Mabch 17, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



407 



terprising individual start a college with 

 luxurious dormitories and means of recrea- 

 tion and dissipation, where work shall be 

 optional and house-parties continuous? 

 Enormous fees could be charged, profes- 

 sional athletes employed, a suitable degree 

 conferred after four years, and the work- 

 ing colleges protected from young men not 

 desiring to be educated. 



The chief function of an undergraduate 

 institution is instruction, and its faculty 

 should be chosen with this in view. Every 

 such teacher, however, to attain his highest 

 efficiency, should engage in some kind of 

 research, that is, getting new information 

 at first hand. This can not fail to have a 

 vitalizing effect on his teaching, keeping 

 clear the distinction between fact and 

 theory, and maintaining his instruction 

 abreast of the times. 



There is questioning of the value of 

 much that is published as scientific re- 

 search, and it is easy to criticize the spirit 

 that piles up undigested data or adds to 

 the number of chemical compounds for the 

 sake of having something to publish; it is 

 impossible to say, however, that any such 

 information is and will continue to be 

 valueless. I am less interested in dis- 

 crediting such work because it now re- 

 ceives higher recognition from the undis- 

 criminating in the educational world than 

 it deserves, than I am in asking for recog- 

 nition for a kind of labor, just as truly 

 research, that now receives too scant credit 

 from the public and from those responsible 

 for the distribution of rewards to coUege 

 teachers. I refer to what may be called 

 pedagogical research — the labor involved 

 in improving and constantly rejuvenating 

 the instructional work. Any course that 

 remains unchanged for many years is prob- 

 ably in need of repairs, but desirable 

 changes usually involve much labor on the 

 part of the instructor. The teacher whose 



heart is in his teaching and who carries the 

 usual overload of duties is likely to be kept 

 busy at just such work, and have no time 

 left for the more conventional kinds of 

 research; but his students will profit by 

 his labors. The administrative officer who 

 directly or indirectly puts pressure upon a 

 college teacher to neglect his teaching is 

 seriously injuring the college; yet this is 

 by no means uncommon, intentionally or 

 otherwise. 



Research, of whatever kind, is largely a 

 matter of inspiration, and can not be 

 forced ; as profitably might a poet be urged 

 to become a painter as a scholar be pressed 

 to undertake investigations foreign to his 

 inspiration. Left to himself, the investi- 

 gator will do what he is most interested in 

 and therefore likely to do most fruitfully; 

 to attempt to force a teacher whose in- 

 stincts are for pedagogical research to 

 other kinds of investigation is likely to 

 spoil a good teacher and make a mediocre 

 investigator. The method of forcing com- 

 monly practised is the indirect but very 

 effectual one of recognition of published 

 research by promotion and increased re- 

 muneration, while devotion to teaching and 

 pedagogical research receive no such re- 

 wards. 



Let us recall our own undergraduate ex- 

 periences. Did we not in many cases get 

 most stimulation and make most progress 

 under teachers unknown in the professional 

 journals? It is to be expected, indeed, 

 that the teacher whose chief pride and in- 

 terest are in his teaching, and whose chief 

 reward is the advancement of his students, 

 should be of more real value to those stu- 

 dents than the investigator whose hours of 

 reflection are devoted to the problems of 

 his research, and to whom the instruction 

 of classes is incidental, if not, as in many 

 cases, an unwelcome interruption. Gifts 

 of an equally high order for instruction 



