UNIVERSITY INSTRUCTORS

A study being made by the American Association of University Professors opens a splendid prospect for an intelligent revision of the educational methods used in American colleges. This investigation purposes to "discover and evaluate the present quality of academic instruction and to recommend standards and methods for its improvement." Since no other inquiry has ever sounded these problems great hopes can be held for the results which will be obtained.

The need for improvement of educational methods is urgent. The policy at Harvard, and probably at most other American universities, places almost no emphasis on the pedagogical ability of its instructors and professors. Here scholarship, and not inspiration or skill as a teacher, determines the pay and rank of the faculty members. The interest which the man takes in his students, and the sympathy with which he responds to their problems and difficulties, is ignored when promotions are made. As a result the able and ambitious man turns from his students to the presses, for he sees that the royal road to a professorship lies primarily through books. Hence instructors are too often well-meaning but inexperienced young men, or scholars to whom the task of teaching is secondary.

Although the prime function of a university is to create an atmosphere favorable to the student bent on securing an education, instruction in its objective sense is a vital factor. It is possible that this factor is at present ignored because of the obstacles which prevent any definite estimation of an instructor's work in the class room. A method of avoiding this difficulty, and recommendations leading to improvement of the quality of instruction, should be among the principal concerns of the investigators. But, whatever the conclusions of the survey may be, the mere fact that the subject inspires examination should stimulate universities to alter their present short-sighted attitude toward this important part of their organization.