A Comparative Study of the Opinions and Attitudes of Students of the Four Undergraduate Classes in Ten Colleges and Universities in Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia

College offers to several hundred thousand young men and women in the United States the richest experiences that our civilization has to give. For four years these students are largely freed from the stress and strain of the work-a-day world. They live in what may correctly be termed utopia. To do this costs society a high price. It removes these thousands of young people from the field of productive labor during four of their most effective years. Not only this, but it also involves society in the expenditure of from one to three thousand dollars each year for each of these students. Education, and especially a college education, costs heavily both in time and money.A survey of the aims of education as expressed by representative leaders in the field of higher education reveals varied approaches, but at the same time a general agreement as to the central purposes of education. All recognized authorities agree that this aim, whatever it may be, must emanate from the needs of the student rather than from any outside source. With one accord all admonish one to study the student in order to arrive at the aims of education. No other seat of authority may be recognized in this quest for the purpose of education.For the purposes of this study, the point of importance is the general acceptance of the development of the right attitudes as a major element in the aim of education. M.E. Harriott of the Los Angeles City Schools has summarized the place of attitudes as a factor in education when he says, "Attitudes are almost universally recognized as potent determining factors of behavior." Laymen, teachers, educationists, and psychologists may be quoted to this effect ad infinitum. Evidence of this recognition may readily be found in the daily press or one's daily contacts and in the writings of such educationists as Bagley, Bobbitt, Book, Briggs, Cameron, Clement, Colvin, Dewey, Inglis, Judd, Monroe, Ruediger, and Thorndike.