第 64 节
作者:青涩春天      更新:2021-02-27 02:38      字数:9320
  scale; inasmuch as it is altogether a matter of course and of
  common notoriety within the precincts; that this is precisely
  what these constituent schools and units now have to do; each and
  several; with the sole qualification that they now have to take
  care of these matters under the inhibitory surveillance of the
  executive and his extraneous interests; and under the exactions
  of a super…imposed scheme of mechanical standardization and
  accountancy that accounts for nothing but its superimposition。 At
  the same time the working force of the staff is hampered with a
  load of dead timber imported into its body to administer a
  routine of control and accountancy exacted by the executive's
  need of a creditable publicity (15*)
  This highly conjectural tracing of consequences to follow
  from this hypothetical dissolution of the trust; may as well be
  pursued into a point or two of detail; as touches those units of
  the university coalition that have an immediate interest in point
  of scholarship;  the Collegiate (〃Arts〃) division and the
  Graduate School。 The former being left to its own devices and; it
  might be hoped; being purified of executive megalomania; it
  should seem probable that something of a reversion would take
  effect; in the direction of that simpler scheme of scholarship
  that prevailed in the days before the coming of electives。 It was
  in the introduction of electives; and presently of alternatives
  and highly flexible curricula; that the move first set in which
  carried the American college off its footing as a school of
  probation and introduction to the scholarly life; and has left it
  a job…lot of ostensibly conclusive short…cuts into the trades and
  professions。 It need not follow that the ancient curriculum would
  be re…established; but it should seem reasonable that a move
  would take effect in the direction of something like a modern
  equivalent。 The Graduate School; on the other hand; having lost
  the drag of the collegiate division and the vocational schools;
  should come into action as a shelter where the surviving remnant
  of scholars and scientists might pursue their several lines of
  adventure; in teaching and in inquiry; without disturbance to or
  from the worldly…wise who clamour for the greater glory。
  Now; all this speculation as to what might happen has; of
  course; little else than a speculative value。 It is not intended;
  seriously and as a practical measure; to propose the abolition of
  the president's office; or of the governing board; nor is it
  intended to intimate that the captain of erudition can be
  dispensed with in fact。 He is too dear to the commercialized
  popular imagination; and he fits too convincingly into the
  businessmen's preconceived scheme of things; to permit any such
  sanguine hope of surcease from skilled malpractice and
  malversation。 All that is here intended to he said is nothing
  more than the obiter dictum that; as seen from the point of view
  of the higher learning; the academic executive and all his works
  are anathema; and should be discontinued by the simple expedient
  of wiping him off the slate; and that the governing board; in so
  far as it presumes to exercise any other than vacantly
  perfunctory duties; has the same value and should with advantage
  be lost in the same shuffle。
  NOTES:
  1。 〃He has stifled all manly independence and individuality
  wherever it has exhibited itself at college。 All noble idealism;
  and all the graces of poetry and art have been shrivelled by his
  brutal and triumphant power。 He has made mechanical efficiency
  and administrative routine the goal of the university's
  endeavour。 The nobler ends of academic life will never be served
  so long as this spokesman of materialism remains in power。〃
  History will relate that one of the eminent captains; through
  an incumbency of more than a quarter of a century; in a
  university of eminent wealth and volume; has followed a settled
  policy of defeating any overt move looking to scientific or
  scholarly inquiry on the part of any member of his faculty。
  Should a man of scholarly proclivities by any chance sift through
  the censorship exercised in virtue of the executive's appointing
  power; as might happen; since the captain was himself not
  qualified to pass a grounded opinion on any man's qualifications
  in that respect; and should he then give evidence of continuing
  to spend time and thought on matters of that nature; his burden
  of administrative and class…room tasks would presently be
  increased sufficiently to subdue his wayward bent; or; in an
  incorrigible case; the offender against the rule of academic
  sterility would eventually be retired by severance of his
  connection with this seat of learning。
  In some sinister sense the case reflects credit on the
  American academic community at large; in that; by the close of
  this quarter…century of preventive regimen; the resulting
  academic staff had become a byword of nugatory intrigue and
  vacant pedantry。
  2。 So far has this predilection made its way in the counsels of
  the 〃educators〃 that much of the current discussion of
  desideranda in academic policy reads like controversial argument
  on 〃efficiency engineering;〃  an 〃efficiency engineer〃 is an
  accountant competent to advise business concerns how best to
  increase their saleable output per unit of cost。 And there has;
  indeed; been at least one tour of inspection of American
  universities by such an 〃efficiency engineer;〃 undertaken in the
  service of an establishment founded with a view to academic
  welfare and governed by a board of university presidents。 The
  report submitted by the inquiry in question duly conforms to the
  customary lines of 〃scientific management。〃
  3。 〃Education is the one kind of human enterprise that can not be
  brought under the action of the economic law of supply and
  demand。 It can not be conducted on 'business principles。' There
  is no 'demand' for education in the economic sense。。。。 Society is
  the only interest that can be said to demand it; and society must
  supply its own demand。 Those who found educational institutions
  or promote educational enterprise put themselves in the place of
  society and assume to speak and act for society; not for any
  economic interest。〃  Lester F。 Ward; Pure Sociology; p。 575。
  4。 Indeed; the resemblance is visible。 As among professional
  politicians; so also as regards incumbents and aspirants for
  academic office; it is not at all unusual; nor does it cause
  surprise; to find such persons visibly affected with those
  characteristic pathological marks that come of what is
  conventionally called 〃high living〃  late hours; unseasonable
  vigils; surfeit of victuals and drink; the fatigue of sedentary
  ennui。 A flabby habit of body; hypertrophy of the abdomen;
  varicose veins; particularly of the facial tissues; a blear eye
  and a colouration suggestive of bile and apoplexy;  when this
  unwholesome bulk is duly wrapped in a conventionally decorous
  costume it is accepted rather as a mark of weight and
  responsibility; and so serves to distinguish the pillars of
  urbane society。 Nor should it be imagined that these grave men of
  affairs and discretion are in any peculiar degree prone to
  excesses of the table or to nerve…shattering bouts of
  dissipation。 The exigencies of publicity; however; are; by
  current use and wont; such as to enjoin not indulgence in such
  excursions of sensual perversity; so much as a gentlemanly
  conformity to a large routine of conspicuous convivialities。
  〃Indulgence〃 in ostensibly gluttonous bouts of this kind
  banquets; dinners; etc。  is not so much a matter of taste as of
  astute publicity; designed to keep the celebrants in repute among
  a laity whose simplest and most assured award of esteem proceeds
  on evidence of wasteful ability to pay。 But the pathological
  consequences; physical and otherwise; are of much the same nature
  in either case。
  5。 See pp。 68…73; 79…81; above。
  6。 As bearing on this 〃hired…man's loyalty〃 of the academic staff
  and the means of maintaining it; see; e。g。; a paper by George
  Cram Cook in the Forum for October; 1913; on 〃The Third American
  Sex;〃 especially pp。 450…455。
  7。 Unfortunately; the language wants a competent designation for
  public…minded personages of this class; which comprises something
  appreciably more than the homiletical university executives