University Education in Public Administration
| Published date | 01 October 1926 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1926.tb02276.x |
| Author | I. G. Gibbon |
| Date | 01 October 1926 |
University Education in
Administration
The
Teaching
of
Pubic
Administra
By
I.
G.
GIBBON,
C.B.E.,
D.Sc.
Public
ion
Principal
Assl.
Secretary, Ministry
of
Health
PROPOSE
to submit some very dogmatic statements, with most
I'
I
undogmatic intentions, on
a
very controversial subject.
I
do
so
because there have been many papers before the conference, and it is
well, therefore, to be brief
;
and the principal object of the present paper
is
to stimulate discussion.
2.
In the first place, let me deal with two objections, disturbing to
some, to the teaching of public administration.
(I)
In this country we have not troubled our heads much about
the teaching of public administration. Yet we have achieved
an
administrative practice which is unsurpassed in the world, and,
of
large
countries, approached only by Germany. Therefore, why bother about
the teaching of public administration
?
The answer,
I
think, lies in the facts that the growing complexity of
modem
conditions
and
the increasing difficulty of modem problems
make
it
imperative
to
attain still higher reaches of administrative ability,
and that this can be achieved only through the further development of
sound technique.
(2)
We have to reckon with the undoubted fact, and it
is
well frankly
to face it, that many administrators of high ability shrug their shoulders
at
the notion of teaching public administration, believing apparently
that
administrators are
born,
not made, or, at any rate,
so
far
as
they are
made, are fashioned
only
in
the rough school
of
experience.
So
have men of ability
in
practically every profession and craft
believed
in
the past, in professions and crafts where it is now recognized
by
all
that teaching is required if the finished product is to be obtained.
Men
who get to the top by quality
of
work are usually of special
aptitude, and for this very reason may be inclined, until they thoroughly
consider
the
matter, to
an
inherent distrust of teaching-and this distrust
is
right, to this extent
at
any rate, that no measure of teaching is
a
sub-
stitute for special aptitude, but wrong in failing to realize that even special
aptitude can be made the richer by teaching, and still more wrong
in
not
recognizing that, at
a
moderate estimate,
80
per cent.
at
least of adminis-
tration has to be camed out by men of average or less than average
434
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