Dental education in Canada / K.J. Paynter.

  • Canada. Royal Commission on Health Services
Date:
[1965]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Dental education in Canada / K.J. Paynter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    RELATION TO THE UNIVERSITIES MacKinnon? has described the university as a ‘‘community of scholars engaged in the pursuit and dissemination of knowledge’’. He goes on to say ‘“‘it has no function in directing people, performing social services, or making things. Its business is thinking, discussing, talking, experimenting and learning — working with minds and producing ideas’’. One might query the tealism of such a philosophy in the light of expansion of modern universities to include many programmes which, on the surface, do not seem to fit into this category. Nevertheless the functions of a university still remain basically twofold, the acquisition of new knowledge through research, and the transmission of knowledge by teaching. All activities that are related to either of these functions properly belong in a university. Those not related to the two functions should not be university responsibilities. Often professional people tend to think of the university in the light of their own experience and are either unaware of or ignore the broader opportunities for understanding and feeling available through a university experience. Humphreys? has expressed the view that a higher education should fit a person ‘‘to lead a full life at a high level of thought, feeling and conduct, for those are the three activities that respectively serve the values of truth, beauty, and goodness’’. Opportunity for such fulfilment is available, although not always utilized, in the university. The acceptance of Canadian dental schools into the universities occurred in the early 1900’s, during the ‘era of focal infection’ which had succeeded the period in dentistry during which so many technological advances were made. The immediate heritage of the dental schools was one of techniques; the future was related much more intimately to biology. Thus the dental schools came to the universities seeking rather than giving. They sought the necessary background of biological knowledge that was lacking in dental education, and they sought the experience, available through a university, that would more suitably equip the dentist to assume his role as a leader in society. When they became part of the universities, dental schools brought clinicians with them but not philosophers, teachers in dental subjects but not researchers. It soon became painfully obvious that the dental schools would have to contribute to the universities and not just accept benefits from them if they were to profit fully from the association. An effort to fulfil this responsibility was made in the 1920’s with early attempts to establish programmes of research in the dental schools. The duty of the schools in this respect, however, has really only begun to be served within the last decade or two. During this period research into the problems of dental disease has been undertaken in all of the schools, although as yet the amount of time, energy and money devoted to this purpose is far from adequate. Graduate educational programmes have begun in some schools so that ‘mare dental teachers are being prepared with experience in methods of investi- “IMacKinnon, F. “The University: Community or Utility.’? The C.A.U.T. Bulletin, 10:4—11, 1961. 2Humphreys, H.F. **Universities and Dental Education.’’ Brit. Dent. Jour. 103:155—158, 1957.
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