As further evidence of the close relation between the educational
system and the cultural standards of the community, it may be
remarked that there is some tendency latterly to substitute the
captain of industry in place of the priest, as the head of
seminaries of the higher learning. The substitution is by no
means complete or unequivocal. Those heads of institutions are
best accepted who combine the sacerdotal office with a high
degree of pecuniary efficiency. There is a similar but less
pronounced tendency to intrust the work of instruction in the
higher learning to men of some pecuniary qualification.
Administrative ability and skill in advertising the enterprise
count for rather more than they once did, as qualifications for
the work of teaching. This applies especially in those sciences
that have most to do with the everyday facts of life, and it is
particularly true of schools in the economically single-minded
communities. This partial substitution of pecuniary for
sacerdotal efficiency is a concomitant of the modern transition
from conspicuous leisure to conspicuous consumption, as the chief
means of reputability. The correlation of the two facts is
probably clear without further elaboration.
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