New-York tribune., 1903-03-29
THE DEGREE FAD.

It is good to find man like Professor Will
lam James, of Harvard, rising to protest
against what he calls The Ph. p. Octopus.
In "The Harvard Monthly" he has written
about the prevailing folly Of the schools and
colleges which insist on judging the quai6ca-
tions Of teachers By the degrees they can pro
duce, and who rely for reputaton-after ath-
letic advertising, Of courSe-on the impression
made by string of letters that may mean
something or nothing after otherwise colorless
faculty names, much as circus relies on the
aIliterative ability of its poster maker. Pro
fessor James declares: The dazzIed reader OF
'the list the parent or the student, says to him
self, This must be a terribly distinguished
"crowd: their titles shine like stars in the FIR
'mament; Phi DIS. S. DIS and LIT DIS be-
"tspangle the page as if they were spPinkled
cover it with q pepper caster" Get, as
matter OF fact, these wonderful titles are not
the slightest guarantee Of teaching ability, Of
broad scholarship or even Of narrow scholarship
in the subject which the belettered individual
is set to teach
The degree of doctor Of philosophy is at
present desired Of almost ali teachers, and Is
demanded By almost ali who employ them. The
imitation of German methods and the craze for
original research have turned men end WON
en- who want to teach to the performance OF a
certain ritual of scholarship which Is supposed
to have some miraculous power to make them
qualified instructors. That ritual consists in
the devotion of three or more years after taking
a bachelors degree to some special line of
study and the production of thesis Oh 1t. The
degree does not mean that the man has learned
how to teach It merely means that he has
conformed to the fashion of Original research
and that research may may not have been
worth while. Anybody who takes account Of
the tons of doctors theses which are turned
cut from the presses of good natured publishers
will testify to the utter trlViality of a great
mass of them Students without any breadth
of knowledge dig away at something like the
history Of land titles in Buncomhe County,
n c., and on the strength Of that valuable con-
tribution to the worlds knowledge are en-
ployed as doctors of philosophy to teach Eng
lish literature or ancient history.
Professor James tells story Of the expert
ence of really brilliant teacher in one of these
schools which care more for titles than for
capacity. He had studied philosophy at Har
ward but had not taken the doctors degree He
had high literary ability. and was a remark
able success as a teacher OF literature. After
some years experience he was employed by the
school In question but when it was afterward
discovered that ne did not write Ph. D. after
his name the appointment was revoked AS
compromise he took a year off. went back to
Harvard, wrote thesis some branch OF met
aphysics and was then permitted to teach lit
erature by this school Of fuss and feathers,
being really worse equipped for his work after
having wasted time on another subject than he
was in the first place.
Several of the greatest teachers IN Harvard,
among them Professor Kittredge and Professor
Wendell, are not doctors Of philosophy. Yet
many smaller institutions deem the degree alb
solutely essential The Boston Transcript
quotes Dean Thomas, of Bryn Mawr, as saying
recently that she would have no man on her
faculty who not a doctor, which meant
that she could not find room, because Of red
tape and the desire to play to the galleries, for
the finest teacher in the country II he had not
happened to go through some doctor mill. In
pleasing contrast with such policy we recall
the views Of the head of one Of our best schools,
who has teachers with degrees from various IN
stitutions, but always strives to have in his
faculty one or two teachers who are not even
college graduates but who have original power
and natural aptitude for teaching. Thus. he
brings his students into contact with different
sorts Of minds puts emphasis on mcp, not on
labels, and avoids what Professor James calls
the mandarin disease" The symptoms Of that
disease are intellectual 6nobbIshness and caste
feeling sad 1t Is an enemy to real education
and breadth Of understanding.