Education: Flunked Out

The U.S. was feeling proud of itself on one count—more of its citizens had been getting to college than ever before. But how many stayed the course? Last week Vice President Archibald Macintosh of

Haverford College gave a disturbing answer. He had just completed a survey, Behind the Academic Curtain,* of the 655 liberal-arts colleges throughout the U.S. His findings: of the thousands of students who enter college each year, more than half drop out before graduation.

Even to such an experienced college man as Macintosh, the figure was shocking. Most of the students, Macintosh found, dropped out because of academic failure; and most of those who fell by the wayside did so during the freshman year.

Who was to blame? Partly the students. Because of the "pious sentiment" that everybody should go to college, "a halo has been cast about the word 'college,' and ... as a consequence there is a blind rush . . ."

But for the most part, says Macintosh, the colleges are to blame. Many of them fail to learn enough about their students before admitting them, nor do they pay enough attention to them once they are there. Students need guidance, especially during freshman year. What they find, too often, is a drab and rigid schedule, overcrowded classes, comparatively inexperienced and uninspiring teachers—for "in a curious way a tradition seems to have grown up that it is somewhat beneath the dignity of a full professor to stoop to teach freshmen." A further discouragement: "In some institutions it is the practice to do a big weeding-out job at the end of the first semester ... If the time spent in building up a case against a new man were spent in trying to find out how to make him work more effectively, all concerned would be considerably better off."