USELESS REPORTS.

It is manifestly impossible to conduct most courses without prescribed reading, and it is, furthermore, impossible for the instructor to see that the prescribed reading is done, without some mechanical test to that end. This test commonly takes the form of a short report written outside the class, and generally covering a wide field with no specific object stated.

The result of this system of reports is that a student of no ability can do almost any report in almost any course without having done the slightest amount of work and with no knowledge of the subject. The line between fair and unfair work becomes exceedingly vague, because without copying a report a man may write his own on the basis of another's work, without doing it himself. Much criticism is now being heard concerning the quantity of theses which must be written, but these, at least, demand a certain amount of protracted thought, which is far more than can be said of the reports.

Since, however, it is necessary to have some method of testing prescribed reading, if it is to be anything more than a farce, it seems desirable that the system of conferences and classroom papers already extensively in use should be further extended, and should, so far as possible, supplant this mechanical writing of unprofitable reports. A paper written in class has at least the merit of demanding some general knowledge of the subject, and an oral conference serves both to clarify and fix the ideas of the student, and to assure the instructor that the student is taking an intelligent interest in his work.