Joe Knowledge

The latest set of apprehensive elders to make a study of U.S. college youth last week turned in a surprisingly optimistic report: the average student today is older, brighter and more serious than in past years, and the average college must hustle to keep up with the change. The report, They Come for the Best of Reasons, written by Columbia University Professor W. Max Wise for a panel of educators sponsored by the American Council on Education, sifts views and statistics on the present college generation. Highlights:

P: By 1956, only 55% of undergraduates was of traditional college age, 18-21. The proportion of older students has grown fast, to about 40%. More students each year--29% of men, 10% of women at last count--are married. Four students out of ten earn more than half their college expenses, about twice the pre-World War II number.

P: Ability of students admitted to college is rising sharply. Stanford reports an upswing in aptitude test scores between 1951 and 1956 "so great that the lower half of the class entering in 1951 simply would not have been admitted in 1956." But college faculties, suggests Professor Wise, "have neither fully sensed this radical change nor taken adequate steps to provide challenge and stimulation for these new students." An alarming statistic: only about half of the students in the upper 20% of ability stays on to graduate.

P: The gentleman's C is no longer admired. The new students study hard--but they are more interested in the race for grades than the pursuit of learning. "They are more willing than they used to be to work hard to make the grades that will give them an advantage on the job market. Some of them are even prepared to cheat, if necessary, to make these grades. They want to enter upon a professional or business career, and they want to find security therein."

P:"Joe College is no more." Student groups, clubs and even fraternities are on the decline; campus traditions seem "collegiate" to the new student, "and this is no longer a word of praise." Students are enormously concerned with "knowing themselves." Joe Knowledge wants to be an individual, but "not at the expense of rejection" by the group. He is tolerant, "perhaps too much so, feeling that everyone is entitled to his opinion and even that one opinion is probably as valid as another." He is convinced that what he lives in is not the best of all possible worlds, but he has little belief that by joining political groups he can change matters. Like Candide, he chooses to cultivate his own garden.

Observer Wise ends on an upbeat: the new student offers "an outstanding opportunity for creative thought and action on the part of those entrusted with his education."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.