Page:Educational Review Volume 23.djvu/17

EDUCATIONAL REVIEW JANUARY, i 9 02 ACADEMIC FREEDOM In discussing the questions summed up in the phrase aca- demic freedom, it is necessary to make a distinction between the university proper and those teaching bodies, called by what- ever name, whose primary business is to inculcate a fixed set of ideas and facts. The former aims to discover and com- municate truth and to make its recipients better judges of truth and more effective in applying it to- the affairs of life. The latter have as their aim the perpetuation of a certain way of looking at things current among a given body of persons. Their purpose is to disciple rather than to discipline — not indeed at the expense of truth, but in such a way as to conserve what is already regarded as truth by some considerable body of per- sons. The problem of freedom of inquiry and instruction clearly assumes different forms in these two types of institu- tions. An ecclesiastical, political, or even economic corpora- tion holding certain tenets certainly has a right to support an institution to maintain and propagate its creed. It is a ques- tion not so much of freedom of thought as of ability to secure competent teachers willing to work under such conditions, to pay bills, and to have a constituency from which to draw Students. Xeedless to say, the line between these two types of institutions Is not so clear-cut in practice as it is in theory. Many institutions are in a state of transition. Historically, they are bound by ties to some particular body of beliefs, gen- erally to some denominational association. Nominally, they