Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 86.djvu/83

Rh The obvious interpretation is that the authorities realize the great need of the student, but for one reason and another deliberately pass by the opportunity.

There is still much in the way of business management to be learned by the student who has his eyes open. But it must be confessed that most men are blind even to plainest of facts. The instruction is too indirect, and the operation of the plans are so smooth that it attracts no attention. The average student does not observe much of the carefully planned system which operates to give him his education; yet it would be well worth his careful study, as an example of organization.

Sometimes the beauty of a picture is lost by concentrating the attention on the technique of the artist. So, too, the teacher may fail to hold his class if he explains the method by which he commands attention. The indirect training can not be made the major part. It then loses all its value. There must be something direct and positive.

One can not overlook the existence of some very excellent schools for education in business administration, but these are not able to give to every college man what little he may need to discover within himself the ability for affairs which must in the end be developed in actual life itself. More institutions are quite unnecessary, for they would still leave the great mass of students as they are to-day. The need is for the revision of existing curricula to the end that the average student may at least know what business ability is, and whether or not he himself possesses it in small measure or in large.