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En Garde, whole no. 17, April 1946

Page 35

page 35. 

Blank had no other flaw, the existence of this attitude would constitute sufficient grounds to say that it was a failure.

The unscrupulousness, unethicality, and downright dishonesty on the part of many faculty members was appalling. Much of it, no doubt, was not discernable to the students at large, but I certainly saw and heard enough to rob the faculty as a whole of my respect. A noteworthy example is the professor of American history, who had written an extremely tedious, if scholarly, book entitled: JASON LEE: THE PROPHET OF THE NEW OREGON. (Jason Lee, for the benefit of the 64 members of FAPA who never heard of him, was a very minor colleague of Marcus Whitman and ??? Spaulding, two missionaries who were among the first white men to settle in the general area now included in eastern Washington and northern Idaho.) This professor had an advanced history class called, "The History of the Pacific Coast". The text for his course was, as you have probably guessed, JASON LEE: THE PROPHET OF THE NEW OREGON. What a cheap way to garner royalties! And what possible value could such a course have to someone who really wanted to get a general view of the history of the western United States? Who the hell was Jason Lee? I could also mention a faculty member who used university shops, workmen, and laboratories to develop certain machinery which he patented under his own name and which, when I last heard, was bringing him something like $12,000 per year in royalties. Nice, if you can get away with it. If I remembered all the instances of petty graft, chicanry, double-crosses and misleading deals with helpless students, misuse of state cars and other equipment of which I have heard; I could no doubt fill a hundred pages like this telling of them. Fortunately, I have forgotten much of this stuff.

I graduated with the class of 1935, receiving the degree of BS (Ed)---emphasis being placed on the first two letters. My four year scholastic average was 5.03 something, on a scale in which 6.000 was a straight A. A B average, in other words. As a thought-out procedure, I deliberately threw this education away. By sending five dollars to some state office or other I could have had a certificate showing that I was a qualified teacher of high school science. I didn't, and still don't, think that was worth 5[[cent symbol]], let alone $5.00. I no longer possess my University diploma---if I wished to prove I graduated I'd have to write to the registrar. I have never used the mention of this training on any job application.

Far from regretting this action, I regard it as one of the few truly intelligent planned actions of my life, a major turning point at which I said, in effect, "To hell with shams and hypocricy and stupidity. I shall lead a straight-forward life from now on, in which I shall never again yield to anything I consider to be wrong, but shall either conquer it, sidestep it, or go down fighting." I weighted my life up to that time, decided that it had been largely dross, and insofar as I could cast it from me.

The next installment will be more constructive. I have a number of ideas as to what our educational system should be, ideas which I believe you folks may enjoy picking apart and discussing. But before I could write them I had to get this other off my chest.

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page 35. Blank had no other flaw, the existence of this attitude would constitute sufficient grounds to say that it was a failure. The unscrupulousness, unethicality, and downright dishonesty on the part of many faculty members was appalling. Much of it, no doubt, was not discernable to the students at large, but I certainly saw and heard enough to rob the faculty as a whole of my respect. A noteworthy example is the professor of American history, who had written an extremely tedious, if scholarly, book entitled: JASON LEE: THE PROPHET OF THE NEW OREGON. (Jason Lee, for the benefit of the 64 members of FAPA who never heard of him, was a very minor colleague of Marcus Whitman and ??? Spaulding, two missionaries who were among the first white men to settle in the general area now included in eastern Washington and northern Idaho.) This professor had an advanced history class called, "The History of the Pacific Coast". The text for his course was, as you have probably guessed, JASON LEE: THE PROPHET OF THE NEW OREGON. What a cheap way to garner royalties! And what possible value could such a course have to someone who really wanted to get a general view of the history of the western United States? Who the hell was Jason Lee? I could also mention a faculty member who used university shops, workmen, and laboratories to develop certain machinery which he patented under his own name and which, when I last heard, was bringing him something like $12,000 per year in royalties. Nice, if you can get away with it. If I remembered all the instances of petty graft, chicanry, double-crosses and misleading deals with helpless students, misuse of state cars and other equipment of which I have heard; I could no doubt fill a hundred pages like this telling of them. Fortunately, I have forgotten much of this stuff. I graduated with the class of 1935, receiving the degree of BS (Ed)---emphasis being placed on the first two letters. My four year scholastic average was 5.03 something, on a scale in which 6.000 was a straight A. A B average, in other words. As a thought-out procedure, I deliberately threw this education away. By sending five dollars to some state office or other I could have had a certificate showing that I was a qualified teacher of high school science. I didn't, and still don't, think that was worth 5[[cent symbol]], let alone $5.00. I no longer possess my University diploma---if I wished to prove I graduated I'd have to write to the registrar. I have never used the mention of this training on any job application. Far from regretting this action, I regard it as one of the few truly intelligent planned actions of my life, a major turning point at which I said, in effect, "To hell with shams and hypocricy and stupidity. I shall lead a straight-forward life from now on, in which I shall never again yield to anything I consider to be wrong, but shall either conquer it, sidestep it, or go down fighting." I weighted my life up to that time, decided that it had been largely dross, and insofar as I could cast it from me. The next installment will be more constructive. I have a number of ideas as to what our educational system should be, ideas which I believe you folks may enjoy picking apart and discussing. But before I could write them I had to get this other off my chest.