TUTORIAL SYSTEM CHANGES SUGGESTED

Two proposals for the improvement of the tutorial system, with particular reference to the department of English, have been suggested by L. D. Peterkin, tutor in that department. Mr. Peterkin, in brief, suggests that the tutorial department be made into an avenue of advancement into the professorial ranks or that a system of graded appointments be introduced, so that, as Mr. Peterkin suggests the individual tutors may be classed as prohationary, junior and senior.

New Plan to Develop

"The new plan of honors in English recently approved by the Faculty," writes Mr. Peterkin, discussing this question in the current issue of the Alumni Bulletin seems likely to have interesting developments. Not only will it vitally affect the subjects of undergaduate and graduate study within Harvard itself, but owning to the position which Havard occupies in the scholastic world, it is more than probable that ultimately it will have a profound and far-reaching influence on the whole attitude of American education. It is not the purpose of this article to discuss the plan in detail, but simply the general principle involved and some of its implications....

Language and Literature Distinct

"A superficial consideration might lead to the conclusion that it is merely an attempt to meet the needs of those who desire what is sometimes termed a "gentleman's knowledge" of Literature, as compared with those who aim at a more detailed or scholarly knowledge, but such a view misses the real significance of the change. Intentionally or otherwise, the new plan is a recognition and enunciation of the principle that Language as Language and Language as Literature are two distinct things, that Philology and Linguistics are a specialized field, calling for a special aptitude, and that a real appreciation and knowledge of Literature, as Literature, can exist without any profound knowledge of that field.

"The immediate result as far as the undergraduate is concerned is that a proficiency in Anglo-Saxon and an interest in Pre-Chaucerian Literature is no longer regarded as indicative of a higher type of intelligence and entitled to a higher grading, and that an opportunity and encouragement is offered to those men whose interest is in Literature rather than in English Literature or in English Literature rather than in Anglo-Saxon and Linguistics. This will mean that in future only those students whose natural bent inclines them to the special field will elect that field, which is as it should be. Incidently the whole approach to Literature is placed on a broader basis. Another very healthy and hopeful sign in the new plan is that the main emphasis is laid on the student's showing in the examinations written and oral and no longer on the mere accumulation of honor grades in courses.

Fallacies in Doctorate Plan

"It seems only logical and reasonable to expect that this principle once adopted in undergraduate work, must ultimately be extended into graduate work, and when it is, a long standing disability will be removed under which men have lain whose interests are literary rather than phililogical. The plan of work for the Doctorate in English at Harvard, as at present constituted, appears to rest on two fallacies. One is the assumption that a knowledge of Germanic Philology is an essential prerequisite to an understanding of English Literature, combined with the conviction that Anglo-Saxon has a direct connection with English Literature. The other is a refusal to admit the fact that scholars fall naturally into two classes, the research worker and the teacher, the one who collects the material and the other who presents it. It is true that occasionally the two are found combined in one individual, but the Ph.D. system insists on everyone being both, and in attempting to produce a combination of the two it, frequently ends by spoiling a man for either.

Of the disastrous and deadening effects on some men as teachers no one who has suffered under the teacher-pedant will need much convincing. to expect a man to be a research worker as well as a teacher is about as logical as to demand that a goldsmith should also dig the gold he fashions. With the profoundest respect for Linguistics and for those possessing that aptitude, one is compelled to admit that it is a highly specialized study, and many a man possessing a wide knowledge of English Literature and a sincere appreciation of its beauty has lived and died in happy ignorance of even the rudimentary principles of that science. It is high time that it was recognized, primarily at Harvard and in America at large, that the two types of men exist, that the teacher is not necessarily an inferior scholar to the research worker, that the two are rarely combined, and that both are needed in any liberal and well balanced system of education.

Tutorial system Interesting Trial

"An equally important aspect of the new scheme is its bearing on the work and status of the tutor. It is obvious that the emphasis laid on the general final examinations enhances the value of the tutorial work. This, coupled with the practice, which is gradually being introduced, of allowing a student to substitute work with his tutor for course requirements, inevitably increases the responsibility and the influence of the tutor, since the importance of the tutorial work will increase in inverse ratio to that of the course. The question then arises whether the tutorial system in its present form is capable of meeting this added responsibility.

"Now the tutorial system is perhaps the most interesting of recent experiments in American university education. Introduced on trial, it was decided not to adopt the English system on bloc, but to adapt that system to local needs. The method was first employed in the De-