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the X-ray to photograph the contents of consciousness is not yet invented; but once in a blue moon the classroom can offer a clumsy substitute.

First meeting of the class. Twenty-five unknown faces; languid some, eager some, curious all. Longing for that X-ray takes sudden possession of the instructor. Instead of questioning the students, she will bid them question her: a time-honored pedagogic device, as old as Socrates.

"Please taken ten minutes to write for me five questions on which you would like to receive light from the reading to be done in this course." The subject of the course, by the way, appears in the catalogue as "Social Ideals in English Letters."

Heads black, brown, yellow, straight and curly, bobbed and fluffed, bend intently over the paper. Girls are really more attractive than kittens, thinks the instructor dreamily, as she leans back for her ten minutes, shapes her inward ambitions for her new class, and wonders what Mr. Addison or Mr. Shakespeare would think of their occupation.

"Time up!" Papers handed in. And here they are, presented more or less at random, classified a little, but not reworded:

"Can we ever have perfect international understanding, and preserve at the same time a love for our own country and a sense of its special importance?" More students agree on this question than on any other; nine have written it down, with varied phrasing.

"How meet the problem of racial antagonisms, especially in America?" Three students.

"Is communism possible? Can class distinctions ever be done away with?" It is surprising to find how small a number have put this type of question. And only one student, the teacher observes with a sigh of relief, has asked, "Is war ever justifiable?"

But more than one put most of the following, though wording naturally varied:

"Must we destroy what we have in order to start anew?" "How far can the idealist countenance compromise?"

"Were the status of the classes reversed, should we be better off? What in such case would be the policy of the working class?" "How can forces of heredity and environment be so controlled that we may gain quality?" "Is a middle class desirable?" "If equality is to prevail, can art and letters be fostered?" "How combine democ

racy and efficiency?"

"What does literature show as the chief forces operative in the transition from an aristocratic regime to our own?" "Is there a definite sequence in evolutionary stages, which cannot be broken or abridged? Or could a stage conceivably be skipped?" (Probably she is thinking of Russia; a debate on recognition of the Soviet Government is imminent.)

"How remove the stigma attached to the word Labor?" "Why is the person who struggles for a living least regarded in law? Or is this really the case?" "How make workers appreciate managers who are trying to benefit them?" "What should be the next step in improving labor conditions?"

"Differing attitudes of the church and law: for instance on divorce. Justifiable?"

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"The relation of religion to social progress.' "Relation of the college girl to the working girl." "What can thinking students of America do to help the world?" (Easy to answer: "Think some more,' remarks the teacher.) "Are service and self-expression compatible?"

"Would outward change facilitate inward change?" "How far should the state control the individual?" "In the light of human nature, can we hope for the perfect state?"

"Are the 'times' never ready for the ideas?" And a miscellaneous lot, too long to list, dealing with eugenics, with education, with the status of woman, with policy toward the dependent, defective, and delinquent classes. Also plaintive enquiry-"How can a thing like the Ku Klux Klan exist in America?"

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These questions were no result of suggestion from the teacher, or of study accomplished. They were written down impromptu before the year's work had begun, and by students who in many cases had taken no previous work in sociology. Nor were the students chosen in any special way, except as a free elective course draws those of a certain type to it. The college cannot, at least on its academic side, claim credit or responsibility for putting these things into the girls' minds. There they were, pressing for utterance. And if you want a cross-section of the mind of youth, peruse these paragraphs.

Well! It is for the sake of young people seeking the solution of questions like these that colleges exist, primarily. And it is because there are many such young people that the teacher, in spite of all attacks on our goose-step march in education, dares to regard these

ancient institutions as true centers of the ageless quest for wisdom.

But one marks the little papers in a sober mood, aware that on some of the questions that concerning international relations, for instance - the experience of the English race as recorded in literature throws little or no direct light; and wondering what will have happened to the minds of the young pioneers by the end of the academic year.

HOW TO STUDY

DEAN FRANCIS CUMMINS LOCKWOOD

University of Arizona

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Professor Lounsbury of Yale once wrote, - and he had a college student in mind, "We must view with profound respect the infinite capacity of the human mind to resist the introduction of useful knowledge." The remark is not quite so exact as it is witty. There is, to be sure, a strange indifference to the pursuit of knowledge on the part of tens of thousands of college youth who are spending much gold - and time more precious than gold - with the avowed purpose of getting an education. But it is easy to set over against this dull herd of drifters shining examples of boys and girls who have craved knowledge more than meat and drink.

The American wizard, Thomas A. Edison, often becomes so absorbed in the work of his laboratory that he forgets all about his meals, and sometimes even goes without sleep for long periods in order that he may hold his mind steadily to a given task. Mary Lyon, the founder of Mount Holyoke College, when at last she was able to enter an academy, "paid for her board with two coverlets, spun, woven, and dyed by herself." At first she was a laughing stock of the academy because of her blue homespun dress and her social crudities. But it was not for long. "She consumed a Latin grammar over Sunday, and recited the

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