A brief history of the precept

When Woodrow Wilson, Class of 1879, became Princeton's president in 1902, Princeton was not the academic powerhouse it is today. "University life centered around football, fraternities and eating clubs, dramatic societies and comic papers," history professor Anthony Grafton said in a 2003 speech. Grafton is also a columnist for The Daily Princetonian.

But, by 1905, Wilson had resolved to change that by introducing the now-integral preceptorial system to the teaching process at the University. Since his appointment to the presidency, Wilson had been unsatisfied with the level of teaching and - more importantly - learning, Grafton explained.

Wilson "felt the traditional recitation method of teaching was a disaster and unworthy of a University," said Gregg Lange '70, chairman of the Alumni Council's Princetoniana Committee, which studies the University's history.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Grafton said, teaching in American universities, particularly prestigious ones, was done primarily through lectures or recitations. The recitation method featured the professor walking around the classroom and asking questions related to the topic. A general feeling of complacency had fallen over the students.

"Neither were intensive, [and Wilson was] unhappy that many students paid no attention before the term ended, and then went to a crammer before the exam to get the grade,"Grafton said in an interview.

Wilson himself was a product of the pre-precept system, graduating only 23 years prior to his ascension to the presidency, but he felt that a change was in order.

Pulling together concepts from a number of British education systems, he designed his method.

Grafton cautioned the inevitable comparisons to Oxford's tutorial system, which were part of Wilson's inspiration.

"To say the precepts are like Oxford's system is to say our buildings are like Oxford's. It's true, until you visit Oxford," he said. For one, Grafton noted, Oxford's system entails a much smaller setting than Princeton's, with more personal preceptor-student exchange.

Making his vision a reality

Wilson pitched the system to the University Board of Trustees and was given permission to hire 50 preceptors. Applicants were carefully vetted by both Wilson and department representatives. The preceptors who were hired were not given appointments longer than five years, according to the May 22, 2006 issue of the Princeton Weekly Bulletin.

The first 50 preceptors Wilson hired were mostly be humanists, allocated to subjects like history, politics and literature. Their task was simple: to "read and discuss texts with the students, in groups of four or five," Grafton said in his 2003 speech.

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The University trustees "specified that the preceptors are to have the ‘full rank and privileges of Assistant Professors,' " according to a June 1905 issue of Princeton Alumni Weekly (PAW). That issue listed the first batch of preceptors: nine had graduated from Princeton, and most were from peer schools in the northeast. Notably, only one preceptor was a Harvard graduate, putting the Crimson on even ground with Midwestern colleges like the universities of Missouri and Wisconsin.

The school's physical structure, of course, also had to change for the school to accommodate the new faculty members. After all, PAW noted after convocation on Sept. 30, 1905, "by their accession Princeton's teaching staff is augmented by over fifty percent, making its total about 160 members."

Accordingly, the construction of what is now McCosh Hall was announced in March 1905. The building was one of the first designed with precepts in mind.

Differing reactions

The reaction to the new preceptorial system was mixed.

Outside news organizations praised the scheme, hailing it as the new wave in education.

The May 13, 1905 issue of PAW quoted a Philadelphia Press editorial as saying, "If the plan proposed by President Woodrow Wilson with reference to the instruction of students in Princeton proves both practical and effective college training in this country will be revolutionized."

Some supporters, like the Philadelphia Press, praised the preceptorial plan for some of the same reasons Wilson started it.

"Students under the lecture system either neglect their studies and cram, or they study without the personal direction necessary to make their work fruitful," the Philadelphia Press editorial said.

Many students, however, were less receptive to the seeming dissolution of the country-club setting they had previously enjoyed on campus.

As they prepared to leave the University the Class of 1905 sang, "Here's to those preceptor guyes,/Who're coming here to make us wise,/Too late to thrust them down our throats,/They'll make poor Oughty-six the goats," according to the June 17, 1905 PAW.

Their lamentations, though, fell on deaf ears, as Wilson was convinced of the viability of his system.

"He seems to have been somebody who worked out his decisions very rapidly," Grafton noted in an interview.

The students were used to sitting in recitations and then going about their social lives, but the precept system changed that. The new classes were added to the students' pre-existing schedules. The precepts were informal, discussion-based and often smoke-filled, as students and preceptors alike smoked during class. The change was disconcerting for some and not quite what Wilson had aimed for.

Grafton said of the system, "It got lots of people into small classes, which was certainly a good thing, but it did not have the miraculous effect [Wilson] was going for ... preceptors were expected to teach many subjects. [They] would have thousands of pages of reading to do each week." Thus, the preceptors were forced into the difficult task of mastering enormous quantities of reading in very little time.

Lasting effects

Remnants of Wilson's changes to the academic system can still be seen today.

Aaron Hostetter GS, a preceptor for ENG 231: Dirty Words: Satire, Slander, and Society, said the current system is preferable to the old one.

"[Wilson's] system was based more on apprenticeship," he noted.

Hostetter said the original preceptors were usually local scholars without university affiliation or people who wanted to become professors.

When Wilson was in charge, the preceptors were not graduate students at Princeton, and the classes were much smaller and less formal.

"Wilson's original precept system lasted only a very few years," Grafton said in his 2003 speech.

"He had forged a dazzling set of ideals, but had not analyzed them fully nor grasped the practical and intellectual obstacles that lay between him and their realization," Grafton explained.

The precept system has undergone a significant evolution from when it was first instated in 1905.

"By now, the precept system has become nothing more than a set of small discussion sections," Grafton said. "They are so distant from Wilson's original venture, and the hopes that underpinned it, as to make comparisons useless."

Still, Princeton's current precept system is different from what is seen at other universities, a difference borne of Wilson's vision.

Hostetter explained that when he was in college, "we called them recitations, and they were only for classes we didn't want to take. They were very different, and they were lecture-driven. A grad student would lecture up to 30 people at a time."

Now that he is on the other side of the lectern at Princeton, he sees the benefits of Princeton's system.

"I like the size ... I like that the expectations [for students include] talking, and that preceptors are not to be leaders so much as moderators," Hostetter said. "It's good pedagogical practice to not be in control, or to be in control in a way that's not obvious."

Though the current precept system is not exactly what Wilson had originally intended, some of his goals are still carried out today.

"Some of the imperfections are what make it interesting," Hostetter said. "You're not totally in control, which is a risk, but it's also what makes precepts so interesting: developing a partnership with the students."