The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-06-18
EDUCATIONAL PROFESSORS


The question of the training of Pro
fessors'' is receiving some attention
in one of the magazines. The author
in the number before us devotes him
self to scholarships and other methods
Of stimulating eminent learning, as a
means of the turning out of good pro-
fesscrs.
We have a suspicion that the dearth
of worthy professors. if traced to its
real source, would not be found alto
gether within the precincts of ignor-
ance. Unless many wise Investigators
have been led into the woods in pur-
suing this subject. erudition as well as
ignorance has something to account for
in the premises. There is good author
ity for the opinion that with great
scholars as with smaller appearing
men, sense" is a variable that runs
from zero to infinity. We may there
fore find in the chairs of higher learn
ing as numerous an exhibit Of pro-
digiously educated folly as there is of
inadequate scholarship; and moreover.
that titulary folly so environed may
become quite as hideous and danger
Gus pest to sensible thinking as folly
less promoted. So much for exalted
incapacity and the error of indlscrim-
mate obeisance to erudition.
A prominent educator here is of the
opinion that the struggle of the pro-
moters OF perfect education is not at
this point so much with these
autocrats of the "old school" as it
has been. As self constituted ideals
of learning they are proven to soar 50
far above the popular stratum of soci-
ETY. THAT the mass Of humanity, for
whose wants the great work of educa-
ton is designed, feel very little of their
influence.
Just now the real pest. as he be
lieves. to genuine and useful education,
is the order of professor, which for
the want of a less generic title, we will
name the college upStart. The west has
become a particular field for the ex-
PLOTS of these young bees. They are
buzzing about in such numbers ONE
might well wonder whether all the
hives of culture ON the continent
had not swarmed at once.
The west is in need of college-bred
teachers. and, of course, in their ex-
tremity, they take UP with the first
man in sight that has the suspicion of
college learning about his person. So
it is that this college overflow is in
vited to come west" Probably one
in fifty. our friend believes, of the PRO
fessors'' employed in this fashion are
worthy of that title. Certainly not
more than one in ten should be con-
sidered proper material for pedagogi-
cal work of any sort whatever. They
are not built for THE business. What
ever their learning might be a habit
of putting on airs" and pomp-
Gus assumption. of superior Gull
ture. real or imaginary. keeps
them quite out of touch with the real
duties of the teaching profession. And
what might seem an astonishing fea-
ture of the case is that these callow
sprouts of higher education carry testi-
monials of personal and scholarly
merit which if taken literally would
place them easily in rank with the
Huxleys- or the Eliots of the great
universities.
Assumption. in the ranks of learning
is more insufferable perhaps than in
any other walk of life" And among
the various forms Of quackery the
pedagogic quack is the least excusable.
The title of. professor has become far
TOO cheap in this country and it would
be well to confne to those only who
are really deserving of the title as
conferred upon them by competent
educational authority.
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