WAVING THE RED FLAG

Not a few will agree with Dr. David Kinley, President of the University of Illinois, that the people "who are running around in circles, beating tin pans and waving their arms to attract the attention of the world...to the utter inadequacy of our colleges and universities, the incapacity of their faculties and the imbecility of their students, need not take up much of our consideration or time." Such an attitude, however, smacks of the expedient of pouring oil on troubled waters. As long as there are any obvious flaws in the educational machinery there will be a spluttering of pens and a gale of hot criticisms.

President Kinley himself recognizes that all is not well in the educational world. He begs the alumni of Yale and other institutions to serve their Alma Maters and their country best by wisely counseling "in the determination of our educational policy." This request calls rather for a louder beating of tin pans than for silence, for only out of a medley of criticisms can emerge a sound policy of education. And as was vaguely suggested, it is chiefly in the lack of a national policy of a national system that the educational machinery of the country is at fault.

Alumni have shown no lack of interest in the growth of athletic and even scholastic prestige of their own colleges. What has become imperative is a less selfish viewpoint. Surveys like that made by Upton Sinclair disclose an astounding hodgepodge of educational standards and methods, and this is inevitable as long as every college urged on by its alumni, seeks to cover the whole range of learning from liberal arts to applied science, and as long as secondary schools seek to prepare both for vocations and for college. A clearer definition of functions a national educational policy and system are obviously accessary. Unless refuge is to be taken in government control this is a task for the unselfish thought of the alumni of all institutions as President Kinley intimated. And the most effective means to this end would seem to be that very energetic discussion which he has scorned.