Why Boys Fail in College: a dean's diagnosis

Every pencil needs sharpening

A student sits down to study and opens his book. First, he says, the pencil needs sharpening. Then every pencil needs sharpening. The evening is gone, nothing is done, and he honestly believes he tried.

Herbert Hawkes, a college dean, saw such students every year. Like a doctor, he sorts their failures into causes and suggests a cure for each. He wrote about boys, a century ago; his advice fits every student.

Author: Herbert E. Hawkes, a college dean. Main idea: failing students fall into two classes, those who try and those who do not. The causes are nervous habits, mistaken ambition, too easy a mind, health, money, sports and laziness. A dean, like a physician, must diagnose each case.

Key terms

The fidgety boy

This boy has the ability and thinks he is trying, but cannot concentrate. Others can see the difficulty, but only he can cure it by building poise and calm.

The boy on his parents' path

He follows a career mapped out by his parents that runs counter to his interests and abilities, so he cannot bring himself to try. The boy usually wins the argument, and should.

The very bright boy

School was easy, so he never learned real application and hopes to float through college. The author calls him the most pitiable of all failing students.

The overworked boy

Forced to pay his own way, he works from six in the evening till two in the morning, six days a week, and his health or education suffers. Parents owe him a reasonable contribution.

Short questions with model answers

1. Q1. According to the author, some boys fail because they do not try. Who are they? Can we help them?

   • The fidgety boy, the boy on his parents' path, the very bright boy, the lazy bluffer
   • Help: advice and pointing out the problem
   • Cure: only the boy himself

   They are the boy with nervous habits who cannot concentrate, the boy following a career his parents chose against his interests, the very bright boy who never learned to work, and the lazy bluffer. We can help partly: good college advice can catch mistaken ambition early, and we can point out what is the matter. But the real cure, a new attitude and new habits, must come from the boy himself.

2. Q2. How does mistaken ambition on the part of boys and their parents lead to the failure of the boys?

   • Parents map out a career: physician, dentist, engineer
   • The boy wants something else and cannot bring himself to try
   • The boy usually wins; parents later agree

   Some parents map out a career for their son, such as physician, dentist or engineer, that runs against his interests and abilities. He wants to be something else, so he cannot bring himself to do work that feels distasteful and wrong, and he fails. The author says the boy usually wins such arguments, and should; the parents often thank him later.

3. Q3. How does financial pressure lead to the failure of students described in the lesson?

   • Some parents make the boy earn his whole way
   • Jobs from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m., six days a week
   • Author: no boy should be compelled; parents owe a contribution

   Some boys must pay for college entirely by themselves, so they take jobs from six in the evening till two in the morning, six days a week. This always damages their health, the value of their education, or both, and some have to drop out for lack of a little money. The author believes no boy should be compelled to earn his entire way; parents owe him a reasonable contribution, and colleges help with scholarships.

Common mistakes

• ✗ Writing that bright boys never fail.

  ✓ The author calls the bright boy who never learned application the most pitiable of all failing students: his keenness goes to waste.

• ✗ Calling sport the main reason for failure in college.

  ✓ The author says it is not as serious a reason as critics believe. Sports have their place; a friend can usually help a boy see what college is for.

• ✗ Saying the author wants every boy to earn his way through college.

  ✓ The opposite: no boy should be compelled to earn his entire way. A boy can earn part of it without harm, but parents owe him a reasonable contribution.

MCQs

1. 1. The author divides failing students into two main classes:

   1. (a) rich and poor
   2. (b) those who try and those who do not try
   3. (c) bright and dull
   4. (d) sportsmen and scholars
   Show answer

   (b) “There are two main classes: those who try, and those who do not try.”

2. 2. The boy who sharpens all his pencils before studying suffers from:

   1. (a) poor health
   2. (b) nervous habits
   3. (c) financial pressure
   4. (d) mistaken ambition
   Show answer

   (b) Such nervous habits are hard to uproot, and only the boy himself can eradicate them.

3. 3. Whom does the author call “the most pitiable object among all our failing students”?

   1. (a) the lazy bluffer
   2. (b) the sick boy
   3. (c) the bright boy who never learned application
   4. (d) the sportsman
   Show answer

   (c) It is almost a tragedy to see his keenness going to waste because school came too easily.

4. 4. Some boys work at night jobs lasting from:

   1. (a) 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.
   2. (b) 6 p.m. to 2 a.m., six days a week
   3. (c) 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., daily
   4. (d) noon to midnight
   Show answer

   (b) “Jobs lasting from six o'clock in the evening till two in the morning, six days in week.”

5. 5. According to the author, the college dean needs the same ability as a:

   1. (a) coach
   2. (b) physician
   3. (c) banker
   4. (d) parent
   Show answer

   (b) The dean's problem “calls for about the same diagnostic ability as the physician's”.

Quick revision

• Failing students either try but cannot, or do not really try; many of the cures must come from the student himself.
• Causes: nervous habits, mistaken ambition, too easy a mind, health, money pressure, sport and activities, and laziness.
• The dean, like a physician, diagnoses each case to save students from failure through foolishness, sickness and sin.