Wednesday, May 18, 1966
THE CAMPUS ECHO
Page Three
Complex Pattern Of Daily Life Development Of Habits Is Finest Test Of A College
llshers In A New Type Of College
Editor’s Note—Dr. William H.
Brown received his Ph.D. from
Ohio State University. He is cur
rently serving as a member of
the Interim Committee.
This is a time of question for
both America’s old citizens and
young citizens. Sharp changes
in public policy, in the economic
life of the nation, and in the na
tional goals of our society gen
erally have literally forced col
leges to become something quite
different from what they were
in the past. While the transition
is not yet complete, one can be
reasonably certain that the pur
pose and pattern of the emerg
ing college will be excitingly
new. Transitions of all sorts can
be confusing to many and utter
ly frustrating to some, therefore,
a look at what colleges are be
coming is in order.
Once a place where a relative
ly small number of students
With some affluence went in
search of knowledge and a social
gateway of opportunity through-
status, the college is becom
ing a gateway of opportunity
through which a multitude of
rich and poor students pass in
search both for knowledge and
of ways of using knowledge.
This new combination of know
ing and using is packed with
power for immediate and fu
ture use. In this sense, college
is becoming a place where peo
ple can, with serious applica
tion, gain the power to defend
themselves against exploitations,
to free themselves and others
from drudgery and economic in
security, to achieve in a com
petitive society, to win, manage,
or control the minds of men, to
attract a mate, and to accom
plish a wide variety of purposes.
One must choose wisely his pur
poses for going to college, if he
is to avoid disappointment and
frustration.
College is becoming a place
where success is determined by
what one is able to do as well
or better than the other fellow
in a competitive society. Col
leges are becoming more de
manding, more impersonal, and
more rigorous in response to
society’s demand for a more
complacent graduate. The col
lege teacher appreciates an un^
polished apple as a gesture of
friendship, yet he tends to re
gard only those students bring
ing well-conceived ideas and
evidences of serious study. He
knows that the student who ex
pects little of himself, who puts
forth little effort, who is indif
ferent, and who is absorbed in
trivial matters is doomed to fail
at the bar of competence. Those
whose expectations are high
and whose work is systematic
and steady can emerge into a
world where rewards are high
est- for persons of competence
and maturity. To some, college
seems merciless and severe; but
those who have looked search-
ingly at the pattern of the new
society know that colleges must
simply be brutally realistic. The
day of preferential treatment,
based on excuses for lack of
achievement because of race,
poor background, or late bloom
ing will soon be lost in the dim
past.
In many ways, the current
college population is better pre
pared than that of past genera
tion. They can play for, and
win, higher stakes in political,
social, economic, and education
al arenas. Perhaps no one can
ignore the value of the gift of
the present generation to future
generations — made through
courageous social action move
ments. The accomplishments of
youth is a tribute to the grow
ing and untiring efforts of par
ents and schools to produce a
generation of articulate, stimu
lated, and enterprising students.
Actually, fewer and fewer stu
dents are continuing to pay dear
ly for an education only to walk
out and leave their purchase on
the counter. Colleges promise to
be a place of great excitement,
social pioneering, and opportun
ity, as they, and their students,
face the grim but challenging
realities of a new multi-colored
society. WHAT IS A C O L-
LEGE? Each person must decide
what it shall be for himself.
College Means
(Continued from Page 1)
After graduation, the persist
ence of college-inspired moti
vations and orientations both
depend upon the individual and
the situation interacting one
with the other.
Simple exhortations to maxi
mize the possibilities of the
four college years are insuffic
ient. Between the natural tend
ency toward rebellion charac
teristic of the young and the so
cial and cultural anemia of
most Negro student, the college
faculty has the most difficult
job and the great responsibility
for stimulating awareness of
the true possibilities of these
critical years. Members of a
good faculty have at least
glimpsed a portion of the wider
world. It is their responsibility
to be extraordinarily solicitous
of their new sojourners.
Students likewise have a re
sponsibility; they must learn,
with the help of their teachers,
to listen, to inquire, to truly
search for what a good college
may have to offer. After all,
education at a college is for
the students, the teachers being
essentially guides and mentors.
If a student does nothing at col
lege, college can do nothing for
him.
A good college fully activates
the implied reciprocity between
the teachers and the taught,
hopefully to the mutual satis
faction of both. The word col
lege embraces both faculty and
students; hence all are par
ticipants in a common enter
prise—that of learning. The
students, however, have the
greater stake in the outcome of
the endeavor, for theirs are the
lives which are being molded.
Editor’s Note — Dr. Joseph
Pittman, a member of the facul
ty since 1947, is the Dean of the
Undergraduate School. Dr. Pitt
man has done post-doctoral
work at Rutgers University and
Iowa State University.
I think a good college is a
place where one goes not so
much for acquiring knowledge
as for the development of habits.
A college is not a disp>ensary of
knowledge to be compared with
stores for the sale of intoxicating
liquors, i. e., a place where the
customer enters and obtains the
brand and amount of knowledge
to suit his taste. Moreover, good
colleges are not engaged in a
process of storing knowledge
in the minds of learners in a
manner similar to the program
mer storing knowledge in the
memory chamber of a computer.
It is true that the behavior of
many students gives us as teach
ers the impression that they
regard the educational process
as including 1) the acquisition
of tid-bits of knowledge, 2) the
(Continued from Page 1)
inherited from one generation
to the next, but they are a part
of the heritage of the everlast-
regurgitation of that knowledge
on cue, and 3) nothing more.
But even these students, let us
hope, develop without conscious
effort on their part some of the
habits characteristic of educat
ed men and women.
Perhaps the most important
habit which a good college aids
the learner in developing is the
“habit of attention.” Only
through practice and experience
in diverse situations can one
learn to clear his mind at a
moment’s notice of distracting
influences; to devote his intel
lectual powers almost complete
ly to the elements of a discus
sion, a problem or a musical
presenation; to close the door,
so to speak, to the numerous
matters militating for a central
place in his thoughts; or to ri
vet his attention to a single
problem for a period of time
necessary for significant pro
gress, however long that pe
riod may be. A good college is
a place where the development
of the “habit of attention” on
ing history that was once lived!
and finally recorded by the
people of the agency of demo
cracy that is dedicated to the
task of training the highest
faculties of the intellect of man
kind.
This is a college.
I wish some one would
give a course in how to
live. It can’t be taught
in the colleges: that’s
perfectly obvious, for
college professors
don’t know any better
than the rest of us.
—A. Edward Newton
the part of students is unavoid
able. Those who develop this
habit to a satisfactory degree
survive; those who do not are
expelled for poor scholarship.
I submit that one would have
considerable difficulty defend
ing a hierarchy of habits char
acteristic of educated men and
women. However, with the te
merity of a successful college
teacher who accepted a dean-
ship in these perilous times, I
place second in importance the
“habit of making effective use
of language.” In my opinion, ef
fective use of language and rea
soning ability are inextricably
connected. The statement that a
good college facilitates the de
velopment of ability to reason
on the part of students subsumes
the “habit of making effective
use of language.”
To further indicate my will
ingness to live dangerously, I
place third in importance the
“habit of submitting to refuta
tion.” It is always a pleasure
for me to observe a person very
quickly assume a new intellec
tual position, grasp another per
son’s thoughts, indicate assent
or dissent with soundly con
ceived reservations. An educated
person depends upon the reason
ableness of his ideas to gain ac
ceptance for them. These are ex
amples of intellectual behavior
which characterizes the person
who has developed the “habit of
submitting to refutation.” The
environment of a good college
encourages and nurtures the de-
veloment of this habit.
In a very broad sense, life
in the community designated as
a college should not differ
markedly from life in the larg
er community. A college is a
structured environment i n
which optimum permissiveness
is not only allowed but encour
aged. The faculty, staff and ad
ministrators of a good college
realize that all students have
problems and are sensitive to
the signals given by normal stu
dents that their problems are
temporarily overwhelming them.
But a good college does not at
tempt to stand “in loco paren
tis.” Instead, it assists each stu
dent in developing the “habit of
working out his own problems.”
I think the “habit of working
out his own problems” is very
important because I believe that
man is a rational being and, if
given the opportunity, will or
ganize his life in his own best
interest and in the best inter
est of other men.
If space permitted, I would
discuss other important habits
including “the habit of sub
mitting to censure,” “the habit
of following a work-study sched
ule,” and “the habit of work
ing out what is possible in a
given time.” It seems to me,
however, that I have made the
point I wish to make in this
essay. I repeat that a good col
lege is a place where one goes
not so much for knowledge as
for habits. Conceivably, a stu
dent may obtain a degree with
out developing these habits to
any appreciable extent. But
without developing these habits
to a marked exent, a student
could never become the kind of
individual envisioned by those
who wrote the motto: Truth and
Service.
Every college has its gathering place. For NCC it is the much
celebrated "rail.”
'1 really ‘dig’ Professor Higgins.
College An Agency