In 1896, when Indiana native Frank Aydelotte was only sixteen, he finished a truncated high school program and matriculated as a freshman at the University 0f Indiana at Bloomington. Although younger and perhaps intimidated by the older boys, his intellectual curiosity earned him a helpful alliance that would change his life and ripple out to colleges nationwide.

That same year, Joseph Swain accepted the presidency of the University of Indiana, eventually becoming a mentor and friend to Aydelotte. Both men would, in their turn, become presidents of Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, and their intellectual friendship and aspirations of education reform would create one of the first honors programs in the country.

Aydelotte's story highlights the value of finding a like-minded mentor. It describes how honors programs transformed higher education in the United States and remain on the leading edge of scholarship and service today.

Good Mentors Create Pathways: Frank Aydelotte and Joseph Swain

In many ways, Frank Aydelotte's college experience resembled that of many students today. He enrolled in a liberal arts curriculum and declared an English major. He excelled in football, joined a fraternity, and pursued journalism. After college, he began reporting and coaching football. He started teaching English initially to earn some extra money, but teaching quickly became a calling.

Because he maintained a connection with his mentor, Joseph Swain, Aydelotte learned of a fantastic opportunity to travel to England to study. Swain told him about a scholarship fund by Cecil Rhodes, a diamond magnate and that era's businessman-turned-philanthropist. In his will, Rhodes established a program for students worldwide to attend Oxford University. Rhodes wanted to share the premiere British school experience with scholars who otherwise would not have the means.

Although Aydelotte had become a successful teacher and longed to see the world, he hesitated before applying for a Rhodes scholarship. Perhaps amid other concerns, he felt his Greek needed some brushing up to pass the qualifying exam. Aydelotte studied and even went so far as to achieve an A.M. degree at Harvard before finally, in 1905, sailing to England as one of the first Americans to benefit from a Rhodes Scholarship.

Aydelotte at Oxford and Swarthmore

The curriculum and teaching methods at Oxford were more demanding than what was typically offered in the United States at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. This is what made the Rhodes Scholarship so attractive. Both Oxford and Cambridge universities — sometimes conjointly known as "Oxbridge" — were known for their tutorial style of education. In a tutorial-intensive program, a student works closely with a professor, sometimes in a small group with other students. Instead of methods involving rote memorization and regurgitation, as many American colleges at the time used, the tutorial pedagogy encouraged the student's independence and critical thinking skills.

Aydelotte thrived in this context and enjoyed a subsequent career as a professor and college president. From his studies and work with students, he developed a theory of curriculum that emphasized the relevance of studying English language literature on par with that of the classics of Greek and Latin. Rather than a romantic exercise, Aydelotte saw the practical applications of reading literature in one's language for critical thinking and as a way to learn and improve one's writing.

As College President, Aydelotte brought together the tutorial model of Oxford with Swarthmore's ethical and civic sensibility. Established in 1864 by the Hicksite branch of the Friends Society (also known as Quakers), Swarthmore College was the first coeducational institution in the country, a distinction reflective of its socially responsible mission. Aydelotte, who was its first non-Quaker president, had a profound influence on the school's trajectory. He took measures to encourage studiousness and decrease the importance of fraternities and even his beloved football on campus, notorious for hazing and bullying. In 1922, Aydelotte oversaw the development of an honors program using a synergy of the Oxfordian tutorial with a focus on ethics and democracy, which were cornerstones of Swarthmore's Quaker philosophy. Students in the program worked in small group seminars and wrote honors theses, not unlike the components students produce in many of today's honors programs. The program encouraged students to be agents in their intellectual growth.

Swarthmore's Honors: Part of a Trend

Of course, Swarthmore's honors program is hardly the only such program today, although it was one of the earliest. Many such programs existed in waves between 1900 and 1930 and then again between 1950 and 1970. While these programs vary widely in scope and style, they all share the purpose of attracting and retaining top students.

Despite what some reports suggest, honors programs do not simply exist as an enrollment tool to "get butts in seats and deposits in the mail." Honors are supposed to come with distinction. Students who complete an honors program say "yes!" to independent thinking, ethical service, and creative problem-solving. The students who simply want the accolades but do not want to think deeply or do extra work usually drop the program, but not necessarily from the school. As a result, honors programs have been shown to decrease enrollment dropout.

Honors and the Race to the Bottom Line?

What's at stake today? Many small colleges and universities, particularly private institutions, are under threat of contraction or even closure. To save themselves, many institutions take what some see as draconian measures, slashing unsexy programs that do not attract wealthy donors or partnerships. As a result, the literature-soaked curriculum of many humanities departments and the inquiry-based tutorials to the tune of Oxford and Swarthmore might look expensive or even indulgent. And yet, those very indulgences were among the innovations that lifted many American colleges out of nineteenth-century agrarian pastoralism and made them attractive in the first place.

One of the last places you can still have a deeply intellectual experience on a small college campus is in the honors program. I agree with fellow contributor, Xavier Royer, that some programs are lacking in funds and organization, but even those are making space for students to distinguish themselves through study and service.

Colleges should not only fund their honors programs, but they should get behind the pedagogy that built them as well.