December 8, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



647 



tions in the elementary subject it can afford to 

 so organize the course itha:t 'tlie academically 

 mature and successful man is made responsible 

 for fhe content and method and meets every 

 student in .that coui*se ait leasit once a week. 

 This will probably of necessity involve the com- 

 bination of the meeting of the class in large di- 

 visions for ieetures, demonstrations, or formal 

 exercises under malture men and personal work 

 with the students in small sections under 

 . younger men. 



Leit me hasten to say that this must not he 

 confounded with the old-fashioned lecture plan 

 with quiz sections; that plan is dead, or should 

 be. But that should not condemn the meeting 

 of the class part of the time in large divisions 

 aind part of the time in email sections. Har- 

 vard was one of the worst sinners under the 

 old lecture and quiz systems. But to-day Har- 

 vard is in some departments setting a model 

 for this type of organization which insures in- 

 sipii'aitdon and ithoroughmess m the work. The 

 sophomore in economics, e.g., may work under 

 such men as Taussig, Carver, Buiibank, Ripley 

 and Day in a single course and carries away 

 someithing which stays by him through life. 

 The professor in charge of the course himself 

 carries one section made up of ithe most gifted 

 students. 



The plan I commend on the basis of my own 

 experience is to recognize three needs of in- 

 struction: (1) inspiration, motivation, and or- 

 ganization of the work; (2) systematic read- 

 ing, practical exercises, or experiments; (3) 

 self-expression. The first can be achieved in 

 divisions of from one to five hundred by ca- 

 pable men; the third mxisit be done in small 

 sections ; and the second may :be directed either 

 from the large division or the small section. 

 The first can be done only iby a relatively ma- 

 ture teacher who has marked laibility in leader- 

 ship and the power of address. The third may 

 be done by well-selected, young teachers; the 

 second should represent the ingenuity of the 

 mature teacher and the capacity for rou.tine 

 and detail of the young man. 



The organization and conduct of the large 

 division work may be in )the hands of one man. 

 But where there are distinct divisions in a de- 



pai'tment, as in economics, sociology, botanj', 

 or psychology, the first year course should be 

 a cooperative affair. There is no need or justi- 

 fication for eleotives (toward a first year coui-se 

 in a department. There should be only one 

 economics 1, one American history 1, one 

 botany 1; for the majority of students take 

 only one course in the depaiitment and a course 

 of the second level may well be built upon the 

 general orientation gained in a general survey 

 course. The finest and most extreme embodi- . 

 ment of this painciple is perhaps the course 

 in icontemporary civiliza^liion — a five-hour 

 course required of freshmen in Columbia Uni- 

 versity.^ 



5. Time. There are a number of things 

 that" may be ■done for the gifted student . which 

 can not be prescribed but may be included in 

 the general faculty policy of liberality toward 

 the few students who give unmisitakable evi- 

 dence of exceptional achievement. One of these 

 factors is time. 



In discussing the gifted situdent problem, a 

 professor who spoke with a German brogue 

 said, "Voit do ve professors vant? Ve vant 

 time. Vot does the gifted situdent vant? He 

 vanlts time." And he was right. The gifted 

 student wanlts time to pursue his ideal; and 

 he can besit get that toy some generous policy 

 of exemption from formal training. This 

 comes hard. I well remember what precious 

 boure our faculty wasted in trying to keep Mr. 

 Steffanson, the now famous explorer, from sub- 

 mitting the evidence sliowing that he could 

 acquire on short notice those units of learning 

 which we have so logically prescribed in our 

 four year course, all of which he could have 

 met in a year or 'two while he was doing some 

 erea)tive work on the side. (As a matter of 

 fact he did get permission to do that very thing 

 and succeeded.). 



This sounds like ioonoclasm. It disturbs the 

 dean and the registrar and the professor. As 

 a practical administrator I am not calling for 

 any great or suidden revolultionary procedure; 



't T'he October number of the Bulletin of the 

 Associaitiom of American University Professors 

 contains valuable material on "Initiatory 

 Courses for Freshmen." 



