Education for the Submerged
Something distinctly new in college entrance requirements would seem to be involved in the determination of Tabor College, located in the town of the same name in southwestern lowa. A despatch in the veracious New York Times some months ago set forth the arresting fact that under its new president, Dr. Robert Enlow O'Brian, Tabor College will accept only boys who finish high school in the lowest quarter of their class. The first applicant for admission since Dr. O'Brian took the helm was rejected because he was the nephew of a wealthy Chicago business man and because he had been the valedictorian of his class in high school. It may be that Dr. O'Brian has something there—and then again it may be he hasn't. The experiment should be worth watching.
The curious requirement is based on the desire of the Tabor president to run a college for the benefit of the lowest quarter, scholastically, who "seldom get invitations to college campuses these days"—unless they happen to be outstanding quarterbacks whom some college not too fussy in these matters feels it can use. Needless to say that aspect of it is not involved in the case of Tabor. It wants low-stand students, and the idea is to lead them gently toward improvement by subjecting them to good old fashioned liberal arts training, plus typing, shorthand, and a working knowledge of German and Spanish. There will be no rules save those made by the students themselves; but benchmarks will be set up whereby the progress of the student can be jmeasured. Starting from well behind scratch, it would seem that improvement may well be expected; because, scholarship being already about as low as it could be, the only alternative to advance would seem to be remaining stationary.
A year ago, or more, the school opened with only a dozen students, and the hope was to add 26 at each semester until the modest total of 200 set by the new by-laws is attained. It is Dr. O'Brian's idea to fit his young men to be "private secretaries, shipping clerks and the like" with "the prestige of an A. B. degree behind them" and the training of a solid practical course to fit them for better employ.
The moving spirit of the lowa college thus appears to be altruistic in essence—to give the poorest scholars a chance, on whom most colleges would frown as hopeless material. One gathers from the Times article that Tabor College is 80 years old- although statistics are not available in such an omnium gatherum as the World Almanac—during which time it has had to close once and faced a second interruption at the moment when Dr. O'Brian consented to take its presidency on condition that he be given a free hand to make his experiments. Among his interesting ideas is that there shall be no intercollegiate athletics, although during his course "every boy must master some sport that he can use throughout life, such as hunting, fishing, bowling and billiards." The students will be entertained occasionally by business men, "so that they get to know what these men are like and learn to talk their language." As said before, this should be an interesting experiment to watch, though the war may conceivably make this an inopportune time for launching it.
