Word: flexner
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American colleges have been running the gauntlet between savage attacks from many quarters during the last few years. Dr. Flexner's comprehensive survey simply represented the climax of widespread dissatisfaction with university practices. An admirable explanation of the conditions is contained in an article called "The Unintellectual Boy," in the current Atlantic Monthly...
Those who have been crying from the house-tops in protest against American universities' "compromises with babbittry" can momentarily forego their jeremiads to join in hallelujahs. The existing colleges have passed before the judgement seat and have been found wanting. Now Dr. Flexner, who led the prosecution, is himself to head an "Institute for Advanced Study," which will attempt to supply just what he believes the colleges lack...
...Flexner's Institute may be able to provide an ideal atmosphere for genuine scholarship. Perhaps it will become a place to which college professors can return at intervals for "recreative" study. But such an exclusively intellectual community runs the danger of becoming absorbed in its own abstract ratiocinations. If the Institute can attract great teachers, however, their presence will keep it from being nothing more than a society for Bibliolatry...
...Universities, American, English and German" by Abraham Flexner still seems to have great interest for the Harvard reader, for it has been a leader among the more substantial non-fiction books since its appearance early in December. In fact the good non-fiction book is apt to sell more copies in the long run than the usual novel which enjoys a temporary burst of popularity but which is quickly forgotten or relegated to the dwindling sales of the dollar reprints...
While doubtless fine equipment is a great attraction of American colleges, the universities of the Reich have much to offer other countries. Of profound significance is the "tough intellectual core" of German education which Dr. Flexner believes an antidote to the miscellaneous character of American curricula. Students there are trained in fundamentals and are steered away from any specialization which tends toward a vocation. Furthermore the acquirement of knowledge is a matter of self-discipline and individual responsibility to the German undergraduate rather than the too-frequent American custom of coaching from the dean's office...