Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 83.djvu/577

Rh his easy-going methods is simply a bald statement of the truth? Is there no danger that some of our students and faculties may desire to bear the reputation of scholarliness without paying its honest price in hard work or in unpopular justice? One is tempted to point out in this connection the grave injustice that may be done by over-tolerant college authorities to teachers of the strenuous type in their employ. Sometimes it would almost seem to be the explicit belief of these easy-going presidents and heads of departments that the function of the instructor, be he never so promising a scholar or so skilful a teacher, is to spend his time and energies in a vain attempt to cajole illiterate and contemptuous "gentlemen" into the absorption of microscopic doses of learning. To be sure, small wonder should be aroused by the fact that bloodless pedantry and academic priggishness meet with ill success in their contact with lively undergraduates; but, in some institutions, men who are neither prigs nor pedants must either descend to the "popular" level or else court disaster. Some of these mistaken idealists may begin their teaching with a fine ambition to make their courses count, perhaps even with the knowledge that trifling was rampant in their own student days and the determination that it shall not disgrace any of the classes for which they are responsible. And yet their training, their enthusiasm and their ideals are likely to be unappreciated even if they are not positively unpopular; they must either forget these things and drift with the genial majority, or fight a discouraging battle on the side of a minority disliked by colleagues and students. Perhaps it may not often occur to candidates for college positions, nor to heads of departments seeking instructors, to determine whether this lack of harmony exists; but it is quite possible that an honest agreement in regard to the question whether one is expected to teach or to amuse might prevent a certain number of misfits.

Secondly, if the ideal of a college is to be anti-intellectual, or even a policy of compromise, it is only fair that the fact shall be squarely and publicly admitted, so that ambitious parents and conscientious students shall not be deluded. It is merely honest to define our position; if we are conducting a country club with practically optional opportunities for intellectual development, the public should know it. Such institutions should advertise along these lines: "Blank University offers to young men of good disposition four years of pleasant life, combined with social and athletic advantages. Any who are so inclined may attend some of our large assortment of easy and attractive courses; and, if, in addition, they will do a small amount of work, the bachelor's degree will be conferred upon them." With the ideal thus frankly defined, the situation would become clearer, and we could leave institutions of that sort to conclude for themselves whether the social byproducts of an unintellectual college life really warrant the four