college professors take themselves too seriSOME ously-no doubt. Nor are their critics slow to remind them of the fact. Less often-in fact, practically n e v e r 4 0 we hear the view expressed that tbey don't take themselves seriously enough. Not that a good many professors fail to recognize their shortcomings and wish they could do something about them. But we are not used to the implication that professors as a class take a light view of their importance in the educational scheme. So we were first surprised, then amused, and finally impressed when this point was elaborated by Kirk H. Porter in an article, "Professors Should Work," in the last Bulletin of the Americen Associution of University Professors. He says:
event, the professor must not become a mere qnizmaster or examination-marker. Chemistry is probably in a more fortunate position in this regard than most subjects in the curriculum. Dreary and ineffective lectures are inexcusable in view of the possibilities of experimental demonstration, and the laboratory method of instruction offers even better opportunities for students to "get something from professors." In fact, we submit that any professor of chemistry who, by his inaccessibility or unapproachability, denies his students the chance to "get something" from him in the laboratory, where it means the most, ought to "seek other fields of usefulness."
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E UNDERSTAND that a recent meeting of the Industrial Research Institute was addressed by A. H. White, the president of the Society for the . Promotion of Engineering Education and the head of the Department of Chemistry of the University of Michigan. Several points which he made, although tbey have been made before, deserve special attention .. and emphasis. He advocated increased industrial support for graduate fellowships in universities, the summer employment of undergraduates in industrial research laboratories, and also the coiiperative plan of education in industrial centers. He also urged that industry send more of its promising young research . men back to the universities for advanced training. We venture to add that in the long run it might pay . industries to send some of their inspiring research men back to the universities, for short periods, for the purpose of instruction. The first-hand contact that could thus be made between young students preparing to enter industry and men not-too-much-older who could . . give them a clear picture of what a future in industry offers them would be an excellent thing for all concerned. Our faculties consist very largely of men who, however thoroughly versed they may be in chemistry, have . had little if any inside view of industry. A single lecture now and then, on an industrial-chemical subject, helps the situation a little. Students crowd around the speaker afterwards, eager for more of what appeals to them as intensely practical. How much better if the speaker could stay on the campus for two weeks-r longer-with a class every day perhaps, holding conThere is something to think about here, of course. ferences with students, mixing with them in their Very likely the author of this did not intend i t to be an clubs. Not being one of their regular professors, such a argument for return to the old educational process of man would have a certain advantage in-his relations with lectwe-dictation, by which "words are transferred from students. His would be an "extracumcular activitv." the notebook of the lecturer to that of the student Perhaps this could be combined with ''perso&" without the intermediation of any mental process wbat- or "recmiting" work, so that there would be the possoever." The evils of the "lecture system" have been sibility of some tangible return to the industry. Priwell recited, but their remedy should not lead us to marily, however, i t would be a contribution to the lose the direct influence of teacher upon student. educational system upon which industry depends for Rather than abandon it completely, the lecture system its human material and to which it properly owes a very must be made to inspire instead of suffocate. In any large debt.
The principal reason for going t o college is t o get something from professors. If this were not sq young people might well stay a t home and study by themselves. . . Nevertheless. students are often actually told that attendance a t class is not particularly important and that what one gets "by himself" is all that really counts. One great university comes very close t o proclaiming that its own splendid lecturers are hardly worth going t o hear.. Strangely enough, i t appears t o be assumed by many educators that if a student listens t o a professor explain something he is being "spoon fed," and the educative process is deplorably "passive," whereas if the student reads out of a book what some other professor has written, he is "getting it by himself." I n my opinion the latter process is far more passive, passive ofttimes t o the point of somnolence.. . I t should he taken for granted that the student will read, and that he will work by himself. I never heard of an institution, or of a professor, who discouraged this.. . Time spent in classrooms ought t o be the most valuable part of the student's experience, for time spent in contact with professors is the unique contribution t o the educational process which the college has t o offer, and i t is the one thing of which there is for the student a definitely limited SUUD~V.. . .. Ilnforrunately, many administrative officers rapitalilr unduly upon the idea Illat student$ should learn by thrmsrlvrs, and thus repudiate the basic reason for having a rollrge. This is to cmphasize a good idea, and t o ignore a better one. The very existence of a college implies that there is something even hetter t o do than t o try tolearn by one's self. Of course there is. I t is t o go t o college and get something from professors.. . Too many professors, in their modesty, give aid and comfort t o those who would like t o eliminate them. The professor who does noiinsist that i t is important t o come t o his class is abdicating. Students and administrators might well take him a t his word and let him seek other fields of usefulness. If a subject can be learned adequately from books, why have a professor? I confess I do not know the answer t o that one. ~
