June 12, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



855 



complete and more exactly representative 

 data would be to increase the range of 

 variation. This variation, it may be added, 

 is a sign of healthy adaptation to the wide 

 differences in energy, scholarship and de- 

 votion which must be expected even within 

 such a picked group of men as college 

 teachers. 



THE APPRENTICESHIP SYSTEM IN AMERICAN 

 HIGHER INSTITUTIONS 



The higher institutions of America main- 

 tain an elaborate system of apprentice- 

 ship by their provision, fiscal and other- 

 wise, for assistants, readers, teaching fel- 

 lows and the like, who do educational work 

 under more or less close supervision, gen- 

 erally as part-time workers who are study- 

 ing for a degree, or who have just com- 

 pleted such study and are maintaining 

 financial independence while waiting for 

 engagement as full-time teachers. 



The extent of this apprentice work in 

 the larger institutions may be estimated 

 from the fact that in Columbia, Harvard, 

 Chicago, Michigan, Yale and Cornell there 

 are reported 761 individuals with the title 

 of assistant, more than the number of full- 

 time professors in these same institutions. 

 Some few of these are full-time teachers or 

 scientific workers of experience,^ but there 

 are, to much more than counterbalance 

 these, teaching fellows and young men with 

 the title of instructor who are really 

 apprentices. 



The system is by no means confined to 

 the large universities. Taking at random 

 ten institutions of moderate size (Vassar, 

 Indiana, Purdue, Oberlin, Cincinnati, 

 Armour Institute, Virginia, Washington, 

 Western Reserve and Brown), we find re- 

 ported 237 assistants to 321 full professors. 



In departments of agriculture especially, sub- 

 ordinate scientific workers with salaries of from 

 $800 to $1,500 are often given the title of "as- 

 sistant. ' ' 



Moreover, there probably are other stu- 

 dent assistants unreported because receiv- 

 ing only free tuition. 



Even in the small institutions, much of 

 the educational work is done by, and much 

 practical training in college teaching is 

 given to, such apprentices. Again taking 

 ten colleges at random (Lafayette, Bow- 

 doin, Colorado College, Dickinson, Adelphi, 

 University of South Carolina, Goucher, 

 Trinity (Connecticiit), Beloit and Wash- 

 ington and Jefferson), we find reported 72 

 assistants to 157 full professors. Fifty-two 

 of these were reported from a single insti- 

 tution, but, on the other hand, the student- 

 assistants who were given tuition or tuition 

 plus a hundred dollars or so were probably 

 very often left unreported by other insti- 

 tutions in this group. 



The fiscal status of these apprentices 

 will not be described here, since any tables 

 of salaries or changes in salaries for them 

 are likely to be misleading unless worked 

 out and presented in connection with fairly 

 exact descriptions of the services which 

 they perform and the training which they 

 receive. These services range from the 

 actual conduct of class-room and laboratory 

 instruction to the mere correction of minor 

 written exercises, or even to work as er- 

 rand boys, keeping class-rolls, answering 

 the telephone and fetching apparatus. In 

 time required they vary so much that an 

 assistant's pay probably would show a 

 range of from fifty cents per hour to five 

 times as much. The training ranges from 

 such sympathetic guidance as a son might 

 receive in a model father's office to the 

 mere orders and criticisms that an ordinary 

 office boy gets. 



It is probable that four out of five of the 

 men and women now entering college and 

 university teaching hold such positions as 

 paid assistants for a year or more. Conse- 

 quently the organization and remuneration 



