THE USELESS DIPLOMA

To attentive observers of modern educational trends the report that Massachusetts State College is seriously considering the institution of an A.B. degree is not surprising. This school has hitherto been regarded as one of the staunchest strongholds of agricultural training. But the ravages of the depression among students in large universities has produced a pilgrimage to schools where education may be obtained at minimum cost. It is highly conceivable that the demand for classical degree has proceeded from this group.

Agricultural schools should and do play a significant part in modern civilization. Here it is that men are given the technical training today so essential to successful farming; they have developed experimenting stations for all agricultural matters; and as centers for gathering and disseminating necessary information about modern methods and conditions they have become indispensable. In view of the highly technical nature of such schools they have done well to introduce into their curriculums a leaven of general culture; but the institution of an A.B. degree would be most unfortunate. For the modern conception of a diploma as the magic key to success has permeated every rank of society. Should such an attraction be introduced into an inexpensive school like the Massachusetts College there is grave danger that men who would otherwise have pursued a thoroughly useful technical course will be lured by the cultural will o' wisp to forsake their original purpose.

There can be little doubt that American agriculture is sadly in need of intelligent retrenchment and reorganization. Agricultural colleges are the logical nucleus for the development of such a movement. Certainly the examples of cultural state colleges in the west should suffice to convince them that they can perform no comparable service by the adoption of an A.B. degree. Such a course would tend to swell the growing number of the educated unemployed who have long since discovered that a sheepskin may cover a shorn lamb.