第 10 节
作者:
冬儿 更新:2022-04-05 13:37 字数:9322
il in some later year the students call for his lectures。 There are men at Oxford who have rested their brains this way for over thirty years: the accumulated brain power thus dammed up is said to be colossal。
I understand that the key to this mystery is found in the operations of the person called the tutor。 It is from him; or rather with him; that the students learn all that they know: one and all are agreed on that。 Yet it is a little odd to know just how he does it。 〃We go over to his rooms;〃 said one student; 〃and he just lights a pipe and talks to us。〃 〃We sit round with him;〃 said another; 〃and he simply smokes and goes over our exercises with us。〃 From this and other evidence I gather that what an Oxford tutor does is to get a little group of students together and smoke at them。 Men who have been systematically smoked at for four years turn into ripe scholars。 If anybody doubts this; let him go to Oxford and he can see the thing actually in operation。 A well…smoked man speaks; and writes English with a grace that can be acquired in no other way。
In what was said above; I seem to have been directing criticism against the Oxford professors as such: but I have no intention of doing so。 For the Oxford professor and his whole manner of being I have nothing but a profound respect。 There is indeed the greatest difference between the modern up…to…date American idea of a professor and the English type。 But even with us in older days; in the bygone time when such people as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow were professors; one found the English idea; a professor was supposed to be a venerable kind of person; with snow…white whiskers reaching to his stomach。 He was expected to moon around the campus oblivious of the world around him。 If you nodded to him he failed to see you。 Of money he knew nothing; of business; far less。 He was; as his trustees were proud to say of him; 〃a child。〃
On the other hand he contained within him a reservoir of learning of such depth as to be practically bottomless。 None of this learning was supposed to be of any material or commercial benefit to anybody。 Its use was in saving the soul and enlarging the mind。
At the head of such a group of professors was one whose beard was even whiter and longer; whose absence of mind was even still greater; and whose knowledge of money; business; and practical affairs was below zero。 Him they made the president。
All this is changed in America。 A university professor is now a busy; hustling person; approximating as closely to a business man as he can do it。 It is on the business man that he models himself。 He has a little place that he calls his 〃office;〃 with a typewriter machine and a stenographer。 Here he sits and dictates letters; beginning after the best business models; 〃in re yours of the eighth ult。; would say; etc。; etc。〃 He writes these letters to students; to his fellow professors; to the president; indeed to any people who will let him write to them。 The number of letters that he writes each month is duly counted and set to his credit。 If he writes enough he will get a reputation as an 〃executive;〃 and big things may happen to him。 He may even be asked to step out of the college and take a post as an 〃executive〃 in a soap company or an advertising firm。 The man; in short; is a 〃hustler;〃 an 〃advertiser〃 whose highest aim is to be a 〃live…wire。〃 If he is not; he will presently be dismissed; or; to use the business term; be 〃let go;〃 by a board of trustees who are themselves hustlers and live…wires。 As to the professor's soul; he no longer needs to think of it as it has been handed over along with all the others to a Board of Censors。
The American professor deals with his students according to his lights。 It is his business to chase them along over a prescribed ground at a prescribed pace like a flock of sheep。 They all go humping together over the hurdles with the professor chasing them with a set of 〃tests〃 and 〃recitations;〃 〃marks〃 and 〃attendances;〃 the whole apparatus obviously copied from the time…clock of the business man's factory。 This process is what is called 〃showing results。〃 The pace set is necessarily that of the slowest; and thus results in what I have heard Mr。 Edward Beatty describe as the 〃convoy system of education。〃
In my own opinion; reached after fifty…two years of profound reflection; this system contains in itself the seeds of destruction。 It puts a premium on dulness and a penalty on genius。 It circumscribes that latitude of mind which is the real spirit of learning。 If we persist in it we shall presently find that true learning will fly away from our universities and will take rest wherever some individual and enquiring mind can mark out its path for itself。
Now the principal reason why I am led to admire Oxford is that the place is little touched as yet by the measuring of 〃results;〃 and by this passion for visible and provable 〃efficiency。〃 The whole system at Oxford is such as to put a premium on genius and to let mediocrity and dulness go their way。 On the dull student Oxford; after a proper lapse of time; confers a degree which means nothing more than that he lived and breathed at Oxford and kept out of jail。 This for many students is as much as society can expect。 But for the gifted students Oxford offers great opportunities。 There is no question of his hanging back till the last sheep has jumped over the fence。 He need wait for no one。 He may move forward as fast as he likes; following the bent of his genius。 If he has in him any ability beyond that of the common herd; his tutor; interested in his studies; will smoke at him until he kindles him into a flame。 For the tutor's soul is not harassed by herding dull students; with dismissal hanging by a thread over his head in the class room。 The American professor has no time to be interested in a clever student。 He has time to be interested in his 〃deportment;〃 his letter…writing; his executive work; and his organising ability and his hope of promotion to a soap factory。 But with that his mind is exhausted。 The student of genius merely means to him a student who gives no trouble; who passes all his 〃tests;〃 and is present at all his 〃recitations。〃 Such a student also; if he can be trained to be a hustler and an advertiser; will undoubtedly 〃make good。〃 But beyond that the professor does not think of him。 The everlasting principle of equality has inserted itself in a place where it has no right to be; and where inequality is the breath of life。
American or Canadian college trustees would be horrified at the notion of professors who apparently do no work; give few or no lectures and draw their pay merely for existing。 Yet these are really the only kind of professors worth having;I mean; men who can be trusted with a vague general mission in life; with a salary guaranteed at least till their death; and a sphere of duties entrusted solely to their own consciences and the promptings of their own desires。 Such men are rare; but a single one of them; when found; is worth ten 〃executives〃 and a dozen 〃organisers。〃
The excellence of Oxford; then; as I see it; lies in the peculiar vagueness of the organisation of its work。 It starts from the assumption that the professor is a really learned man whose sole interest lies in his own sphere: and that a student; or at least the only student with whom the university cares to reckon seriously; is a young man who desires to know。 This is an ancient mediaeval attitude long since buried in more up…to…date places under successive strata of compulsory education; state teaching; the democratisation of knowledge and the substitution of the shadow for the substance; and the casket for the gem。 No doubt; in newer places the thing has got to be so。 Higher education in America flourishes chiefly as a qualification for entrance into a money…making profession; and not as a thing in itself。 But in Oxford one can still see the surviving outline of a nobler type of structure and a higher inspiration。
I do not mean to say; however; that my judgment of Oxford is one undiluted stream of praise。 In one respect at least I think that Oxford has fallen away from the high ideals of the Middle Ages。 I refer to the fact that it admits women students to its studies。 In the Middle Ages women were regarded with a peculiar chivalry long since lost。 It was taken for granted that their brains were too delicately poised to allow them to learn anything。 It was presumed that their minds were so exquisitely hung that intellectual effort might disturb them。 The present age has gone to the other extreme: and this is seen nowhere more than in the crowding of women into colleges originally designed for men。 Oxford; I regret to find; has not stood out against this change。
To a profound scholar like myself; the presence of these young women; many of them most attractive; flittering up and down the streets of Oxford in their caps and gowns; is very distressing。
Who is to blame for this and how they first got in I do not know。 But I understand that they first of all built a private college of their own close to Oxford; and then edged themselves in foot by foot。 If this is so they only followed up the precedent of the recognised method in use in America。 When an Ame