Albany College of Pharmacy - Alembic Yearbook (Albany, NY)

Page 17 text:

Now, in our educational affairs and in the regulation of the professions two dangers threaten us: too much control by the state, whose right to control is conceded, and too much interference by voluntary associations and endowed corporations possessing no right of control whatever and hav- ing no jurisdiction at all. State control, and reference is made more par- ticularly to New York State and to professional schools, begins with the registration of the schools based upon inspection. The results are often misleading, because the foot-rule, inventory, and time-table method of appraisal cannot properly be applied to such institutions. Size and value of buildings and equipment; amount of invested funds; number of books in libraries.; number of teachers and salaries paid,— such measurements as these give little indication of the work done by an institution. “ The price of wisdom is above rubies,” and material things cannot impart knowledge. Mere piles of brick and mortar arc nothing; books are of no value unless used, and material magnificence of equipment may hinder rather than pro- mote scholarship. And yet we arc very apt to gauge the worth and work of a school by these material measurements. Such a method is radically wrong and needs amendment, but the unwarranted interference of the Carnegie Foundation in “our educational affairs has done much to fasten this vicious system upon us. And, as concerns the students, state control begins with their entrance to the professional school, establishing a preliminary education requirement, prescribing the length of the course, and the character of the instruction, and requiring the possession of certain credentials from some listed insti- tution prior to admission to a final and licensing examination. Thus is use provided, not for reels nor spools, but for bales of red tape, and thus are places created for inspectors, examiners, clerks and heads of depart- ments in ever increasing numbers. To what end! — we may well pause occa- sionally to inquire. Students are sometimes held back for a year because they fail to dot their i’s or cross their t’s to the satisfaction of some fussy examiner. A few years ago, when the writer was registrar of a medical school, one of lyis most brilliant pupils was held back, and all but driven from the state to complete his education because, being a foreigner and as such required lo pass an examination in second year English to obtain his medi- cal student certificate, his paper did not suit the examiner. He spoke, good English, and wrote it properly and like an educated man, but not like a native, and it wasn't good enough for the examiner. He will, in all proba- bility, be a distinguished man while those who placed such obstacles in his way are still slaving away at their thankless tasks. The fact should be better 18

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 Examining mh Eimtning The various professions and other occupations are rapidly coming under state control. Not many years ago in this state any person might keep a drug-store, there was no licensing of pharmacists, and attendance upon colleges of pharmacy was entirely volitional, for their diplomas con- ferred no special privileges and were not essential to the securing of a license to practice. But all this is changed and the would-be pharmacist nowadays must pass not only such preliminary examinations as are neces- sary to obtain his entrance certificate, and the various examinations of the school as well, but also a state board examination in order to obtain the license which permits him to do business as a pharmacist. And so it is all along the line, from the ash gatherer and tlie, milkman to the trained nurse, druggist and doctor, and finally to the undertaker who disposes of us after all examinations, inspections and licensings are passed, all these ministers to our various wants and daily necessities are controlled by that impersonal fiction that we call the state. And this supervision of the people by the people, and, presumably, for the people’s good, has necessitated the creation of bureaus, boards and departments innumerable, with a vast horde of employees of many grades and varying dignities, the whole making up a great bureaucracy, patterned after those existing in many foreign coun- tries, but unknown in this land of the free until a comparatively recent date. Now to many people, and indeed to most people at first sight, it seems that al! this state supervision must be of advantage to the public, and that it marks a distinct advance in our civil affairs. The regulation of trades and professions, we are told, is in the public interest, and fixation, rigid classification and standardization of the different occupations results in increased efficiency and greater economy in operation. No doubt there is some truth in this, hut, in the institution of reform measures, we are prone to go to extremes, and the worth of our methods should be judged by their results, and our mistakes corrected in the light of experience. Tf mistaken methods are allowed to harden into a rigid formalism the gravest abuses may result. Intelligent criticism, and proper protest against real evils and threatening dangers in our governmental policies, are always in order and are often effectual. 17 l

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recognized than il is that the examination system is a very imperfect one for determining proficiency and serviceahleness, and that it should be em- ployed. not mechanically, mathematically and arbitrarily, but intelligently, judiciously and judicially. Il is absurd to allege that a man’s fitness to practice pharmacy or medicine should be determined by an arithmetical differentiation between 74.9 and 75.0. And yet such distinctions may take a year of useful service out of a man's life. Plato and Socrates are held to have been great teachers, but they probably would not Ire admitted to an examination for a teacher’s license in our public schools to-day, and cer- tainly the “ academies ” of the greatest teachers the world has known would not be registered under our present laws. It may he said that the ends attained justify the means employed, but some of us who have been engaged in teaching many years do not feel very sure that this is the case. Latter-day methods place too much emphasis upon size and wealth, and encourage the larger, but discourage the smaller, institutions and make it harder for the poor «nan, or even the man of moderate means, to enter the professions. Tt needs no marshalling of sta- tistics to show that the richest of our F.astern schools and universities are, to the student, the most expensive, and as the smaller institutions are dis- credited and crowded out the poor man’s chances are diminished. This is often denied, but every' teacher knows that it is true. Exceptions there arc to all rules, and opportunities exist here and there for men of excep- tional ability, though poor, to secure an education and entrance to the professions, but for the average man the chances arc rapidly diminishing. A few weeks ago the writer was discussing professional education with two lawyers and a relative of one, who was a university teacher, and one of the lawyers said to the other. “ Why, judge, if the requirements when you and T studied law had Been what they arc now neither you nor I would be in the profession,” and the statement was agreed to by the gentleman addressed. And if it be said that, in the various professions, the average ability of the members is greater, and their fitness to render useful service is superior by reason of their better supervised and regulated training, and that the moral tone of the rank and file has been elevated by our examining, registering and licensing methods, there are many educators whose memory is long enough to go back three or four decades who would be unwilling to assent to such a view. The time is coming when some of these matters will be re-examined, and the advisability of restricting indivdual liberty in many directions in which it is now controlled by legislative enactments, will he called into question. W. G. T. 19