Scholarship

“ Now, scholarship is an exquisite distinction which it would be ill for us as a nation to miss; but if all the men in an assemblage were decorated, who would care to wear an order? Some things are precious for their rarity, and to put a school in the running for this goal is as absurd as the ambition of the little boy who meant to be a Knight of the Garter when he grew up. ”

“ COMPETITION IN COLLEGE From an address at Columbia University, June, 1909
BY ABBOTT LAWRENCE LOWELL We have seen that the sifting out of young men capable of scholarship is receiving to-day less attention than it deserves; and that this applies not only to recruiting future leaders of thought, but also to prevailing upon every young man to develop the intellectual powers he may possess. We have seen also that, while the graduate school can train scholars, it cannot create love of scholarship. ”

“ Some one has defined the university as being the school where something could be learned about everything, and everything about some one thing. In other words, true scholarship consists in having just so much learning as one can not only digest and master but effectively use in connection with his own special work, or mission in life ”

“ At the age of fifteen, I made you compete for a scholarship in the admirable institution in which you completed your studies, and your early education already began to bear excellent fruits, for, though many of your schoolmates were wealthy or of noble lineage, contact with them never impaired your sterling qualities, or made you envious or discontented. ”

“ On the other hand, what seems to me to lie in the heart of the students now is the demand for scholarship,—plus accomplishment. It is due, no doubt, to the practical turn of the world during the last few years. I am interested mightily in scholarship when it helps towards actual accomplishment: when like a gold coin it purchases something; unlike the old notion that scholarship was a gold or silver medal, good only to decorate or dignify the person, or to be kept on exhibition.”
“Are you sincere in that, Garvin?” ”

“ Neither does the worldly spirit that pervades the gentlemen's college further the university's interest in scholarship, nor do the university's scholarly interests further the college work in gentility. ”

“ Scholarship which would guard against becoming speculation and adventure, dreads departure from this sure region of the has-been, for exploration of the somewhat conjectural realm of the more reasonable and possible and desirable which is to be. ”

“ In all the evidence here set forth tending to prove that success in scholarship leads to success in later life, no account whatever has been taken of the subjects studied. The correlation appears to prevail, year in and year out, in every part of the country, in every type of institution, regardless of the individual courses of study. ”

“ This will be more apparent when the scope of recognized scholarship has grown broader. If one may be "a scholar and a gentleman," why not "a scholar and a merchant," or "a scholar and a farmer"? We are beginning to find out, indeed, that these latter professions call for a good deal more scholarship than was necessary for the dilettante gentleman of the old school. ”

“ Well, I grant you that scholarship may be an unreasonable and even bitter pursuit for the old, if they take it up then for the first time; but if you and your scholarship have grown old together, 'tis the pleasantest of comforts. ”

“ But in the course of several years of broad and intelligent study a beginning at least can be made, and later on, as the result of continuous growth while at work, a fine, solid, comprehensive scholarship may finally eventuate. ”

“ The undergraduate of to-day, if he reads the magazines, discovers that a great many people are worrying seriously about his condition. College presidents and official investigators are discussing his scholarship, his extra-curricular activities, and his moral stamina. Not content with the surface of the matter, they are going deeper and are investigating the college itself, its curriculum, the scholarship of the instructors, and its adequacy in realizing its high ideal as a preparation for life. ”

“ There are some men who read for honors in that covetous and contracted spirit, and so bent upon securing the name of scholarship, even at the sacrifice of the reality, that, for the pleasure of reading their names at the top of the class list, they would make the examiners a present of all their Latin and Greek the moment they left the schools.—Collegian's Guide, p. ”

“ Although the order among the scholarship men themselves remains the same, that is, the highest scholars as represented by Group I. being the tallest, Group II. over one half inch shorter, etc., the great discrepancy between the height of the honor scholarship men, the stipend scholarship men, and the average student seems at once inconsistent with our premises. ”

“ Ere we depart on this quest, however, let it be clearly understood that the personal ideals of the faculty with regard to scholarship are, for the most part, absolutely irreproachable. We know what sound scholarship is, and we honestly recognize the fact that we are not giving our students all that we ought to give them, though naturally we do not make the fact a subject for general conversation. ”

“ Many students look upon scholarship as a menial servant in the household of College Life, tolerated for a time in order that the abode may be free to welcome its convivial guests. They regard the social light of the fraternity and the hero of the gridiron as the most promising candidates for success in life. ”

“ Men have a respect for scholarship and learning greatly out of proportion to the use they commonly serve. ”

“ Moreover, in addition to the scholar's work which is especially designed for students, there must ultimately be done the additional work which puts the results of the scholarship at the disposal of the average layman. ”

“ Academics Going Public These major trends in the humanities since the 1960s have dwarfed simultaneous efforts to enlarge the practices of community engagement and public scholarship at institutions of higher education. ”

“ Referring to the second class of opportunities inviting the sociological scholar, I content myself with saying that scholars might exalt both their scholarship and their citizenship by claiming an active share in the work of perfecting and applying plans and devices for social improvement and amelioration. ”

“ As to the requirements of scholarly or scientific competency, a plausible speaker with a large gift of assurance, a businesslike "educator" or clergyman, some urbane pillar of society, some astute veteran of the scientific demi-monde, will meet all reasonable requirements. Scholarship is not barred, of course, though it is commonly the quasi-scholarship of the popular raconteur that comes in evidence in these premises ”

“ What I have said of scholarships is in its way true of competitive examination for fellowships. If a college desires simply to acquire a creditable Fellow, a mere historic examination may be as good as any other; if a college desires a good History Tutor, I conceive that the best way to get him would be to subject the History candidates (selected in the first instance on the ground of their Honours acquired in the History Schools) to a sound examination in the work of the Literæ Humaniores School, in which teaching power is at present most fully developed. ”

“ The accomplishments of these outstanding individuals are a reflection of their hard work and dedication to scholarship. Their scholastic effort and rigorous approach to learning have made them the best in the State and in the Nation. ”

“ Their Scholarships are gained by examination in the second or third year, and entitle them to a pecuniary allowance from the college, and also to their commons gratis (these latter subject to certain attendance at and service in chapel) , a first choice of rooms, and some other little privileges, of which they are somewhat proud, and occasionally they look as if conscious that some Don may be saying to a chance visitor at the high table, 'Those over yonder are the scholars, the best men of their year.'"—Five Years in an Eng. ”

“ The highest conception of scholarship, on the part of many, consists in being possessed of encyclopedic information concerning the details of almost every conceivable matter.
According to this idea learning consists in an intimate acquaintance, at once and quite indiscriminately, with all the results of the latest scientific research, the facts of universal history, the mysteries of theology and subtleties of metaphysics; with all the institutes of law and politics; with all the literature of poetry and art. ”

“ Three of our leading collegiate institutions will be in competition with each other to administer these scholarships in the spirit in which they have been founded, to maintain their high-class character, which will be evinced by the quality of the men they turn out, and who, by their accomplishments, will do lasting honor to the illustrious scientist whose name and fame are treasured in the hearts of many thousands of the American people. ”

“ The establishment of universities will offer considerable further inducements for the attainment of high proficiency, and thus supply the place of the present senior scholarships, with this additional advantage, that a greater number of subjects in which distinction can be gained will be offered to the choice of students than can be comprised in one uniform examination for a scholarship, and that their studies will thus be practically directed into channels which will aid them in the different professions of life which they may afterwards adopt. ”

“ Special attention is invited to the conditions on which the State scholarships, 128 in number, are granted, and the construction, generally favorable to the candidate, which the authorities of the university put upon them. The right, especially, of every person who is qualified, to enter the examination for the scholarships, and to have it held, is insisted upon. ”

“ But as our public schools possess all the advantages for a thorough education in the rudiments of learning and are free to all, our scholarships should be bestowed on those whose ability and earnestness in the primary department have been proved, and whose capacity for a higher education is fully shown. ”

“ By a system of competitive scholarships the government gives free education in grammar schools to scholars in state schools, and also three-yearly exhibitions to universities to students who pass an examination of a high standard. ”

“ When a school has to offer, say, six scholarships to the public, and there are a hundred candidates applying for them, you may easily imagine that it is difficult to persuade the parents of the ninety-four boys who fail that the scholarships are given according to merit. ”

“ implicitly believe will result from the union of the English-speaking peoples throughout the world and to encourage in the students from the United States of North America who will benefit from the American Scholarships to be established for the reason above given at the University of Oxford under this my Will an attachment to the country from which they have sprung but without ”

“ If a conscientious course of study at a University secured no other advantage than that of presenting to youth a picture of the dignified calling of the Scholar as a model for life, and of repelling from this sphere those who are not endowed with the requisite power, such a course would, on account of this advantage alone, be of the utmost importance to the Student. ”

“ It is not what is gained in knowledge of books, but in knowledge of self, of limitations and powers and capacities ; in what is acquired of habits of self-discipline and application, of methods of thought and research, that a college or university renders its truest service to its students ; as it is by the love of truth and learning which it instils, rather than by the honours and degrees which it confers, that a university puts its stamp upon the graduates it sends out into the world. ”

“ What is the vocation of the Scholar?—what is his relation to Humanity as a whole, as well as to particular classes of men?—by what means can he most surely fulfil his high vocation?
The Scholar is invested with a special character only in so far as he is distinguished from other men; the idea of his calling arises from comparison, from his relation to Society at large, by which we understand not the State merely, but generally that aggregate of reasonable men who exist near each other in space, and are thus placed in mutual relations with each other. ”

“ The acknowledged sacredness of the peculiar vocation of the Scholar restrains every honest 'Educated Man' who is not conscious of the possession of the Idea, from undertaking it, and constrains him to content himself with a subordinate office:—this and nothing more have we to say of him, for his business is no true Scholar-employment. We leave him to the sure guidance of that general Integrity and faithfulness to Duty which already during his studies have become the innermost principle of his life. ”

“ Thus, so far as we have yet unfolded the idea of his vocation, the Scholar is, by virtue of it, the Teacher of the human race.
But he has not only to make men generally acquainted with their wants, and with the means of satisfying these wants; he has likewise, in particular, at all times and in all places, to teach them the wants arising out of the special condition in which they stand, and to lead them to the appropriate means of reaching the peculiar objects which they are there called upon to attain. ”

“ The scholar to-day is not a being who dwells apart in his cloister, the monk’s successor; he is a leader of the thoughts and conduct of men. So the new subjects which stand beside the classics and mathematics of mediæval culture are history, economics, ethics, and sociology. Although these subjects are as yet merely in the making, thousands of students are flocking to their investigation, and are going out to try their tentative knowledge in College Settlements and City Missions and Children’s Aid Societies. The best instincts of generous youth are becoming enlisted in these living themes. ”