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audience that clarifies its social vision and inspires it with a sense of social duty. The influence of these creations spreads throughout the world wherever circumstances and human capacity beget a craving "for such inspiration.

BOOK VII

THE CONFLICT OF INTERESTS IN
IN EDUCA-

TIONAL

RELATIONS

CHAPTER XXIII

T

THE CONFLICT OF INTERESTS IN ACADEMIC

RELATIONS

HE adjustment of the conflicting interests that have been described in the preceding chapters involves a search for

ideas that shall function for adjustment. To train for this truth seeking is the function of the liberal college. But the college itself shows a conflict of interests that interferes with its proper functioning. This is due, in the last analysis, to the different dispositions and degrees of mentality of the teachers. The behaviour of many teachers is largely determined by their local and face-to-face relations. They are absorbed in the social life of the place, its sociability, petty rivalry, and attitudes of authority and subordination. They have little or no mental initiative, emphasize the traditional aspects of their subjects and rely on the time-honoured authorities. In college administration, likewise, they emphasize "the way we always have done here." But there are many teachers of larger mentality, of two types, first, those of a strong rivalrous disposition who use their branch of learning to advance themselves, and, second, those of a pronounced intellectual disposition who resist the influence of both the other groups. The rivalrous type seeks to gain a reputation outside, by lecturing and writing, in order thus to enjoy a superior position within. The sociable, conforming type, when changes must be made, inclines to the leadership of the rivalrous rather than the intellectual type because the changes initiated by the former are less out of line with prevailing ways of doing than those suggested by the latter, for they are so planned as to enlist support and gain for the leaders the influence that satisfies the rivalrous disposition, not to meet ideal requirements. The administration is in many, perhaps most cases inclined to favour the conforming and rivalrous types rather than the intellectual.

The essential conflict in academic relations is, therefore, between types of leadership of unusual mentality, which carries them beyond absorption in their local and face-to-face relations. The conflict is

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