3. An Important Aspect of College Life
It is perfectly possible to organize the life of our colleges in such a way that students and teachers alike will take part in it, in such as way that a perfectly natural daily intercourse will be established between them, and it is only by such an organization that they can be given real vitalities, places of serious training be made communities in which youngsters will come fully to realize how interesting intellectual work is, how vital, how important, how closely associated with all modern achievement. Only by such an organization that study can be made to seem part of life itself. Lectures often seem very formal and empty things. Recitations generally prove very dull and unrewarding. It is in conversation and natural intercourse with scholars chiefly that you find how lively knowledge is, how it ties into everything that is interesting and important, how intimate a part it is of everything that is interesting and important, how intimate a part it is of everything that is practically connected to the world. Men are not always made thoughtful by books, but they are generally made thoughtful by association with men who think.
By Woodrow Wilson
