COMMUNICATIONS
THE EDITOR OF THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE. SIR :
The world is in travail. The old order is changing and no man is sufficient of a prophet to foretell what the next few years will bring forth. Without doubt, the educational systems now in vogue will undergo metamorphosis and far-seeing institutions will recognize conditions and forestall them as best they can. Statistics claim that 2½ per cent of the men of the country are college graduates. Possibly the statement of some pessimist that "all men and statistics are liars" may make this number greater or smaller, but it is obvious that too small a percentage of the population obtains the advantages of a liberal education. This is due in part, to lack of ambition in some boys who possess no desire for further education. There are very many, however, who crave an education but their social circumstances are such that they cannot spare the time or the money to go through preparatory school and then take four years in college with more time if the boy expects to enter a professional school. It is for this class of boys that I wish to plead and this plea will take the form of a suggestion which I believe should be given serious thought.
Taking into consideration the time spent away from profitable labor and the money paid out in obtaining an education, it would seem that an abbreviation and a modification of the courses as given in the colleges at present would reach the wants of thousands of young men who are now denied the advantages of higher education. My suggestion, in brief, is this:
That Dartmouth College establish a junior college which might be called, in honor of the founder, The Wheelock School of Dartmouth College, the course to be two years and to be distinctly for preparation for business or for entrance into professional schools. The courses given in this school would naturally be intensive and they would not, in any way, compete with the courses given in the college or its associated schools. It could not be said that a man graduated after a two year college course was the recipient of a liberal education, as we understand the term today, but these courses could be so shaped that he could obtain an education that would be eminently practical. The business course might be what would be known as a glorified business college course, but with the addition of sufficient of the major branches so that a graduate of the school would possess not only the elementary knowledge of business procedure, but in addition, would have sufficient knowledge of the arts and sciences to give him a broader comprehension of matters and things after he gets out into life.
The courses in preparation for medicine and the law should be such as would enable a man to take up the study of those professions with intelligence and at the same time give him the broad viewpoint so necessary to the professional man of today.
It must be understood in considering this matter, that I do not in any way advocate the two year as against the four year course. It is not a substitute therefor, but it would give a large body of men who cannot afford to spend four years in college an opportunity to obtain some of the advantages that accrue to college life and at the same time to pursue a course which would lead them to a definite end.There are today in all our colleges seniors who have not the. slightest idea as to what their life work will be. They have no particular bent, and, consequently, go through college and graduate without realizing whether they are to be bankers or real estate salesmen, lawyers or merchants. As a result of this indecision, a large number wander through the devious byways and hedges of the commercial world before really finding themselves and, oftentimes, the best part of their lives is spent in trying to learn for what work they are best fitted.
I feel that a junior college, giving intensive courses to boys who know exactly what they want to do and are planning accordingly, would fill the bromidic "long-felt want." While such a college would be a part of Dartmouth, the students would be recognized, if my scheme were put into effect, as being in the junior college and they would take no more part in the activities of Dartmouth College than do the men of the associated schools today. That is to say, they would not be elegible as athletes nor would they compete in the non-athletic branches and they would be distinctive junior college students in every way, with their own fraternities and athletic and non-athletic organizations.
Dartmouth College is, in reality, a university possessing three associated schools, so that the addition of another would not tend to upset the institution's equilibrium. It would not be a part of my scheme to give graduates of the junior college a bachelor's degree. My suggestion would be that the title "graduate" be given them instead of "bachelor" as is done with men who graduate from schools of pharmacy with the degree of Ph.G.
A school fashioned along the plans so roughly outlined here would, I sincerely believe, prove a boon to a large class of young men who desire to "go to college," not for a good time or because it is good form, but for a better opportunity of preparing themselves properly for their life work.
Very truly yours,
Professor of Preventive Medicine and Hygiene in the Long Island College Hospital, New York.
