In the Graduate Schools

A decrease in the number of whole-time students enrolled in the Harvard Graduate School of Education was predicted by Dean H. W. Holmes in his report for 1926 to President Lowell. The smaller enrolment would be the natural outcome of the decision last year to raise the requirements for a degree of Master of Education from one year to two, with fuller and broader program of study and training. The new plan will raise the standards of the School of Education and generally increase the value of the training the school affords.

Dean Holmes, in his report offers a defense of the plan and an outline of the program for the future.

"In general, it may be said that the requirement of two years for the Master's degree recognizes and takes full advantage of the position of the School in the organization of Harvard University. Other Schools of Education may rely upon the beginnings of professional training in the undergraduate years. Graduates of Harvard College come to us, accordingly, with a broad background of liberal study but without preparatory courses in Education, and the new plan proposes, In effect, to treat all our students as we must treat graduates of Harvard College.

"It will attempt also a measure of completeness we have not heretofore been able to attain. No student will be recommended for the degree of Master of Education who has had only such instruction and training as may develop his craftsmanship in teaching or school management without giving him a grasp of education as a whole. The new plan will provide a more thorough and more unfilled professional preparation. With only one year at its disposal, the School has been under pressure to give practical training at the expense of courses of a more fundamental character. Hereafter, our program will be, at least in its design, a program of training for educators. This does not imply that any student will leave us without some training for immediate and effective classroom teaching, administrative work, or other special educational service. It means only that we shall now have the time to arrange a curriculum for every student which shall be both broad and pointed. This has always been the general policy of the School. We have simply come to the point of acknowledging that a single year is not enough for the accomplishment of our purpose.

The details of the new program are now under consideration by a number of subcommittees. Many problems must be worked out, and we shall doubtless find it necessary to modify our plans in the light of experience. Especially in the management of doctorate study we shall have to work slowly toward the ideal of a more effective selection of candidates with genuinely constructive ability. The idea of professional training for education, on a graduate level and leading to distinctive degrees, is so new that we may have to wait some time before it will be welcomed by the profession as a whole. Meanwhile, if the number of our students is small, we shall at least have the advantage of setting high standards in a simple and well-organized program."