The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-04-04
THE woRsHIP oF DFcREEs,

fish worship of academic distinction 1 among scholars and among the schools \ that employ scholars to teach.
 | The heart of the folly is in those schools and colleges which advertise ! their intellectual wares to the public, | like soap or historical novels, in the l brazen mercantile fashion of our com l mercial age. These schools announce as a special inducement to the "con- sumer' that all their teachers hold the degree of doctor of philosophy or it's | equivalent. If the trustees and mana 1 gers of such schools believe that de- | gree marks man as a good teacher, they are ignorant. If they know better, they are guilty of deceit; for they trick the public by parading the titles of their | faculties. "The dazzled reader of the list,' writes Professor James, "the pa rent, or the student, says to himself: This must be terribly distinguished crowd their titles shine like stars in the Armament; Ph. D.'s, S. D.'s, and Lit. D's bespangle the page as if they were sprinkled over it with pepper castor"
 Professor James (who, it is amusing to note, has more kinds of degrees than any other man in the Harvard faculty M. D., Ph. D., Lit. D., and LL.D.) demolishes all false ideas of the value of the doctorate.
 The degree of, Ph. D. is given to men for special scholarly research in mar row field and a rather general ac- quaintance with the larger subjects in which they study. The degree is giv- en in any subiect-English, classics, Romance philology, chemistry, physics, history, and so on-and indicates noth- ing about the kind of subject the hold CT of the degree is interested in. The thesis may be on the classification of potato-bugs or on the use of the abla- tive case in Horace. The doctors de- gree is a certificate that man has done three or four years of work after taking his bachelors degree, and the quality of the work depends on the standard of the university that gives the degree, and also on the standard of the department in the university under which the young doctors subject is found.
 Scholarship is admirable, and should be encouraged and honored, and for this the degree exists. But scholarship, especially the narrow kind of scholar ship which in some subjects and in some institutions entities man to a degree, does not mean efficiency in teaching, or in anything, except, per- haps original research. The man who does not have the degree may be more learned, more manly, more original, and more fitted to teach than the man who does have 1t.
 So far as the faculty of school makes it a good institution. the merit of the school depends on the merit of the teachers as teachers. A good teacher is not necessarily a man with a Ph. D. hitched to his name. Experi- ence, natural ability, adequate knowl- edge of the subject he is to teach make the good teacher, and the way for the trustees of a school to deter mine the merits of man who applies l for position is to investigate his ca- reer, to attend to the recommendations of instructors with whom and under whom he has worked. There is no more relation between a doctors de- gree and a good teacher than there is between a degree from an institute of technology and good bridge builder. In both cases the degree is only par tiaI recommendation for man begin ming his career.
 The sham of a degree, that is, the sham of exploiting it as a guarantee of ability, is shown in a case which Pro- lessor James cites. A man of brilliant attachments started to teach in one of these schools that advertise, "No teach CTS here who are not doctors" The man had studied philosophy at Har- ward, but had not come up for his doc tors degree. On the strength of some years experience in literary work and glowing recommendations, he was giv- en position as teacher of literature in this school. The management discov- cred that he was not doctor, and re- voked his appointment. Finally, con- vinced by urgent recommendations from his former associates and teach CTS, the faculty kept him provisionally, while he went back to Harvard and took his degree. This. cost him a year of labor, and his thesis was in meta physics, which had nothing to do with his work as a teacher of literature. Meanwhile he lost experience and study in the subject he was to teach.
 We should like to add in support of Professor James, attack on the doctor monopoly" two cases which have come to our notice. A young man recently back from a German university with a degree in Sanscrit was offered a posi- tion as teacher of French. He knew nothing of French beyond a fair read ing knowledge, but he was-save the mark!-a doctor of philosophy. Presi- dent Thomas, of Bryn Mawr said not long ago to a teacher of English at Harvard that she would have no man on the faculty who was not doctor. His reply should have been a cure for the degree plague which has smitten this otherwise excellent and indepen- dent school He pointed out that she would exclude Professor Kittredge, of Harvard, one of the greatest scholars in the world, who is sort of War wick, making doctors of philosophy. but is not doctor of philosophy himself, and Professor Wendell, who has had more good influence on the teaching of English composition than any one else in America, and Professor Lewis Gates, 8 noteworthy modern critic, and MT. c.