BARTLETT, "THE OLD DOG," COMMENTS ON COLLEGE

Frederick Orin Bartlett '26, writer, and contributor to many magazines, was a Freshman at the University nearly 30 years ago. Forced by circumstances to leave college and make his living, he returned a few years ago to take up his college work. He is now a Senior in the University.

Mr. Bartlett, who has contributed articles bearing on college life to the Saturday Evening Post under the nom deplume "The Old Dog," when interviewed by a CRIMSON reporter yesterday, stated it as his belief that the erndition which is generally admitted to the more common in the graduates of English colleges than in those from American institutions is traceable rather to different environment and different habits of thought than to any basic faulty in the American system of education.

Atmosphere Conducive to Study

"In England the undergraduate is living in an atmosphere conducive to thought, the very buildings in which he works are related to the periods of History and Literature which he is studying. In addition the English undergraduate is, I think, somewhat more mature, mentally, than the American student. In the great British Universities each student has a definite intellectual goal in view. In America I don't think the same can be said. Another year in preparatory school while doubtless go far to make the entering classes in the universities more mature. By maturity I do not rear to the mental babes who would grow white beards in the preparatory schools while playing football year after year if they were allowed. The only true maturity is mental maturity and the reason a student needs a certain maturity on entering college is so that he may be enabled to get more out of English A, German A, History I and the other elementary courses. These elementary courses should not be done away with. There is a vital need for each and I believe that if general courses such as History I were forced on Seniors, each graduate would carry away with him a more coherent understanding of what he had studied.

It is noticeable that most great English histories were writton by men whose work in other fields was their main object in life. What American would be able to sit down between novels and write and Outline of History. How many American college graduates carry into their life of later years any enjoyment of the things they studied in college? Perhaps one reason for the precipitancy with which our college men are prone to forget the literature and art they studied and for the most part enjoyed in their undergraduate years, is the erratic system of studying which is too often favored in college. In England the student gradually absorbs his understanding and love of his subjects. In America lectures are listened to daily and enjoyed, but not many students do their won outside work except when examinations are imminent.

"It is almost miraculous to me, the way some of you boys can absorb data and general knowledge the night before an examination. I can't do it, and I've tried. it seems almost as if your minds were like sponges under the control of your will. All night before the examinations you let the sponge expand. The next morning you squeeze it out over a whole blue book and the sponge is dry again. But it has served its purpose.

"When you get out of college you make the same mistake. The business man of America works like a Titan all week and then, exhausted, he goes to the golf links to rest. There he plays.