Febeuaey 25, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



289 



is also evident that the fixing of an arbi- 

 trary limit causes some apprehension to 

 men approaching that period. 



All this, however, does not affect the fact 

 that notwithstanding the presence of 

 notable service by men of seventy and up- 

 ward, the average man of ability does not 

 attain to such achievement, and that the 

 average men are inclined to cling to their 

 regular duties and to their official positions 

 after their efficiency is seriously impaired. 

 It is not easy for the individual to differen- 

 tiate between those motives which are 

 egoistic and those which are not. Few 

 men at seventy are critical judges of their 

 o^vn efficiency. While, therefore, a fixed 

 and invariable rule for the retirement of a 

 teacher may not be the best solution, it is 

 clear that the college professor at such an 

 age ought to be willing to leave the ques- 

 tion of retirement, in some measure at 

 least, to the judgment of others. As our 

 American institutions are organized, it is 

 not easy to keep men in position who 

 render partial service. 



There is another view of retirement 

 voiced by some of these teachers which 

 seems worth notice, and that is the fear of 

 lack of some agreeable and useful way of 

 spending one's time if regular teaching 

 duties are given up. "We are accustomed 

 to this attitude in the case of the business 

 man, but one scarcely expects to find a 

 scholar at a loss to know how to entertain 

 himself in old age. The situation suggests, 

 at least, that college professors do not al- 

 ways have sufficiently broad foundations 

 for their scholarship nor adequate con- 

 nection with varied and enduring human 

 interests. 



Only one serious criticism has been 

 made of this rule. It is urged that the 

 rule does injustice to the profession of the 

 teacher by excluding service in the grade 

 of instructor from counting toward the 



earning of a retiring allowance. It is 

 urged that the position of instructor" is 

 one calling for high professional training; 

 that it belongs to the recognized profes- 

 sional grades of university work; that the 

 work of an instructor in one of the large 

 universities is often of a higher order and 

 involves greater responsibility than that of 

 an assistant professor in a small college; 

 and finally that the actual work of teach- 

 ing in the large institutions has for the 

 last two decades fallen in increasing meas- 

 ure upon the shoulders of the instructor. 

 These criticisms are valid ones. There is a 

 further effect noticeable under the present 

 rules the tendency of which is bad, namely, 

 the pressure upon colleges to appoint men 

 to faculty places in order that the term of 

 service may begin to count toward a pen- 

 sion. This pressure is natural; it is diffi- 

 cult to Avithstand; and it is almost wholly 

 bad. Advancement in salary and eligibil- 

 ity to a pension ought not to depend on 

 promotion to an assistant professorship. 

 I therefore recommend the amendment of 

 this rule so as to include recognition of the 

 service of the teacher in the grade of in- 

 structor. 



The practical question which arises is: 

 "How much ought the term of service to 

 be lengthened in order to include service 

 as an instructor?" 



This question is not easy to answer, since 

 the statistics of ten and twenty years ago 

 do not fit the experience of to-day. Men 

 were appointed twenty years ago to in- 

 structorships at an earlier age than to-day. 

 In fact, the place of instructor is to-day a 

 different one. Furthermore, in the smaller 

 colleges service in this grade lasts usually 

 only a short time, while in the large uni- 

 versities it may last five or ten years, and 



^ The position of lecturer in Canadian universi- 

 ties corresponds to that of the instructor in the 

 United States. 



