SUNDAY, MAY 27, 1923
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
100% EDUCATION
Among the Magazines (Ctnd fr e
By N . when he hears about the Dean of Stu-
dents, and if we venture to show of-
The liveliest thing in THE DIAL fense he is still more convulsed by
for May is D. 1-. Lawrence's review
i Stuart P. Sherman's "Americans.' our naivete. In the fcreign universi-
It rambles along like this: "He smites ties the students are absolutely free
the marauding Mr. Mencken with a to conduct themselves as they se to-
velvet glove, and pierces the obsti- and the strange thing is 21as they
nate M' Moore with a reproachful us much better than our women with
look. Bott gentlemen of course, will their Dean of Women, and our men
purr and feel flattered. That's how with their Dean of Stuents super-
Professor Sherman treats his cue- vising them. And this spirit of super-
mies: buns to his grizzlies. Well, visIon permeates even our graduate
Professor Sherman, being a profes- schools. A man taking a Master's de-
sor, has got to be nice to everyi),MS' gree must follow a pretty definite
about everybody. What else does aI course of study-his course must be
professor sit in a, rhair of hnglish 'approved" before heis considered
for, except to dole out swt'eets. ...",a candidate fcr the degree; ani then
Henry James, his mind, his life, and the only requirement on his part is
his environment, are placed under the itiat he "pass" the courses with at
microscope in the first of a series of least a "B" grade in each. A high
essays by Van Wyck Brooks. The class moron might well do this, and
disccveu ies are fascinating. In an thereby be eligible for one of out high-
Caher paper, Francis Birrell attempts r degrees. But the matter is still
by means of long passages of French more pertinent with regard to our
quotatins interspersed with English t'h.D. candidates. They must satisfy
to show that Marcel Proust is "The certain class-work requirements, must
Prophet of Despair." The only story choose a subject in accordance with
in the volume aside from Hauptmann's the Judgment of a committee; and,
"heretic of Soana" is "A Married further, in the thesis, the candidates
tan's Story" by Katherine Mansfield. must be careful to satisfy the opin-
THE FREEMAN, May 16. "Edui- ions of the respective members of the
cation, as it exists at present, is sub- committee. The Ph.D. candidate is
servient to Church or State or both, expected to create and to show orig-
and therefore aims at producing cred- inality; yet, everything imaginable is
ulity and servility-the two qualities done to prohibit both creation and
upon which those institutions flour- criginality. The result is logical: few
ish. The fact that children usually Ph.D. theses are worth reading,
continue through life to hold the re- In our universities we have the me-
ligious opinions of their parents shows ehanistic side with its nemory sys-
what a powerful force education is." tems and its discipline of the former
And again: "Of all the requisites for days and its present day abuse and
the regeneration of our society, the disregard 01 interest and itiiative
decay of religion seems to me to have With regard to the latter we may add
the best chance of being realized," that some grade schools are succeed-
These are some of the bright spots ing in making an organic application
which make Bertrand Russell's con- c interest and intuition and initiative
eluding essay on "The 'Sources of but colleges and universities are al-
Power" exceptionally interesting read- most wholly oblivious to such func-
ing. tions of education. The organic meth-
Other splendid articles are: od would make use of inte-est and its
"France's Watch on the Rhine," "The attendant, curiosity, to make of edu-
Letters of Fenimore Cooper," and an cation a culminative development
editorial discussion of "The American whereby individual capacity could be
Language" with especial emphasis on given free scope to discover and make
Mr. Mencken's boots of that name. use cf all truths that come within
THE NATION (May 16) Mr. Menck- grasp. Such was the method when
en has one hero at least and that masters and disciples learned togeth-
is Abe Lincoln. While he lets go of er, but it is seemingly a hopeless ideal
'vehement phrases as usual and does in our mass production factory sys-
not hesitate to call Lincoln's essay- tem of today. An example will trench-
writing style a "talent for writing the antly present the paradox of our mem-
sly, whimsical, puerile stuff that young cry aspect ot education. Professors
college instructors manufacture by the of universities find it necessary to read
acre-sometimes, when the winds are their lectures both to classes and to
fair, getting a few cantos of it into public gatherings. This is usually
the Atlantic Monthly," at the same done to insure accuracy on the part
time he concludes that Lincoln "was of the lecturer and to make certain
abcve all else, an extremely shrewd, that he will not wander into any of
realistic, and competent man." But the interesting bypaths of his sub-
this is weak beside the praise which jet. The teacher, however, antici-
Mr. Mencken can give. Listen to the pates that his students will gather
following sentence from "A Book of notes accurately and te able to re-
Calumny": "Lincoln, had there been produce in substance all the material
no Civil War, might have survived as c hic lecture. Behold the paradox:
the father of the American smutty The teacher suuposedly well founded
story-the only original art form that in his subject is helpless without his
America has contributed to litera- paper; but the student, to whom the
tore." material comes for the most part as
Thee most interesting material in a confused and little understood mass,
this week's "Nation," however, is in omust understand without questioning
the letters to the Editor pertaining to and must memorize even when he
the Jew in America. A letter from does not understand. It would almost
Paris, for instance, remarks that "The seem that the student is expected to
typical Jew is no baseball player in- sit as judge on the proceedings of the
bero. The typical Jew's legs are not professr and if an accurate record of
long enough to permit him to dance the proceedings is reported the pro-
with the abandon of the late Vernon fessor must be condemned, for his
Castle. And yet, ambitious, he insists student has gone beyond him-the
and persists." student has then gathered in a single
THE FREEMAN (May 9): The chief lecture what the professor has assimi-
articles this week are: Bertrand Rus- lated in years of study and research.
sell's "The Sources of Power" (Eco- The consummation of this process
nomic Pcwe); "Robert Burns" by Ed- is seen in the logical and vicious out-
win Muir; and "Ibsen and Economic come as it affects even administrative
Justice" by Richard Claughton. In ad- officials, We are told that a very pro-
dition there is a clever lIttle feature minent figure in the educational world
story entitled "The Circus Comes to is to be deposed soon, the chief rea-
Town." Probably very few students sen given being that he attempted to
on the campus are really reading Ber- fulfill his contract by administering
trand Russell's essay, but they are the affairs of the institution with the
by far the losers. aid of his colleagues. This man was
THE FREEMAN (May 9: The chief evidently ssuffering under the deus
articles this week are: Bertrand Rus-
_.. , -_,~ ,, stitution, where the administrative
sell's "The Sources of Power" (LEn
sRbero Bwrns"tby1 heads are appointed by their col-
nomicuPower); n "toben sl ns- leagues, who are experts in the field
Edwin Muir; and "Ibsen and Econnm- of education, instead of in an Ameri-
i Justice" by Richard Claughton. In en institution where he is supposed
addition there is a clever little feature to function merely as a figure-head.
story entitled "The Circus Comes to Thus we find this mechanistic princi-
Town". Probably very few students ple grinding into a vicious conformity
on the campus are really reading Bert- all the members of the educational in-
rand Russell's essay, but they are by stitutions-students, professors, and
far the losers, administrators.
RAINY WEATHER
Notl};' like it to take the press out of clothes. These
camp days can make a' new suit look old unless you take
the best of care of it. When your clothes lose that "out-
of-the-hand-box" look call Dettling and let him give them
new life,
DETTLING
"The Fauliless Tailor"
1121 S. University
And NwV
The final spurt'-
and then vacation
Come down-let us serve you a
- DELICIOUS -
STEAK DINNER
tf ItIgiv you renewed vigor t
attack those final exams
YOU'LL FIND SATISFACTION HERE
BeHsimers-.
W. Huron .St.F
Get Quick Lunches
Electrically
With Westinghouse Stove
OR the lunch at odd hours of the
-.-day or night, for afternoon tea,
for almost any sort of cooking the
Westinghouse toaster stove will prove
helpful. Equipped with nickel-plated
tray.
$ 150
Ataches to Any Socket
The Detroit Edison
Main at Wuliam Tetepkone 2M0