Academic freedom

“ Whatever others may think of Academic Freedom, he, for his part, takes it in its true sense: as a means by which he may learn to direct himself when outward precept leaves him, watch over himself when no one else watches over him, urge himself forward where there is no longer any outward impulse, and thus train and strengthen himself for his future high vocation. ”

“ Harmonious lesson given to youth by the first citizens of an academic democracy! Let us collect that lesson, peers from across America, perhaps it has the sense of a glorious omen, the virtue of being an appeal to the supreme struggle for freedom; it shows us the true character of academic authority, tyrannical and obstinate, that sees in each request a grievance and in every thought a seed of rebellion. ”

“ This is the soft under belly of our American way of life, and the sooner it is armor-plated by some sensible limitation the sooner will the future of this Nation be secured from fatal consequences. Two test questions, which imply limitation, come to mind at once when the matter of academic freedom is discussed. The first: is the matter being taught true or false? and the second: if it is false, and presented as such, may one prudently suppose that a good and not an evil end will eventuate from its exposition? The true and the good, then, are the natural limitations of freedom. ”

“ In the first place, the Students would be separated from other classes of the community pursuing other vocations, so that these classes might not be harassed or injured by the possible abuse of Academic Freedom, tempted to similar license or misled into hatred of the law while living under its rule by daily contact with a class free from its restraints. ”

“ They know that even while they listen to talk of academic freedom they see men annually relieved of their academic burdens for having dared to utter what they deemed to be the truth. These students know the colleges from which such instructors were dismissed. ”

“ It may confidently be asserted, without fear of contradiction from their side, that the official leaders in this province of academic research and indoctrination are, commonly, in no way hindered from pushing their researches with full freedom and to the limit of their capacity; and that they are likewise free to give the fullest expression to any conclusions or convictions to which their inquiries may carry them. ”

“ The nineteenth century brought more liberty; it was demanded by the enlarged scope of universities, which no longer were only the training schools for the learned professions, but became the home of research, needing freedom of movement. ”

“ Freedom and variety would, in our opinion, be best secured, if the universities were to take up the task; ... and, if the science of education is to make good the claims put forward in its behalf, it ought to be studied where other branches of mental and moral philosophy are fully handled by the ablest professors. ”

“ When young men come to an American college, I care not at all which college—to any American college from the parents' home or from school, they experience a tremendous access of freedom. Is it an injury? Is it a danger? Are you afraid of it? Has society a right to be afraid of it? What is freedom for? What does it do for us? Does it hurt us or help us? Do we grow in it, or do we shrink in it? That is quite an important question in the management of Harvard University. It is the important question in modern government. ”

“ The Students at these Universities would enjoy a high degree of freedom; instructions on Morality and Duty, and impressive pictures of a True Life, would indeed be laid before them; they would be surrounded by good examples, and their teachers would not only be profound Scholars, but the elite of the best men in the nation; of compulsory laws, however, there would be very few. Let them freely choose either good or evil: the time of study is but the time of trial ”

“ Is it safe in any country, or in any profession or pursuit, to educate a few, and leave the majority to the indirect influence of the culture thus bestowed? And is it philosophical, in this country, where there is a degree of personal and professional freedom such as is nowhere else enjoyed, to found a college or higher institution of learning upon the general and admitted ignorance of the people in the given department? or is it wiser, by elementary training and the universal diffusion of better ideas, to make the establishment of the college the necessity of the culture previously given? ”

“ Such pessimistic comment falls away from a college or university animated by such social spirit as I have sought here to indicate and advocate. Such a spirit will entail not a narrow, but a broad curriculum to answer the needs of an increasingly complex civilization, and a more liberal discipline with more guidance, and less repression, more freedom and an increased sense of responsibility, in order to fit for citizenship in an enlightened and self-disciplined democracy. ”

“ Yet on the sound principles concerning this question of education, and on the right understanding of them, depend not only the temporal and eternal happiness of the people, but also the future maintenance and freedom, nay, even the material prosperity, of the Republic.
In the discussion of the system of education it will no longer do to use vague, unmeaning expressions, or to advance some general puzzling principles to keep the public in the dark on this important point. It is high time that the public should be thoroughly enlightened on the subject of education. ”

“ Without the presence of universities, whose chief aim should be to cultivate the spirit of investigation and of open rebellion against conventional teaching-authority, the intellectual vigor of the entire nation is seriously impaired. Political freedom can never atone for the loss of intellectual liberty which should be faithfully guarded by the university. ”

“ But the essential conditions of freedom cannot be established through education; only the love of it, the understanding of it, and the power and will to use it for service can be gained from the most liberalizing of curricula. The possibility and the extension of freedom are the work of direct social and political reform. It is futile, meanwhile, to insist that liberal studies shall be all that schools shall offer. It is simple error to insist that a traditional range of studies—the classics, science, mathematics, even history, or English—provide the only possible culture for freedom. ”

“ In them we may discern the precedent for that state protection of the university which, however essential at one time for the security and freedom of the teacher and the taught, has been far from proving an unmixed benefit—the influence which the civil power has thus been able to exert being too often wielded for the suppression of that very liberty of thought and inquiry from which the earlier universities derived in no small measure their importance and their fame. ”

“ In some countries the complaint is heard that a certain faction has obtained control of the universities, and so exercises its control that those who are not of its bent of mind are excluded from both teaching and taking part in the administration of its affairs, despite the fact that freedom in teaching and learning has been guaranteed by the state. It is the faction that professes free-thought and cultivates the freedom of science in this sense. This condition forces students faithful [pg 365] to their religion to study in a strange atmosphere, and they are looked upon as strangers. ”

“ And to this diffusion and recognition of the claims of knowledge, to the scattering abroad of science amongst the people, what has more contributed than the foundation of our universities? Out of them go forth the distinguished men who guide the helm of the state with circumspection; out of them the teachers of the pulpit and the folks-schools,--to diffuse light and improvement throughout society.
CHAPTER II. GENERAL VIEW OF STUDENT-LIFE. The word freedom sounds so sweetly that we could not be without it, even did it indicate errors--Goethe's Leben Wahrheit und Dichtung. ”

“ If, then, we take up the question, what position social authority should take toward scientific teaching, whether it be in the higher schools, or outside of them, we are considering chiefly the state. It is the state that enters most into consideration when freedom in teaching nowadays is discussed; the state may interfere most effectively in the management of schools and universities, for these are state institutions in most countries. ”

“ Let us consider the task of universities. As established in the countries of central Europe, they are destined to foster science in the widest sense, and to educate the leading professions: to be the hearth for the sum total of mental endeavour, this is their vocation; hence all things that contain truth and have educational value should join hands here. To eliminate the science of the highest sphere of knowledge would be tantamount to a mutilation of the university. ”

“ To this I will reply that this limit is naturally determined by the teacher, his knowledge, his ability to manage the school; that this freedom cannot be prescribed; the measure of this freedom is only the result of the greater or lesser knowledge and talent of the teacher. This freedom is not a rule, but serves as a check in comparing schools between themselves, and as a check in comparing new methods which are introduced into the school curriculum. The school in which there is less compulsion is better than the one in which there is more. ”

“ The absolute freedom of opinion guaranteed to professors originally, and which constituted the principal reason for an educational institution apart from the University of Paris and its trammels, has proved a precious heritage to later generations. ”

“ Education ought to act against all this and in favor of a high code of honor, not simply the education of schools and academies, but that together with the education of home and family. Our great educational institutions ought to have an atmosphere of their own and impose traditions of their own, for the power which controls in the academic community is not the voice of438 authority but the voice of academic public opinion. ”

“ “Education is free. The freedom of education shall be enjoyed under the conditions provided by law, and under the supervision of the State.” ”

“ Freedom of Teaching is Necessary. Also in respect to method. Even the teacher in public and grammar schools, though minutely guided by the plan of instruction, must be granted, by the demands of pedagogy, a certain liberty; he should be free to arrange and to try many things. Only where individual spontaneity is given play will love for work be aroused, which in turn stimulates devotion to the cause and makes for success. This applies with even greater force to the college-professor, in respect to method, course of instruction, subject, and the results of his research. ”

“ Teaching must be viewed from a different point. Research is a personal function, whereas Teaching is a social one. This fact, of itself, makes it evident that teaching cannot be allowed the same measure of freedom as [pg 304] research, hence that teaching must be confined within narrower limits.
But Freedom is demanded not only for research, but also for teaching, in most cases even an unlimited freedom. It is demanded as an inalienable right of the individual, it is demanded in the name of progress, which can be promoted only by new knowledge. ”

“ By offering free tuition, the state university reaches many who would otherwise fail to enjoy higher training. It tends to equalize the conditions for rich and poor in the struggle for the survival of the fittest.
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The state university, as it develops and realizes its true function, must be thoroughly catholic in spirit, because it stands for humanity, truth, and progress. Nowhere is the professor or the scholar permitted to use such intellectual freedom as in the state university in Germany, and in the natural course of events the same freedom will be allowed in the United States. ”

“ Education cannot give these, but it may cherish them and bring them to the front in whatever station of society they are to be found; and the universities ought to be, and may be, the fortresses of the higher life of the nation. ”

“ It accounts for the tendency to isolate intellectual matters till knowledge is scholastic, academic, and professionally technical, and for the widespread conviction that liberal education is opposed to the requirements of an education which shall count in the vocations of life. ”

“ We must give full rein to individual talents, and we must encourage our schools to enforce the academic disciplines—to put preponderant emphasis on English, mathematics, history, literature, foreign languages and the natural sciences. ”

“ For education keeps the key of life, and a liberal education insures the first conditions of freedom, viz., adequate knowledge and accustomed thought. ”

“ Individual students cannot pursue all branches of learning, and must be allowed to select, under the guidance of those who are appointed to counsel them. Nor can able professors be governed by routine. Teachers and pupils must be allowed great freedom in their method of work. Recitations, lectures, examinations, laboratories, libraries, field exercises, travel, are all legitimate means of culture.
6. The best scholars will almost invariably be those who make special attainments on the foundation of a broad and liberal culture. ”

“ We are faced with the paradoxical fact that education has become one of the chief obstacles to intelligence and freedom of thought. ”

“ Daring adventurers may undertake them. The lecturer at college, too, will be readily pardoned for his eagerness to take up the cudgel in defence of what is new in his profane science: he may easily correct himself. But the Teacher of the Centuries and of the Nations, in the sphere of religion and morals, has not the right to experiment. Here, where mistakes may entail the direst consequences, the rule must be: slowly onward, to keep the whole from ruin. ”