Public high school graduates in the College consistently achieve higher grades than students with a private school background, according to a Hygiene Department psychologist.
Several personality factors also separate private and public school graduates, Charles C. MacArthur '46 claims in an article to be published soon in the Harvard Educational Review.
His report maintains that grades "were in inverse relation to economic advantage" when the intelligence was equal. It also notes that the University uses different rating formulas to predict the freshman grades of the two groups.
Public and private school graduates have different values of success in society, the survey continues. While the former group measures its standing by achievement, the latter puts prime emphasis on acceptability.
one set of values prominent in students of a lower-middle class background stresses the Future as the important time, the Individual as the important person, and Doing as the important aspect of personality.
In the other set of standards, especially evident in the upper class in the East, the most valued time in the Pasin the persons who matter bear a "Liueal Relation" to oneself, and Being is the most valued aspect of the person.
This contrast helps to explain why public school graduates polled considered "studies" their greatest problem and private school students checked items having to do with their "personalities."
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