University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1909-03-02
THE OLD PROFESSOR
THE old professor is going; if he

THE old professor is going; if ht
| will not 90, he is beirg sent. 4
fortnight ago, the regents of the
University of Minnesota ordained that
all contracts with members of the fac
ulty shall expire when teachers reach
their siNty-fifth birthday. Next June
it is said half-a-dOzen old gentlemen
will call the class roll for the last time.
unless they have before followed the
example of their president, DIR. North
rop, and sent in their designations.
What Minnesota has done others are
doubtless contemplating seriously. The
world is for youth, and youth is not for
elderly scholars who can no longer sense
the humOr of throwing chalk across the
lccturc-rOOm.
But will fixed age limit rid the
schools of senility: Set sixty-tive as
the dcadline, and the most obnoxious
of all old professors will continue to fill
chairs: We mean the kind that enters
op'ii Us uotos-C 0t tiiC VI HllN. tUt
premature fossil whose JOY in life is
dead. whose sympathy for ambition and
ideals has gone cold. or whose mind
sluggishly revOlves. like an airless sat
elite. around single idea. If the age
limit will not surely work. an cndur-
ance test might. Make every professor
over forty pass an examination in lee
turing. and funk" the man whose stu
dents fall asleep. Lead the faculty on
a long jslnt through contemporary af
fairs. and give a passing mark only to
those who are running strong at the
finish and have not stumbled at some
new thought hurdle. So long as one
has no prejudices against mere years.
this plan might do admirably
The very week when Minnesota Or
dered off its siXtyfive-year -Olds. the
French economist. statis-
tician. and administrator. Prof. Emile
LcvaSseur. was rounding off the forfeit h
year of his connection with the College
OF France. his fifty-fifth Year of teach
ing. and his eightieth year of life. Aca-
demic Paris. led by the Minister of
Public instruction. turned out to do
him honor; and nobody suggested that
VI. Levasseur might best show his grat
ltnde for this display of public appre-
ration by resigning. The French are
parsimoniOus: they believe
in getting all the profit they can out of
an investment. be it a cabbage patch or
a professor. They take especial pride
IN the venerable administrator of the
College of France. therefore: he is. as
the Temps says. the greenest. liveliest.
busiest old man ever seen. always ready
% 90 to distant congresses and never
overcome by the longest debates. the
richest banquets. or the dullest ad-
iresses. So long as he can hold the
pace, nobody is going to stop him. Two
lays before his anniversary. corre-
pOndent found him i'm bed debating
etters and articles to secretary. He
vas not i'll; oh. no. He never felt bet
er in his life. But there We're some
xtra lectures to be prepared for the
ollOwing week. and he wished to be
resh for the petite fete" on Sunday.
Age, after all, is a relative disability.
question more worth worry is the re-
iring of teachers who can no longer
each. Too little thought has been
rought to bear on the existence of s
our distinct species of old men and the +
our distinct problems they present.
here is the old man with failing BODY
nd failing mind; We need not tarry l
ong over him, for he usually retires 4
'lthout pressure. Then there is the old c