Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 77.djvu/505

Rh of inquiry. Preparatory exercises belong to school life and should be abandoned at the university.

All this seems so obvious that it might appear to be hardly worth saying were it not that the methods which actually prevail are so far removed from this ideal.

When, for example, a boy who has not learned Greek or chemistry id school comes to the university and proposes to take up one of these subjects he is generally put through a course of exercises which differ in no essential respect from those which are set before a boy of twelve. In other words, our university method for the trained mind does not really differ from our school method, which is supposed to be adapted to the mind in course of training. Again, boys who have been learning certain subjects for years at school, but are weak in them, have their education continued at the university in the same subjects by the same school methods until they can be brought up to the requirements of a first university examination, which in its character does not differ much from the examinations held at school. Where in this process is to be found the introduction of that spirit of inquiry and investigation which ought to characterize the university course?

It may be asked, In what manner is this change to be introduced, and how is it possible under present conditions, where so many students are all pursuing ordinary degree courses and have no time or opportunity for special work, to provide teachers who can educate them in this spirit, if it is also their duty to get pass students through their examinations? The answer, I think, is that in a university the professors and higher teachers should be, without exception, men who, whatever may be their teaching duties, are also actively engaged in investigation. Their assistants should be teachers who, even if the whole or part of their time is occupied in routine teaching, have yet had some experience in, and possess real sympathy with, modern advanced work under such professors. This is only to be secured by insisting that teachers in a university should all have had some experience of original work, and, just as one of the necessary qualifications for an elementary teacher is some education in method, so a necessary qualification for a university teacher should be some education in research. Any one desirous of qualifying for university teaching should be compelled to devote a certain portion of his student career to research, and the funds of a university can not be better applied than to the retention of the better students at the university for the distinct purpose of enabling them to pursue investigation under the professor for a period of one year after they have completed their degree course, if they have not been able to do so during their undergraduate period. It is not, however, too much to hope that the majority of those who are endeavoring to qualify for the higher educational posts will be assisted to obtain this special experience during their degree course. Under the present