Education: At the Universities

On the following campuses last week the following events made news: ¶At Princeton, over half the students in Elementary Astronomy cut their 8:30 o’clock class. The 40-odd who attended heard Professor Albert Einstein deliver his first lecture to U. S. undergraduates. His topic: “The Theory of Relativity.”

¶At the College of the City of New York, psychologists reported the discovery of a 7-year-old boy with an intelligence quotient of 196, nine less than Einstein’s, ten more than Darwin’s. At the age of 18 mo. the prodigy, referred to only as “K,” could converse fluently. At 20 mo., he knew the alphabet. Taken to the psychologist, K discussed the economics of the sales tax, explained how, given a 3-qt. and a 5-qt. pail, he could draw 7 qt. of water, asked his examiners whether they preferred his signature “printed or cursive.” K reads on the average a book a day, argues politics with his father, wants to be an astronomer. Few days later New York’s Bureau of Education went City College one better by announcing it had discovered a 7 1/2-year-old boy in Brooklyn with an I. Q. of 230.

¶Harvard’s President James Bryant Conant declared: “I do not believe in the older American theory that it is a necessary qualification for students to work their way. … I believe in large scholarships to enable students of real ability to enter college irrespective of the financial status of their parents. A scholarship should be as large as is needed. A promising student should be given sufficient funds to enable him to complete his higher education without luxury, but without privation. He should be able to study without the distraction of having to earn a living.”

¶Columbia dedicated new South Hall, a block-shaped brick-&-limestone library, built with $4,000,000 from Philanthropist Edward Stephen Harkness, designed as a “working laboratory” for scholars.