Let Them Eat Spinach?

There seems to be a conflict of opinion in academic circles as to whether or not more subjects should be required as leading to the A. B. degree, or whether the choice of electives should be even more free than in the past. Each theory has such respectable proponents that laymen may well hesitate to avow any conviction, one way or the other. Of course the object desired by both schools of thought is the production of that excellent creature, "the well-rounded man." The real difference is as to the means for producing him—as to the appropriate intellectual dietary involved, and the wisdom of permitting notoriously immature individuals to choose it for themselves.

There are doubtless some things which every Bachelor of Arts should know, and it seems to be generally agreed that such should be required elements in any curriculum. Quite probably these are not so numerous as an extremist would assume. Quite certainly many that really are essential will not be relished by students to whom such learning comes hard, and it is equally true that in such cases teaching will not be much fun for the teacher. But if they are actually necessary elements in the equipment of a well educated man, it seems that both students and faculty would have to make the best of it. Little Johnny has to eat his bread and butter before graduating to pie and cake; and if he balks at spinach his zealous mother will still insist that he eat it, for his own good.

Nearly every one finds that as life unfolds for him there are many distasteful things that have to be done, and it may be as well to face that fact in college. In the case of neither theory does any one advocate a wholly unsupervised progress through the collegiate cafeteria, choosing freely whatever the student thinks he would like. But what basic intellectual foods need to be prescribed, and what others should be left to individual fancy? It seems unwise to make it a matter of what things the student likes best (or dislikes least) and learns with the minimum of difficulty. A sage guess may be that at all eyents the elective system, in the opinion of most alumni, has been as free as it ever ought to be, and needs curtailment rather than expansion.

MOOSILAUKE, DARTMOUTH'S OWN MOUNTAIN, STANDS SERENELY IN ALL ITS SUMMER SPLENDOR