges are attack usually i test of a "colleg value, but its s the youth for s do with learning cial use to him? get it? Far bei intellectual flame collegiate youth that there is far ing as a good in to cheat scholars of some other th two generations learning is, and materialism, and ity-both of thes in the colleges. The education case. We put th e, several The per ople wi were he spect e will & day, b 3ful th ori t. Ther a race we re sonal t is going one wh od or: culture ay mida ik toi that q their other men. We are always hearing, also, t the college curriculum is a cruel strain on average boy or girl. On one score or anoth the colleges are always being attacked; and attack usually includes the hint that the r test of a "college education" is not the intrin value, but its success or failure in prepari the youth for something that has nothing do with learning. Will it be of social or fin cial use to him? If not, why make sacrifices get it? Far be it from me to assert that intellectual flame never burns in the breast collegiate youth! But I do believe it proval that there is far less tendency to regard lea ing as a good in itself, and far more tender to cheat scholarship, if possible, in the inter of some other thing held good, than there w two generations ago. Ignorance of what r learning is, and a consequent suspicion of materialism, and a consequent intellectual l ity-both of these have done destructive wo in the colleges. The education of younger children is in li case. We put them into kindergartens who Ith the great new army of state uniadmitting students from the public vithout examination, because they s are part of the big public-school ow can it be otherwise? ne patriotic American may see-and nough-in the public-school system udes a college training, a relic of the desire of our forefathers that educa- major good, should be within the all and sundry. But even the patriotic must see another impulse at work: se to put the college intellectually, as ancially, within the reach of all. The must not set up standards for themt the average boy or girl, from the chool, cannot reach without difficulty, at is undemocratic. know as well as other people that it ly harder to get into our old universithan it was in our fathers' day. But he enormously increased facilities for on all over the land, it is not relathing like so hard. Certainly, once in, the country-ex our standards of *I have been told, si sity of Chicago demands gree. The Catholic Un fair to say, also, that, si abdicated her well-nigh possible to acquire the 1 from omega. Standa state the p ause blic-schoo see ol syste lic of t vithin at work tually, all. T For the from t difficul le that univers day. B ities for not rel once in the country-except Princeton-without know ing a word of Greek. Even at Princeton, can take a Litt. B. and let Greek forever alone He can study sociology, or Spanish, or physic culture, or nearly anything he likes. I ha even heard that in one of our state universiti there is a department of hat-trimming, whi contributes its quota to the courses for a (pr sumably feminine) academic degree. It may be objected at this point that th fluctuations of colleges have nothing to do wi our standards of culture. I think they have, great deal. No one will deny that culture ca be got elsewhere, or that colleges do not suffi in themselves to give it. But if colleges not consider themselves custodians of cultur warders and cherishers of the flame, they ha no reason for existence. It is a platitude th *I have been told, since writing this essay, that the Univ sity of Chicago demands a modicum of Greek for the A. B. gree. The Catholic University does the same. And it is or fair to say, also, that, since this essay was written, Princeton abdicated her well-nigh unique position. It will hereafter possible to acquire the Princeton A. B. without knowing alp from omega. [77] |