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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 19, 1930)
4 THE BATTALION Published every Wednesday night by the Students’ Association of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas. Subscription Price $1.75 per year. ALL AUS RUN UNTIL ORDERED OUT. Entered as second-class matter at the post office at Bryan, Texas, under the Act of Congress March 3rd., 1879. Member of National College Press Association All undergraduates in the College are eligible to try for a place on the Editorial Staff of this paper. Freshmen, Sophomores, and Juniors who are interested in journalism for its own sake, ai'e urged to make themselves known to some member of the staff. L. W. JOHNSTON S. C. GIESEY Y. B. GRIFFIS . . . P. A. DRESSER . . . C. WILLIAMS R. L. HERBERT ... C. V. ELLIS W. G. CARNAHAN J. A. BARNES M. H. HOLLOWAY S. A. ROELOFS EDITORIAL STAFF Editor-in-Chief Associate Editor Associate Editor Sports Editor Associate Editor News Editor Associate News Editor Assistant News Editor Assistant News Editor Columnist Columnist LESTER HANKS D. W. SHERRILL J. A. REYNOLDS BUSINESS STAFF Business Manager Assistant Business Manager Circulation Manager CONCERNING THE AGGIE BROTHERHOOD “We are the Aggies, the Aggies are we; true to each other . . And with their arms around each other, and tears in their eyes, they listened to the exhortations of the frantic figure upon the steps. 1 “These men are your brothers, old army, they love you. You are all part of one great Brother hood. . . .” “Taps,” and the same tearful crowd stands bareheaded in the rain, singing from their collective souls the song of swords—the song that sings heores to sleep—the song of the Aggie Brotherhood. We have heard much about this great fraternity (Ah, ye neophytes of knowledge, “frater” means brother, Greek letters or nol) but we are young, and, as someone has said, the thoughts of youth are exceedingly long, and we have been much too busy to spare time for thinking about the matter. We suppose there is such an entity as this Brotherhood^ for we have seen the yell leaders luring - the farm boys into it under the electrics on the Y steps. We have seen freshmen advised in a friendly, fraternal, brotherly way that certain things are taboo and that certain things are expected of them—the least of which is a practical, economic, and physical slavery for the term of one year—and that A. and M. is the froth of the cream of the country’s educational institutions. We have witnessed the trials and initi ates of this order, and have seen them transformed from fairly harmless, unintelligent, average young men of this phonocinema age to thorough Sil urians, vigorously and indefatigably supporting and upholding the mani fest injustices of the vicious system of class differentiation which is our heritage from the dark ages of the old schools. We have noticed these things—indeed, they are very obvious to the most casual observer—and we suppose that they have something to do with the great Brotherhood of all the Aggies—at least the Brotherhood advocates them lutisly enough, and is proud of them, and boasts of them—but, as w r e declared above, we have never considered the problem very deeply. We might as well conclude this article with a tribute to The Brother hood. They will be victo v ious over a’i adversaries for some time, we sup pose. They will surely continue to maim freshmen and bow to seniors for years toj come. There have been other brotherhoods in the past—weasand- slitting aggregations of pirates, for instance—and they have had their day, for all things have courses to run. But how with the Aggies of other years ? What will they say to this idiotic cultivation of brutality, this enslavement of a third of the school . . . ? THE QUESTION OF EXAMINATIONS Is the examination a fair test of one’s knowledge in a subject? To any one who has been either a student or professor of the present living will surely answer in the negative. With the ultimate idea in mind of not having to take the finals, the student drops the month’s work as soon as he has had the quiz on it. He thinks little of the daily assignment except in terms of monthly quizzes and tries to remember only those things which he judges the professor will test him on, foi’getting all the time that the acquisiion of the “big work,” so cherished in his underlying ambition, can be realized only by a knowledge of all that he can set in his head. For the periodical quizzes he crams his utmost and often devises means of copying so that on the morrow he may j make a “grade.” This process he terms management; but a “hell of a proc ess it is.” Grades do not represent what one knows in a subject, mey meie y state that he may or may not have to repeat the course. Ihe oiiginal pui- pose of the quiz was to try to force the student into an appreciation of the value of learning while opportunity afforded, but it seems that this pur pose has been defeated. In most classes the instructor’s estimate has its share in figuring the final grade. If he be of the fair minded type, as only one in such position should be, his estimate of the student’s ability should be within five or ten points of his actual ability in that subject, provided that enough individual class work be accomplished in the term. To allow this additional work, 11a quizzes except a few dailies could be eliminated. Ihe students attention would thus be drawn to the importance of each assignment, the association of a group of relative assisgnments being demonstrated in the classroom as such a group at the discretion of the instructor, be completed. Such an educational process as this would require more work on the part of both instructor and student, but the idea ot the student would evolve ino a real appreciation of education for its real worth and its worth to him, and the ideal education would become a realization. GREAT' ALL-TALKING V URAAVA of LOVE ^ and ADVENTURE! urt/Ar JACK HOLT LI LA LEE EALPH GRAVE! o FRANK R.CAPRA 1 Pl/J/i, Production y-^4/ PALACE Thursday Friday Saturday All Talking Added Attraction LAUREL-HARDY, Talking Comedy Saturday lip. m. Preview— BLOTTO” MURDER CASE' The Best in Drug Store Goods; The Best in Drug Store Service.” Aggie Ownership and Aggie Management AGGIELAND PHARMACY “Your Drug Store” mWh