Character and the College Teacher
I RECENTLY asked a knowledgeable college president, "What do you consider the single most important factor in the success of a teacher?" Without hesitation he replied, "The man's character." I was astonished, since I was sure he would say, "The excellence of his scholarship." In a subsequent conversation, another president said that strengthening the character of his teachers concerned him increasingly. Dean Trabue, of the College of Education of Pennsylvania State University, summarized a study of this general subject by saying that "the answer given by hundreds of college executives consulted is that certain scholarly traits are important, but that there are many other personal and non-academic characteristics which are even more important." Ranking high in responses to his inquiry were such characterizations as "emotionally stable and mature," "behavior that reflects high ideals," "genial personality and sense of humor."'1 As I write this, I am mindful also of the confirming testimony of another responsible scholar: "The one change I have noticed on college campuses, with few exceptions, since World War II is the virtual abdication by many if not most faculty members of their nonacademic responsibility toward undergraduates."2 I am curious to know what testimony of this kind means in operational terms. Thus I propose (i) to make it clear that the idea of character is at its best a comprehensive one, since character and intellect are close to being synonymous; (2) to elaborate on the relation of scholarship to character; (3) to stress the fact that the student is more in need of character reinforcement today than ever before; (4) to suggest some of the ways in which character and good teaching are related; and (5) to inquire how we may select teachers who possess character. The word character as used here signifies integrity in one's adherence to some generally accepted and desirable body of standards of sound