The following is quoted in part from a recent article in School and Society by H. P. Perkins, Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University from 1923 to 1926.

Oxford does a great deal to make sure that most of the business of education has been completed before university life is begun. That is the real secret of her success. It is not merely a question of relying upon strong currents of English culture to lay hold upon a youth and sweep him into the way that he should go. Important steps are taken by the university to encourage these tendencies in the schools.

Each college has a large number of scholarships, and there are twenty-one colleges. The scholarships are given in every conceivable subject. There is always a financial reward attached, ranging from $1,000 to $50 a year. Some of the scholarships are restricted to particular schools or to particular districts.

Speaking generally they serve as a reward for good work in the school and an incentive to good work at the university (since they will be taken away if the student rests on his laurels). Naturally many boys could not go to the university if they did not exist. When they are won by a well-to-do boy the stipend is commonly resigned to the next man on the list until a needy man is found, but the title with its honors is hold by the winner. The main reason for having them is that the work is better done than it would otherwise be.

Examination System

The effectiveness of this scholarship system depends on the nature of the examinations on the basis of which scholarships are given. If the examinations are so framed that everything the student has to offer is called forth, competition will make the school training more and more thorough. If the examination is put together stupidly one kind of preparation will serve about as well as another. Or, what is worse, the mechanical and shortsighted kind will be most effective, and there will be no tendency for the school training to become more educative. Now with so many scholarships and so many examinations there is bound to be a good deal of variety. It would take a more intimate knowledge than I possess to make a precise estimate of the system. But it is clear that an attempt is made to test the candidate's thinking power, his command of English, and his mastery of English history and literature, as well as his knowledge of the subject in which the scholarship is given.

English Freshman More Mature

This helps to explain the comparative maturity of the English freshman, his tendency to know what he wants to study at the university. He has a good basis for making a choice between different disciplines.

Say it is a classical scholarship which he has been pointed at since he was fourteen or fifteen. He has been brought to the point at which he could read the most difficult Latin and Greek literature at sight in large quantities. He is a thorough master of two grammars and to a surprising degree this knowledge has been reduced to illuminating principles of language structure which make the later attack on German, French and Italian much easier for him. And naturally French and Italian are easy when approached with a first class Latin vocabulary, while many of the compounds in German are made in the same way as in Latin.

This has been done largely by work in small groups or alone with a master. He knows what concentrated independent work is long before he comes to the university. This has a direct effect on his capacity for choice of university work. He has had a good deal of provocation to think, and naturally he thinks about himself. This would be true of any material which was taught concentratedly and thoroughly in small groups, but Greek and Latin literature have a peculiar tendency to stimulate self knowledge. And of course he thinks about other things, the impulse having been aroused. His home has usually supplied him with plenty of excellent modern material for thought.

Original Thought Stressed

But his classical scholarship is not given merely for mastery of Greek and Latin. The examination will demand an essay, calculated to test his powers of original thought and expression, and a general paper which demands a fairly thorough saturation in English history and literature. Here again the school has gone out of its way to "polish him up" and the result is that he has had plenty of experience in concentrated reading in fields other than the classics. These fields also have a peculiar suitability for provoking thought about himself.

Thus his elections are likely to be rational, and a change in the university is likely to represent an organic development of his personality.

These changes are frequent. The best classical scholar of my year had specialized in mathematics at school until he was thirteen or fourteen. Of the four men in my class at Queen's who distinguished themselves in classics at the end of their second year, two went over to European history. Professor A. N. Whitehead, now of Harvard, did classics at school, and has since distinguished himself principally in mathematics and philosophy. It is erroneous to think of this scholarship system as fixing the boy's line of development. In a way it makes change more likely by insisting that the boy get a thorough taste of what he first elects to do at school. And it is sufficiently well rounded so that there are several disciplines he will be able to pursue with success.

Oxford Men Study Greece