Education: The Failures

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At the very least, says Chairman Lyle Phillips of the University of Buffalo physics department, "getting a college education means going to classes, passing courses and collecting a diploma." But even this, says Phillips, is apparently too much for an alarming number of today's students. Anyone who doubts it need only scan some figures released by the university last week. The figures:

¶ Of 350 students enrolled in mathematics 141-142 in the first semester of 1956-1957, 164 or 46% either failed or dropped out, usually because of low grades. Of the 153 enrolled in the second semester, 28% failed or dropped out.

¶ In physics courses Nos. 205-206, 61.5% of the students flunked or resigned during the academic year 1955-1956. The next year's figure: 63.5%.

¶ Of the 285 enrolled in physics 201, 66% failed or quit during 1956-1957.

To Physicist Phillips, the reason for this trend, which has grown steadily during recent years, is obvious: "The whole reason is that we have permitted woolly-brained educationists to impose their peculiarly distorted concept of the meaning of education on our whole primary and secondary school system."