PAGE SIX
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
FRIDAY, JANUARY 1, 1942
The Editorial Page
Service Speed-up Education Is Seen As Real Threat to True Scholarship
There has been recently a growing concern among Americans for their educational institutions, typical of which was possibly a statement made recently by George Sokolsky, Columbian News Service columnist. Declared the columnist: "The army and the navy are going into education which is, of course, none of their business . . ."
Men like Sokolsky point out that universities, in their anxiety to survive the war, have become combined schools and training centers. Generally the greater emphasis has come to be placed on the training programs. "It is an easy and swift solution," declares Sokolsky, "except for the fact that it eliminates education."
There is a growing wonder why, if in war time a college education can be obtained in three or less years, the same time requirements should not apply to peace time. With this emphasis upon speed rather than knowledge, our schooling becomes merely a case of getting by, rather than of obtaining an education.
Education is, in its simplest form, absorption and assimilation of the humanities. It is something which cannot be acquired merely by strolling down Frank Strong hall and receiving a diploma as you exit through the west wing door.
True education requires personal association with man, not just of the present, but of the ages. To understand the present, we must know the past. This is a task requiring years of search for truths. True, not all students in the past have engaged diligently in this search but all true scholars have, and it is in the development of these scholars that the postwar world sees hope of prosperous and peaceful years. This scholarship is not a product of speed-up education as urged by the army and the navy.
Thus, to the possible extinction of the smaller college can be added still another danger of speed-up education—the disappearance of true scholarship. Already smaller colleges are faced with a situation in which the army and navy, holding a virtual monopoly over the lives of young people, are planning to concentrate their training in the larger institutions.
With small colleges up against a stone wall, and with larger institutions facing a situation in which their offerings may be confined to a narrow technical path, the situation is serious. Education, as America has known it in the past and as it has served her so well, may be facing a fight for life—a fight which seems almost hopeless against the unquestioned power of the military services.
College of Liberal Arts Not Threatened by War
Secretary of War Henry Stimson's recent statement that the service technical education plan will tend temporarily to destroy liberal education in America has been interpreted in some quarters to be the death knell of colleges of liberal arts in those universities at which the uniformed men will be trained. Much more probable outcome would be, however, the
Just Wondering
Why President Roosevelt didn't move New Year's Eve to Saturday night, thus leaving all day Sunday for recuperation.
strengthening of some liberal arts departments and the de-emphasizing of others.
According to advance information reaching University officials here, many of the subjects most essential to the education of the service men will be those in the College. Mathematics, physics, and chemistry are all College departments. Advance plans also indicate that the army specialists will be required to take training in basic English. These College courses would almost certainly flourish under the program.
Naval reservists will be under much less restriction as to their choice of subjects. Should the naval reservist desire to continue his major in journalism or speech, he will probably be allowed to do so, according to information received at present by University authorities.
Women students (College administrators are hoping for an increase in female enrollment), men under 18, those not yet called to the colors, and those physically unfit for service will also continue to patronize the College of Liberal Arts. It would seem that the death of liberal arts is still far in the distant future.
The Riverside Junior College Arroyo points out that no Superman was needed to rescue Santa Claus from the perils of war, but that he was safe within the hearts of every real American.
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Student Paper of THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence, Kansas
Publisher ... John Conard
EDITORIAL STAFF
Editor-in-chief ... J. Donald Keown
Associate Editors ... Bob Coleman, Bill Feeney,
                     Ralph Coldren, Dean Sims,
                     Matt Heuertz
Feature Editor ... Joy Miller
Feature Editor ... Joy Miller
NEWS STAFF
...
Managing Editor ... Glee Smith
Campus Editors ... Dale Robinson, Scott
Hookins, Eleanor Fry
Sports Editor ... Milo Farneti
Society Editor ... Ruth Tippin
News Editor ... Dean Sims
Sunday Editor ... Virginia Tieman
Picture Editor ... Miriam Abele
Business Manager ... Oliver Hughes
Advertising Manager ... John Pope
Advertising Assistant ... Charles Taylor, Jr.
BUSINESS STAFF
I'm going to send them a vest; maybe they'll send back a suit to match: Don Clark, 1334 Ohio and soon to be a blushing bridegroom, sent his suit to the cleaners the other day, vestless. When it was returned he was heard to exclaim: "Look, fellows, a vest." And sure enough, there it was with a tag on it reading "Suffleton" or something like that. Don is going to send it back, however; it doesn't fit.
*****
Country club notes and gurgles: They made it look like a nightclub, all right, but they could have stopped when they got to the dance floor. . . the refreshment stand was crowded all evening. . . confetti and streamers were supplied at each table, and each reveler made sure his neighbor was not slighted. . . Dean Meguiar chaperoned the party from the fifteenth row of seats, but that didn't slow it up any. . . the floor show featured 176 pounds of man standing on its thumbs. . . I wonder who was the thoughtful person who had them supply mixer at the refreshment stand.
Offerings from other pens:
Ode to the Coeo or to Hell with the Belle of the Campus
. . . So one thing I say now in parting,
Since departure must leave things to say,
To the pretty coed with frivolous head,
with lipstick abundant and perfume redundant,
a manner most daring, personality blaring,
glam-oor-us dresses and "soft-as-silk" tresses,
mascara all goo-ey, S. A. plus—phooey!
My country's now calling the play.
... So, it's to hell with the belle of the campus,
With sweet femininity, perfumed to infinity,
Of tantrums and heart-rending scenes.
I'm on the dead run, I've shouldered my gun,
I'm off to join the MARINES.
(To mention any names would only lead to bloodshed.)
Repartee from Central: Dorothy Burkhead, Chi Omega, tried to put through a call last night but could get no response from the operator. Putting her hand over the mouthpiece of the telephone, she turned to her sisters and said: "The operators must be off on a binge." "Oh, no we're not," came the instant reply. "Number, please?"
Mutual shock: What fraternity brother was it who answered the phone yesterday and said: "What'll it be, pints or quarts?" He discovered immediately afterwards that he was talking to a sorority housemother.
Early Birds in Kansas Flying Reptiles
By ALAN HOUGHTON
Did you know that in the dim, prehistoric past, Kansas the home of a species of creatures which was, according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, "perhaps the largest flying animal of which we have knowledge?" It was called the Pterodactyl, and the third largest fossil in the world of this "flying animal" is in one of the display cases $ \textcircled{2} $
in the basement of Dyche Museum.
The pterodactyl was a flying reptile, often with a wing-span as great as that of a small airplane. Dyche's specimen has a wingspread of 18 or 20 feet. It was dug from the chalk deposits on the farm of H. T. Martin in Gove county, which is located in west central Kansas, in 1895. Dr. H. H. Lane, director of Dyche Museum, estimates the age of the Dyche pterodactyl to be 75,000,000 years. The reptile lived in the Cretaceous period, during which all of what is today Kansas, except the eastern edge of the state, was covered by a sea.
Flying Reptile Turkey-Sized
Distinguishing name of thin species of Pterodactyl is Pteranodon (winged tooth) ingens (huge Marsh (after the discoverer), but the more recent and correctly descriptive name of these flying reptiles is Orinstoma, meaning bird-mouthed. It is named thus because this species of Pterodactyl had no teeth but a long beak, similar to a pelican's. From tip of beak to crest, some specimens measured four feet. The body of this flying reptile was smaller than a turkey's and its bones were almost paper-thin, tough but brittle, hollow, and therefore extremely light.
Accredited with having the "highest volant powers of all creatures, whether past or present," Orinstomas spent most of their time in the air. Their wings were used primarily as gliding surfaces since movement was limited to flapping motion; there is evidence that these reptiles flew out over the sea hundreds of miles from land. They are thought to have eaten fish and perhaps sects and small birds. Their brains were better developed than those of other reptiles, and there is a pos-
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