The Bobbitt Family In America
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[8]The official publication of Zeta Chapter of Phi Delta Kappa in the Department of Education, the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.
Volume XXVI Number 2 May, 1941
The news that Professor Bobbitt was retiring from the Department of Education reached me as I was preparing a review of his latest volume, The Curriculum of Modern Education. Reading and analyzing this book inevitably called back many memories of my acquaintance with Dr. Bobbitt, first as a student and later as a colleague.
When I arrived at the University of Chicago in February, 1919, Professor Bobbitt was the first instructor to whom I handed a class ticket. He immediately invited me to his office, asked about my interests and plans, suggested that I could earn partial credit even though the quarter was half over. The kindness and encouragement here bestowed upon a new and unknown student are characteristic of the man. This was my first contact with the gentle courtesy with which all of his students are familiar. Here also I first noted Dr. Bobbitt's habit of looking anywhere but at the person or group to whom he is speaking. It is only later that you learn that while he is not looking at you he is looking straight through your mental processes and arguments. He is probably the only professor who can look in one direction and see everything that happens in another.
The unfailing courtesy and sympathetic understanding of others which are characteristic of Professor Bobbitt have never, however, interfered with his judgments of persons or of their views. Class papers, dissertations, or manuscripts designed for publication submitted for his criticism have always received a forthright analysis which is as refreshing as it is sometimes painful. Faithfulness to principles, integrity of thought, and fearlessness in expression have been equally characteristic.
The insistence on fundamental thinking and individuality of expression have made his speaking and writing on the curriculum provocative. Arguments and differences of opinion in the field have been inevitable. For a time, there was considerable discussion among cur-
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