Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1879)
ISO EUITOH1A1.S. VOL. VII r h 11 : nltion of six years of ceaseless toil, some caution should be taken at least. Never should a student be conditioned unless failure is inevitable. It is too great a dis grace for an American to bear. We have little sympathy for that professor who boasts of how many he fails to pass. Nor have wc much faith in a system of marking thai makes three mistakes out of one; that allows twenty probabilities for mistakes and gives the student the benefit of none, but the credit of all mistakes made. For one whose judgment is strong, ly in favor of such a system, we have great pity. "We care not where it origi natcd, whether in the "half dozen Uni versities of Europe," or in the mind of a single individual, wc, in the name of common sense, pronounce it and its au thor a ridiculous failure. Examinations arc law and must be obeyed. The responsibility of the teacher is necessarily great. It matters not how thorough, how learned or how sedate, if he is not capable of that responsibility, he must lose the respect of students; when prejudice dethrones justice before his very gaze and under his own control, wc must impeach his honest'. Such arc some of the existing evils that pertain to examinations in col leges. If the' are to remain they must sutler reform. Until then, they are des tined to have a lingering enmity attached to them. THE FAItM. The Agricultural Farm has been greatly crippled for the past two years, owing to the lack of means; but, by the influence of a few friends in the last Legislature, it gained a sullicicut appropriation to put it again on the road to success. The He gents at their recent session gave some $5,400 for its support, which, with the pro. cceds of the farm will give the Professor sufllcicnt means to attempt some of the ex perimcuts that such a farm should undertake. The crops are looking well this year; they arc as follows ; wheat (50 acres, corn SO, oats 1-1, clover 5, besides potatoes, millet, garden &c. That the Prof, has not been idle even under disadvantages, may be seen from the following statement. There arc now growing on the Farm U-l kinds of apple trees, G4 pear, 20 cherry, 12 plum and 1!)3 peach trees, all of the best and most hardy varieties; also 3 kinds of cur rants, 5 of raspberries, 00 of grapes and 7 of strawberries. Under the more favor, able circumst-nccs in which the Farm is now placed, we may soon expect to see much improvement. Students are allowed to workout part or all of their expenses on the Farm, receiv ing ten cents per hour for their labor. They are charged cost for their board, which, for the past term, has ranged from $1.SG to $2.00 per week. Thus a little over three hours work per day would pay for board. The Farm is now collecting trees for an arboretum ; have already some thirty or forty kinds which they expect to in crease as fast as time and means will permit. Why cannot the societies begin to start libraries of their own. They have their halls pretty well fixed and furnished; now the question will be, how shall the money, collected in the future, be spent? In getting up suppers, socials and festi vals, or shall it be applied to some use that will be beneficial in the future? To be sure, the amount of money thus re ceived will not be large, but it will do to commence with. I do not see why the societies might not give some public entertainments with a little cash at the door as one of the most prominent lea tuicfc. Certainly they could give as good entertainments, as most of the traveling troops do. and these aie well supported. The money thus collected could be added to our ordinary iccoipts. Prize contosts might bo inaugerated horo as lhoy arc in most of the Eastern colleges. The people of Lincoln would
