English Literature and the College Freshman

Abstract

Until recently we have accepted with little hesitation the assumption that a man with a college education might boast of particular intellectual attainments; probably he would have a good, usable knowledge of some definite line of work, but undoubtedly he must have acquired a background of general culture from which would emerge a wealth of facts and associated ideas to enrich the experience of the passing years. Of late, however, we have been forced to question both clauses of this assumption. On no one point, for example, has there been more open and irate criticism of collegiate education than in regard to the knowledge of the English language and literature possessed by the average college graduate of today. A partial explanation of this condition is to be found in recent changes in college policies, but a portion of the blame must undoubtedly be laid at the door of the preparatory school. In breaking away from the rigid requirements of the old college curriculum there has evidently been difficulty in avoiding the opposite extreme; the university that now requires no Latin beyond Cicero, and no mathematics beyond plane geometry, has tended also to eliminate all required work in English literature, on the ground that the secondary schools have given to that subject a sufficient proportion of their time. The results of this policy have been unsatisfactory to many, both within and without the college classroom. There are indications, however, that the pendulum is beginning to swing back: the murmured protests are continually growing stronger against the commercialization of education, overspecialization, and carrying into the university the limitations of the trade school. Old alumni are realizing that their sons come back from Alma Mater, glib and self-sufficient, but lacking some of those invaluable acquirements which the college had made possible for the older generation. And in many cases 583