the higher learning in america-第6章
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university; but merely its equipment。 And the university man's
work is the pursuit of knowledge; together with whatever advisory
surveillance and guidance he may consistently afford such
students as are entering on the career of learning at a point
where his outlook and methods of work may be of effect for them。
No man whose energies are not habitually bent on increasing and
proving up the domain of learning belongs legitimately on the
university staff。 The university man is; properly; a student; not
a schoolmaster。 Such is the unmistakable drift of sentiment and
professed endeavour; in so far as it is guided by the cultural
aspirations of civilized mankind rather than by the emulative
strategy of individuals seeking their own preferment。(6*)
All this; of course; implies no undervaluing of the work of
those men who aim to prepare the youth for citizenship and a
practical career。 It is only a question of distinguishing between
things that belong apart。 The scientist and the scholar on the
one hand; and the schoolmaster on the other hand; both belong
within the later growth of civilization; but a differentiation of
the two classes; and a division of their work; is indispensable
if they are to do their work as it should be done; and as the
modern community thoughtfully intends that it should be done。 And
while such a division of labour has hitherto not been carried
through with any degree of consistency; it is at least under way;
and there is nothing but the presumption of outworn usage that
continues to hold the two lines of work together; to the
detriment of both; backed; it is true; by ambitions of
self…aggrandizement on the part of many schools and many of their
directorates。
The schoolmaster and his work may be equally; or more;
valuable to the community at large presumably more rather than
less but in so far as his chief interest is of the pedagogical
sort his place is not in the university。 Exposition; instruction
and drill belong in and professional schools。 The consistent aim
there is; and should be; to instruct; to inculcate a knowledge of
results; and to give the pupil a working facility in applying it。
On the university level such information and training is (should
be) incidental to the work of research。 The university man is
almost unavoidably a teacher; by precept and example; but he can
not without detriment to his work as scientist or scholar serve
as a taskmaster or a vehicle of indoctrination。 The student who
comes up to the university for the pursuit of knowledge is
expected to know what he wants and to want it; without
compulsion。 If he falls short in these respects; if he has not
the requisite interest and initiative; it is his own misfortune;
not the fault of his teacher。 What he has a legitimate claim to
is an opportunity for such personal contact and guidance as will
give him familiarity with the ways and means of the higher
learning; any information imparted to him being incidental to
this main work of habituation。 He gets a chance to make himself a
scholar; and what he will do with his opportunities in this way
lies in his own discretion。
The difference between the modern university and the lower
and professional schools is broad and simple; not so much a
difference of degree as of kind。 There is no difficulty about
apprehending or appreciating this difference; the dispute turns
not on the practicability of distinguishing between the two; but
on the desirability of letting such a distinction go into effect。
It is a controversy between those who wish to hold fast that
which once was good and those who look to make use of the means
in hand for new ends and meet new exigencies。
The lower schools (including the professional schools) are;
in the ideal scheme; designed to fit the incoming generation for
civil life; they are therefore occupied with instilling such
knowledge and habits as will make their pupils fit citizens of
the world in whatever position in the fabric of workday life they
may fall。 The university on the other hand is specialized to fit
men for a life of science and scholarship; and it is accordingly
concerned; with such discipline only as will give efficiency in
the pursuit of knowledge and fit its students for the increase
and diffusion of learning。 It follows that while the lower
schools necessarily take over the surveillance of their pupils'
everyday life; and exercise a large measure of authority and
responsible interference in that behalf; the university assumes
(or should assume) no responsibility for its students' fortunes
in the moral; religious; pecuniary; domestic; or hygienic
respect。
Doubtless the larger and more serious responsibility in the
educational system belongs not to the university but to the lower
and professional schools。 Citizenship is a larger and more
substantial category than scholarship; and the furtherance of
civilized life is a larger and more serious interest than the
pursuit of knowledge for its own idle sake。 But the proportions
which the quest of knowledge is latterly assuming in scheme of
civilized life require that the establishments the to which this
interest is committed should not be charged with extraneous
duties; particularly not with extraneous matters themselves of
such grave consequence as this training for citizenship and
practical affairs。 These are too serious a range of duties to be
taken care of as a side…issue; by a seminary of learning; the
members of whose faculty; if they are fit for their own special
work; are not men of affairs or adepts in worldly wisdom。
III
In point of historical pedigree the American universities are
of another derivation than their European counterpart; although
the difference in this respect is not so sharp a matter of
contrast as might be assumed at first sight。 The European
(Continental) universities appear to have been founded;
originally; to meet the needs of professional training; more
particularly theological (and philosophical) training in the
earlier times。 The American universities are; historically; an
outgrowth of the American college; and the latter was installed;
in its beginnings; largely as a means of professional training;
chiefly training for Divinity; secondarily for the calling of the
schoolmaster。 But in neither case; neither in that of the
European university nor in that of the American College; was this
early vocational aim of the schools allowed to decide their
character in the long run; nor to circumscribe the lines of their
later growth。 In both cases; somewhat alike; the two groups of
schools came to their mature development; in the nineteenth
century; as establishments occupied with disinterested learning;
given over to the pursuit of intellectual enterprise; rather than
as seminaries for training of a vocational kind。 They still had a
vocational value; no doubt; and the vocational needs of their
students need not have been absent from the considerations that
guided their directorates。 It would particularly be found that
the (clerical) directorates of the American colleges had more
than half an eye to the needs of Divinity even at so late a date
as when; in the third quarter of the century; the complexion of
the American college situation began seriously to change。 It is
from this period from the era of the Civil War and the
Reconstruction that the changes set in which have reshaped the
academic situ