78 Reviews fullest account to date of the founding of the women's medical colleges at Kingston and Toronto in 1883 and of their subsequent development to 1895 when they were merged at Toronto as the Ontario Medical College for Women and to 1905 when the College was dissolved following the decision of the University of Toronto to admit women on the same basis as men to its Faculty of Medicine. Attention is also paid in other chapters to the problems faced by women in gaining admission to other Canadian medical schools, particularly Dalhousie, Manitoba and McGill; but the treatment is neither detailed nor systematic. The question of why Université Laval did not grant a medical degree to a woman until 1940 is not, for example, explored. R.S. Harris Lyon, B., The First 60 Years, A History of Waterloo Lutheran University from 1911 to 1971, Waterloo, Ontario: Reeve Bean Ltd., printer 1971, pp. 70. This, the first history of Waterloo Lutheran University, is a modest but valuable beginning. The reports it contains on each decade in Waterloo Lutheran's development are concise and are supplemented by interesting selections of photographs of particular events in each period. The author of this volume, Barry Lyon, Director of Publications for the University, is to be commended for his initiative. His approach could be followed with much benefit by interested individuals in other Canadian universities and colleges which lack adequate histories of their development. Institutions of higher education need a variety of means for conveying information on their historical development. Obviously comprehensive carefully researched institutional histories are essential. An important role is to be played also by reviews of the type Lyon has produced. D. McC. Smyth Ross, A.M., The College on the Hill, A Brief History of the Ontario Agricultural College, 1874 -1974, Toronto: Copp Clark, 1974, pp. 180. The author of this the first history of the Ontario Agricultural College describes himself in his preface as an amateur historian. Would that we had many more like him! He has provided a most interesting chronological report of the growth and development, the trials and the triumphs of OAC, its federation with the Ontario Veterinary College and Macdonald Institute, and the emergence of that federation in the mid 1960's as the University of Guelph. The aspirations and sentiments of the founders, early members and supporters of the College and their successors have been graphically portrayed by the author. He discusses the complex problems the college had to overcome as it struggled to meet Ontario's need for advanced agricultural education as its technological capabilities were transformed. On the one hand there was the problem of convincing farmers that their sons needed much 79 Reviews more comprehensive education than they had had, if their success was to be matched in succeeding generations. There was also the major problem of ensuring that politicians learned that if the advanced studies offered by the College were to be successful it had to be removed from the political arena. This volume should be read not only by members of the University of Guelph and its forerunners. It should be read with care by all who wish to know more of how academic institutions have fared under direct oversight by the state. Those who argue that there is no longer any need for lay boards, to function as buffers between academic communities and the state, would do well to consider their position in the light of what is recorded in this volume. Alexander Ross notes that any government controlled educational institution faces a major problem. Its search for truth "cannot be contingent upon a political party's opinion of what truth is." The problem is how to ensure that in our increasingly politicized world that politicians outside the university and those who are able to exert decisive influence on its internal life recognize this cardinal principle and act in accordance with it. D. McC. Smyth Sheffield, E. F., ed., Teaching in the Universities, No One Way, Montreal: McGill — Queen's, 1974, pp. 252. In the late spring of 1969 Professor Sheffield of the Higher Education Group at the University of Toronto wrote to seven thousand graduates — members of the classes of 1968, 1963 and 1958 — of 24 faculties and schools in 19 different universities both French and English, large and small. He invited them to name professors they had known as excellent teachers and to tell what it was about these professors and their teaching which made them effective. Following receipt of the more than 1,000 replies, some of those named by the graduates were asked to write essays outlining their own beliefs and practices concerning undergraduate teaching. This volume includes the 23 essays which resulted. It also contains an introduction, concluding analysis and discussion by the editor and a comprehensive annotated bibliography. A rich variety of insights into the teaching learning process are provided by the contributors, one of whom at the time of publication was an Assistant Professor, two were Associate Professors, nineteen were full Professors or Deans and one a Professor Emeritus. One of the essayists observes that university teachers must determine whether there is anything left that they can give to the young. Another argues that any success a teacher may have stems in large part from the attitude he brings to his subject. If he is not possessed by an enthusiasm and evangelical zeal that drives him "to demand that his students find truth and beauty where he himself glimpsed them, and fascination and excitement where he has experienced them, then he had best find another subject or profession." Between these two poles, of thoughtful introspection and self doubt on the one hand and, on the other, the deep commitment often essential if students are to be convinced of the value of examining a specific subject matter, we encounter a wide range of views concerning university teaching in these pages. Some authors emphasize the dramatic element, others the need for sincere humility. That such a variety of interests and ap- 80 Reviews proaches are put forward by those selected as contributors is the source of the central conclusion that there is no ideal way, there are many ways to be good university teachers. The challenge, of course, is for each university teacher to know the way in which he can be effective and for him to want to be more effective. The present is never good enough in university teaching as in other areas of human endeavour. Young people today ask why we need excellence in our world and whether education really aims at it. One of the authors states his view that mature members of the university "naturally want the highest degree of excellence in functions that are crucial to our efficiency and creativity." When we reflect on the response to the invitation sent to 7,000 graduates of Canadian universities by Professor Sheffield, note that one seventh of them replied and that 41 graduates could not identify a single professor whom they would classify as an excellent teacher, one is constrained to ask what does the silence of the 6,000 out of 7,000 indicate? What are they saying silently about the quality of teaching in Canadian universities? A quarter of a century ago The Art of Teaching by Gilbert Highet of Columbia first appeared. It and other books which have appeared since then have made important contributions in this strategic but too often neglected field of college and university teaching. Now Professor Sheffield and his colleagues have provided us with another strategic contribution. If the insights it contains become more widely implemented the grounds for continuing silence on the extent of excellence in Canadian university teaching could be greatly reduced. D. McC. Smyth