DOUBLE EXPOSURE

The fashion of "exposing" universities has become so extraordinarily popular of late that those who by reason of venerability or austere dignity can feel secure and self-satisfied are few indeed. Americans, realizing all too clearly the defects and handicaps of their own system, look abroad with idolatrous eyes, and often find, in the differing methods of foreign universities, the remedies best suited for their own ills. But that Oxford and Cambridge may have their own inherent evils is an idea which one is disinclined to accept.

Continental critics, however, in whom familiarity has bred the usual contempt, do not hesitate to strip these ancient institutions of the glamor which for the American at least obscures the defects. A French author, in a recent novel, accuses Oxford of all places of regarding the student "as a high school boy . . . who lives together with his fellows under a severe discipline that regulates even the hours of his going out." The student body is cynically divided into athletes and esthetes--of whom the latter are rare. No disillusionment could be more cruel if one is to retain one's faith, one must ascribe this bitter attack to a survival of ancient Anglo-French animosity.

On the other hand, one might be tempted to seek a new ideal. "In France," it is said, "the student is treated like a man, a free citizen; he lives in the Latin Quarter and enjoys complete independence." Undoubtedly, this is the perfect life. Whether it also leads to the perfect education is another matter. But there is no reason why America, which is so astonishingly composite in some respects, should set up either the German standard, as formerly, or the English standards, as is the tendency at present, for whole-hearted worship and emulation. Before tradition becomes absolutely hide bound and impregnable, there is still opportunity to pattern the best features of the best Old World systems. Perhaps some of these would not be compatible but the tutorial methods of the English grafted on the personal freedom of the French might make as nearly perfect a combination as will ever be devised. And as a matter of fact, in several directions, present American educational reform is following these most encouraging outlines. An American system, quite different from anything else, is very likely to be the result.