SUPERIMPOSITION

A few weeks ago a member of the Board of Overseers asked as if there were any one thing which the undergraduates were "kicking" about; any particular grievance they were nursing. At the moment there seemed no peculiar circumstance worth mentioning; but were the same question propounded now the answer would be immediately give--and it would be concerned with the divisional examinations. Not that there is a protest against the examinations perse. There isn't; but there is much in the way of adjustment to be made, on the part of the faculty as well as of the students. And the chief trouble, as has been mentioned before in these columns, is that some of the men giving courses do not take into consideration the fact that the majority of Seniors are taking the divisional some of them offered generally for the first time. An English professor assigns an hour examination for the same day that the three hour examination in literature is due; an Economics professor, one three days before the week of the divisional examinations.

It is not in any spirit of carping criticism that we mean to object to such requirements; but rather in the hope of furthering the adjustment process. It is difficult to see now how great will be the changes during the next five years, and more so the longer the period of time considered. Changes there will be, however, and among them, if the divisional examinations are going to be anything but a farce and an additional obstacle in the path to a degree, will certainly come greater freedom for the candidate. A step has already been taken in the abolition of the four-course rule for Seniors; but the attitude of many professors does not seem to be in keeping with the spirit that was the motive for that advance.

At present there is not only lack of consideration for those taking the general examinations, but there has also been discrimination, or a tendency to discriminate, between departments. Men in one department have been exempted from the routine of a course, while those in another have not. It there is justification for this discrimination, in that all of the divisional examinations are not of equal difficulty, plainly the fact is far from the theory. If, on the other hand, all divisionals in fact as well as in theory, have the same value, then such discrimination is unfair, detrimental to the prestige of the examinations, and to the ideal of those who introduced the tutorial system and the general tests.

At this point it is customary to bring in "the old giving place to the new" and the rest of such shibboleths. There seems nothing more appropriate; the present situation is a hybrid, and the task of superimposing a system including tutors and general examinations on a quondam rigid course system is at best a difficult one. Unity of purpose and a community of ideas is essential to real progress; it is Edward Arlington Robinson who writes of the man "Who sees the new and cannot leave the old." In the main it is well not to have the changes every minute, for conservative enlightenment makes for the most profitable advance. We can all clearly see the new, and most welcome it; the problem is to discard that of the old which is obsolete. And the first step is unified exemption, for Seniors, from routine.

Here is the first step; in 1930 it is conceivable that the second will be completed; at that time Seniors will suspend formal course work at mid-years, devoting their time to preparation for even more comprehensive examinations than at present.

And when our sons are here