Amherst Also Moves Ahead.

In his current annual report, President Meiklejohn of Amherst College makes some interesting suggestions as to the desirability of general examinations for undergraduates. One great shortcoming of the American educational system, as most educators now admit, is the practice of awarding degrees on the basis of examinations in individual courses. Each branch of the curriculum thus becomes a sort of watertight compartment and the student too often fails to perceive its relation to any other branch. Harvard, some years ago, set out to correct this situation so far as her own students are concerned by establishing a general examination in connection with the bachelor of arts degree and found the experiment so helpful that the plan is now being greatly extended.

President Meiklejohn's suggestions can hardly be called plans as yet, but if put into practice they will go even farther than the scheme now in vogue at Harvard. It will not be enough for the Amherst undergraduate to satisfy each individual professor as to his proficiency in particular subjects. At the close of his sophomore year he will be required to demonstrate by the range of his knowledge and ability that he is getting something worth while out of the college. And before he receives his degree he will have to undergo another general test to determine whether the college can afford to turn him out into the world as an educated man.

There is no doubt that the Amherst authorities are on the right track, College professors the country over have been far too much concerned about giving instruction and have paid too little heed to the problem of testing the student's general calibre. It is quite possible that we might obtain more education by giving less instruction, thus throwing the undergraduate to a greater extent upon his own resources. --Boston Herald.