Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 86.djvu/82

78 in the management of affairs, in the handling of men, in the planning of large enterprises, have, in a small way, every chance in college that the later life affords. This is apparently true, but the real situation is quite different.

In extra-curricular interests the choice of undergraduate managers with all the rivalry of various clique-candidates has in the past called into play the methods of the ward politician rather than those of men of business ability. The system produced such woeful results, largely due to incompetence and ignorance, that of late the undergraduate managers have been themselves under the control of a man of tested value. The large opportunity has gone, sacrificed by the students themselves. In what remains, the chance is open for few comparatively, and here popularity still counts for more than real ability. At best it is work to be taken on in addition to the requirements of the curriculum, and this fact is in itself sufficient to restrain many of the most worthy from attempting more than they can do well. Further, the leaders of these activities must have time to spare for their duties, an immediate result of which is the elimination of all men who must earn their education as they go. Often these are the most in real need of the training for responsibility. And those students who carry outside work requiring business ability are generally found to be spending too large a portion of their time away from the work supposed to be of first importance.

What of the curriculum itself? In what way do the present courses of study lead a man to find himself in the particular field under discussion? More than one college president has admitted the shortcoming, sometimes on the ground that the training in college must of necessity be theoretical, sometimes that the development in the direction of affairs is new and that time is required for the readjustment. It is wrong to belittle the content of the courses offered for students to-day. The material is without question more accurate and of greater variety and amount than ever before, but, judging from the results, it does not sufficiently develop in men a very important side of their natures. They are not sufficiently acquainted with the actual working to produce results.

Perhaps the laboratories train students in the way of accurate analysis and systematic coordination. It is certain that there is opportunity for such education. A quotation from a recent laboratory manual will throw some light on the way in which this works out in practise.