THE GRASSHOPPER AND THE ANT

The recommendation of Dean Max McConn of Lehigh University to partition the student bodies of the American universities into the two divisions of kindergartens and colleges, seems to be an efficient means of separating the fiddling grasshoppers from the industrious ants. The Lehigh Dean would give the gentlemen with the social and activity bent a large playground in the country where they get plenty of fresh air and be able to satisfy their pressing desires to attain extra-curricular prominence. The remaining portion of the collegiate population, intent upon scholastic honors, and which, according to Dean McConn, amounts to one half of one percent of those who attend universities, he proposes to relegate to some secluded cloister where they could thumb the pages of forgotten manuscripts, unannoyed by the sound and fury of the present-day educational institution.

The chief objections to the application of this theory are two. One is that it violates the purpose of the university to educate as many people as it is possible without making the standards ridiculously low. By the theory of Dean McConn, a few would acquire a great amount of erudition, but the vast majority would get only a superficial knowledge, too scant to be of any value whatsoever. Another apparent fault is the fact that the one half of one percent of super-students would be entirely excluded from contact with actual experience and the other people of lesser intelligence. The inevitable result would be that when released from this turkish bath of learning they would lack the practicability to apply their knowledge to actuality.

Thus, while the studious person could work in peace, and the activity man could go the merry round of pleasure unhampered by difficult scholastic duties, those persons who fit in neither category would be without any recourse. Perhaps, under the McConn regime such controversies as Bacon's authorship of Shakespeare's plays could be decisively settled, but who would sell insurance?