THE ATTITUDES OF HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPALS

As with parental attitudes, the participating colleges have not made a systematic effort to gather data about the attitudes of the high schools from which the Scholars were chosen. However, Goucher and Louisville polled the secondary schools from which their 1951 Scholars came, and several of the other colleges have obtained, through correspondence and discussion, a general picture of the reactions of principals and guidance officers.

The available evidence suggests that the character of high school reaction is mixed, ranging from strong approval to strong disapproval, and that to some extent it is in the process of change.

Ten of the 12 participating colleges have reported to the Fund on their experience with high school principals and guidance officers, often in relation to the difficult task of Scholar selection. According to these reports, many of the college officials have encountered considerable resistance to the Early Admission Program. Sometimes this has been vocal. Sometimes, as one college commented, it has not: "The general reaction has been to ignore the plan entirely."

Many teachers and principals in secondary schools have been strongly opposed to the early departure to college of some of their best potential juniors and seniors. As one principal frankly told a college official: "We don't like the idea of the colleges taking our leaders out of high school at the end of the tenth or eleventh grade."

The dean of one of the participating colleges, reporting considerable high school resistance to the Early Admission Program, voiced the opinion that it "is based partially on a genuine concern for the emotional and social development of the individual and a belief that he will be harmed by taking him out of his chronological