Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 73.djvu/540

536 them, under conditions to which he is accustomed, and not under the harassing stress of a college entrance test. The work of the college examining board is thus greatly reduced, and the responsibility for the student's possible failure is borne by those who have taught him and have deliberately vouched for him. The school is included in a special published list only after careful inspection by the college authorities or by a state official. If its pupils fail to maintain themselves creditably after admission to college the school is dropped from the accredited list, with danger to the principal, who may be displaced on the ground of incompetence if he is the head of a public school. Such displacement has been produced more than once in the northwest. If these conditions are fulfilled there is little ground for complaint, except that the applicant for admission does not take a general review of all his work before entering college, and hence he has forgotten much of what was once studied. On this account the formal entrance examination is estimated to require about a year more of work than entrance by certificate.

But in some parts of our country, notably the southern and southwestern states, inspection of accredited schools is almost unknown. For one college probably an accredited school is merely a school that can furnish students, and admission by certificate serves the convenient purpose of removing responsibility from the college authorities without fixing it anywhere. The president knows his own interests, and avoids expressing adverse criticism if a student admitted is found badly prepared, because the principal may be offended and may advise his pupils to go to another college. The principal of M. Academy finds young A, who is a good athlete, determined to quit school and get into some college team. He knows that a certain college is urgently in need of athletes and not exacting about entrance requirements. He gives to A a certificate which is accepted on sight, and no questions are asked. The football season is better than usual, but A fails in the first examination season and drops out. Nobody is held blameworthy, and M. Academy is encouraged to send more athletes whenever these can be secured. It is not deemed important that four years of solid preparation should be insisted upon, but this would be very acceptable if an entering athlete comes with such an unusual qualification. Even if he has no perceptible preparation he may be admitted as a special student, whose name helps to swell the registry list. One such is known to have entered at the beginning of the baseball season, going off with the team on the day after registration. On his return, when asked what were his subjects of study, the sober reply was, "Latin, economics and academics." Neither the professor of Latin nor of ecenomicseconomics [sic] ever formed his acquaintance, and the professor of academics could not be found. But all entrance requirements had been fulfilled for admission to spherics, if this name be applied to ball play. The obvious moral is