‘Colleges, by reason of the present-day system of education, turn out types rather than personalities. Their graduates are the product of large-scale production, a condition which has arisen out of the attempt on the part of educational institutions to absorb the heterogeneous mass which yearly comes to them in increasing bulk for higher education.” This is the indictment against American colleges by a writer in a recent issue of the Daily Iowan.
This is by no means the first expression of opinion that colleges and universities are failing to turn out personalities. That the student who comes to college with a spark of genius is soon molded into the conventional type has been the contention of a certain class of writers for years.
Without a doubt the influence is toward the subordination of individuality, and with the ever-growing proportion between the number of instructors and the number of students there seems to be little opportunity for remedying the condition. There are other contributing factors, other than large classes, however, which might continue to exist even if that condition were remedied.
If the college student has aggressiveness he can preserve his own personality. Although the system tends to develop him along conventional lines, he will not be transformed into a “type” unless he is passive.
Of all American institutions the college should be the first to teach citizens to think. Yet there is the same criticism against college students on this score as against the mass of American people. It is not unreasonable to think that Edison’s statement that only two percent of the population ever really thinks is not far amiss for those registered in colleges and schools of higher learning.
If students will come to college with an air of agreeable aggressiveness, institutions will be in a better way to teach them to think. And when students learn to think, personalities rather than types will be developed. Mental stagnation and passiveness are the undoing of higher education in America. Until students learn to fight their own battles the contentions of the critics will
go unanswered.
Editor’s note: This editorial was taken from the Jan. 18, 1923 edition of the Oregon Daily Emerald.
Development of personality
Daily Emerald
January 17, 2002
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