Human Persons Sought.

New York Times 100 years ago today, October 17, 1912:
    As a shatterer of idols President Butler of Columbia prepared his speech, delivered yesterday at the dedication of the $3,000,000 State Education Building at Albany. Dr. Butler is fishing for men, not "educators." With men, he says, the world might get on without schools and colleges and universities.
    These institutions do not create education, although they sometimes make it difficult.
    And he adds:
    When one reflects upon the ravages which have been committed in the name of education, there is some excuse for wondering whether it would not be advantageous to agitate for compulsory illiteracy.
    The confessed furtherers of education have of late, Columbia's President fears, been bowing to the fetishes of "mechanical devices to measure it, to standardize it, and to see how it is getting on." These devices are crutches, and "when we grow skillful enough we shall get on without them." It is personality that counts:
    The most precious thing in the world is human personality. It is an end in itself; to watch it grow, to help it grow, and to take note of the results of its growth are a constant joy and delight. The putting forth of new power, the giving evidence of a capacity previously non-existent, and the growing responsibility for capable and wise self-direction are the tests of an education that is real, and not merely formal or mechanical.
    The universities are waking up. The air is vibrant with a new spirit. These institutions are realizing that they must lead their pupils into special fields, as Dr. Butler expresses it, by teachers of "high excellence and originality," teachers who can scorn the petty grind of educational machinery.