BRAINS AND TRAINING.

Apropos of the subject of study, certain statistics in regard to Freshman probation this year are especially interesting. Out of the forty-four probationers which represent the Freshman crop for the first half-year, it was found that twenty-five had taken less than three cuts, and that eight had taken less than three cuts, and that eight had taken no cuts at all. Evidently, as Dean Yeomans expressed it, they had shown interest in their work at least to the extent of taking their bodies to the class-room.

This is only further evidence that, as the CRIMSON maintained in a recent editorial, students do not know how to study. It is a peculiar "school state of mind" which leads a man to bring his body to the class-room, while his brain is on the athletic field, or somewhere equally remote. He does not know among other things, the power of attention, effective note-taking, and a live intellectual curiosity in the lecture room as a time-saver in outside study. A recent case came before the Phi Beta Kappa scholarship bureau where a man who has won literary prizes failed to escape probation, in spite of studying the incredible amount of fifteen hours a day. A great deal of this is doubtless due to inexcusable apathy on the part of students; much also must be charged to lack of early guidance in methods of study.

To quote from a recent number of the Alumni Bulletin: "Certain it is that there is no greater need in all the long category of possible improvements in our system of education than the need of some more effective machinery for teaching the fundamental point of all instruction--the power to learn."