Chemical Digest 11 p~
THE PROPER TRAINING FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS PREPARING FOR PROFESSORSHIPS IN THE SMALLER COLLEGES The following statements are taken from an article entitled "A Study of the Graduate Schools of America," by President Raymond M. Hughes of Miami University. President Hughes studied chemistty at Ohio State University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was formerly professor of chemistry in Miami University. He has spent many years in an intensive study of the needs of the smaller colleges and has conducted a number of educational surveys in different states. He undoubtedly voices the general opinion of the different executives of colleges such as Miami and his views are therefore of general interest. We (ie., .Miami University), represent some 500collegesaf greater or lesser strength, financially and numerically, which are the chief employers of the products of the graduate schools of America. We absorb into our teaching staffs each year the majority of the men and women who are trained in our great graduate schools. This being the case, i t seems t o me that we might have some weight in influencing the policies of the graduate schools, a t least to a small degree, so that the teachers who come to us from them might he somewhat better fitted for the work for which we employ them. There are four distinct lines in which I think the graduate schools might serve us more effectively. I n the first place, the large majority of the colleges of America are affiliated with the church, and are seeking men a t least sympathetic with religion and preferably men with religious convictions and men whose own lives are definitely guided by noble religious ideals. I am under the impression that in many of our graduate schwls there is little suggestion of interest in religious matters by men on the graduate school staffs, and I feel that the influence of the graduate schools is rather negative or perhaps positively unsympathetic to the religious point of view in many cases. Young in the . araduate schools. men seem to lose rather than gain - in their interest in religion . I am thoroughly convinced in my own mind that no man should teach in an American collene with reliaion and who has not developed his own religious - who is not svm~athetic . . . ideals t o such a degree that his life is guided by them. It seems t o me that the graduate schools of America should a t least make an effort t o cultivate and strengthen the religious life of the graduate student. Many of the most distinguished scholars are men of the noblest lives and of deep feelingsand convictions. I believe the graduate - religious schools could easily contribute much t o the growth of the graduate students in their religious sympathy and conviction. I n the second place, I feel there has been entirely too much of a tendency toward highly specialized study in the graduate schools. We in the colleges are looking for men of broad, sound training in their fields, generous interest in related subjects, rather than for men of a highly specialized training who express a lack of interest or even wntempt for other phases of their own subject. t o say nothing of the related fields of knowledge. I believe that the graduate schools should place more emphasis on thoroughness
and breadth of training for the majority of their graduate students who are planning to teach, rather than such great emphasis on a detailed mastery of a bighly specialized field. I n scanning the personnel reports of college professors who have won their doctorates, it is very impressive to note the large number who haw published noth'mg since they published their thesis for the doctorate. It would seem that the graduate schaols might do well to discriminate as early as possible between those students who have marked ability for research work and those who have not. Those who do not show large promise in research might he directed to study more broadly and gain a wide comprehensive knowledge of their fields. Such students might well receive a different degree, and such men would 6nd a ready welcome on the staffs of American colleges. I n the third place, the graduate schools are not contributing as much as they easily could contribute toward preparing their students for teachers. While i t is interesting to note a distinct change for the better in the attitude of young men coming from the graduate schools toward teaching, I still feel, however, that not a few are coming somewhat imbued with the idea that students are a nuisance and interfere with work, that teaching methods are unworthy of serious thought, that anybody who knows can teach, and a good many other ideas which are only half-truths or are wrong. The n maduate schools leave them to enter - e a t maioritv . . of men and women who enter the. colleges to earn a living as teachers. and i t seems to me that the colleges might well insist that the graduate schools concern themselves, a t least somewhat, with instilling into the minds of students the importance of careful methods of teaching, of imparting knowledge in an enthusiastic and interesting way, and with the tremendous importance of human interest in their students. None of us as college presidents, or deans. or professors desire to add to our staffs men who are not interested in students as human beings, who do not wish to concern themselves with students as people. I t seems to me that these matters could be given some added significance in the graduate schools. I n the fourth place, so far as I know, only one graduate school in the country. Princeton, is making an earnest, serious effort to give to their men something of the social training and the broad sympathy and interest in all departments of learning which a gentleman and scholar should have. I believe those of you who have visited the Princeton graduate school and are familiar with the life there, and those who have employed graduates of this school have felt that Princeton has made a real contribution to the field of graduate teaching through the life of the graduate college a t Princeton. studv with the intention Manv men who are todav enterina . the field of naduate of becoming teachers have had rather meager opportunities a t home to absorb the finest ideas of social customs of the society of todav. Manv others have not concerned themselves with any field beyond the one of their specialty. We certainly need in the colleges men who, as cultivated gentlemen, are personal examples to the crude youths who enter our doors. We need men who through their broad sympathy and interest in all fields of scholarship can fire the enthusiasm for learning in the hearts of young men. The graduate schools would do well to concern themselves with an effort to make what contributions are possible to the training of their students along these lines. It seems to me that one of the next big steps before the graduate schools of our country is to provide dormitories for single graduate students and simple apartments for the married students so that they can live in the atmosphere of the university and gain from association with their fellow graduate students what means so much to the undergraduates in the colleges through common fellowship. ~
~
