PROFESSOR MACLAURIN.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 98, 7 April 1911, Page 11

PROFESSOR MACLAURIN.

A NEW ZEALANDER IN AMERICA. SARCASM THAT HITS HOME. San Francisco. Feb. 23. ; Professor R. C. Maclaurin, who! is widely known in university circles throughout New Zealand, seems to have hit tne mark in a sarcastic article that he wrote to Science (New Y'ork) on the subject of educational research. He ridicules a recent publication of the Carnegie foundation, entitled "Efficiency Bulletin,” whose author is a Mr. Cooke, and whose object is to test research works by results produced. “The article is written,” says the critic from New Zealand, “from the point of view of tne man who is used to report on the efficiency of a glue factory or soap works.” Professor Maclaurin is on the faculty of one of America’s greatest educational institutions, the Massachuetts Institute of Technology. His writing carries a certain authority, and his manner hits the popular taste. He imagines Isaac Newton or Michael Faraday doing his world-famous scientific work under the superintendence of men

t who should demand “efficiency” at the rate of so much per hour and I demand instantaneous results. He says:— “Think for a moment of the effect of men like Newton or Faraday of the ‘snap-and-vigor’ treatment that Mr. Cooke suggests in his discussion of research. They must make frequent reports on the progress of their research and constantly justify the expenditure thereon. The superintendent of buildings and grounds or other i competent authority calls upon Mr. ' Newton. “Supt.—Your theory of gravita- | tion is hanging fire unduly. The di- ' rector insists on a finished report . filed in his office by 9 a.m. on Mon- [ day next; summarised on one ; page ; typewritten; with the main : points underlined. Also, a careful ; estimate of the cost per student • ■ hour. “Newton.—But there is one difficulty that has been puzzling me for fourteen years, and I am not quite . . . • “Supt. (with snap and vigor)— ■ Guess you had better overcome that difficulty by Monday or quit.” Professor Maclaurin argues that it is impossible to apply a mechani- ! cal measure to anything that is of vital importance to education. “We are not making shoes or bricks or cloth,” he says, “but are dealing with material of the utmost complexity and variety, with no

two specimens quite the same, and no two that need just the same treatment. Uniformity in the product is not only unattainable; it is not even desirable. And factory methods are entirely out of place. |lf we overlook the human factors /in our education, we are lost, and we cannot overlook the fact that, ( without such bulletins as this, there are already plenty of forces at work to give sufficient prominence to mechanical conceptions and mechanical conceptions and mechanical tests. Nor does it require any special effort in this country to stimulate admiration for the snap and vigor of the business administrator, while the value of snap in the domain of education may very easily be over-estimated.”