EXPORT TUTORS

To the Harvard reader at least one feature of the Oxford tutorial system, as described by Mr. Frost in this morning's CRIMSON, will present a striking contrast to the predominant Harvard scheme. The majority of Oxford students those who are out for the Hon-ours Degree pursue their studies under the guidance of several tutors, each of whom is a specialist in some phase of the student's general field. The Harvard plan of having a single tutor guide the undergraduate throughout his entire course is the direct aultheals of this English method of instruction.

Harvard neither desires nor is fitted for a wholesale adoption of the English tutorial structure. But in restricting the students' opportunity for a tutorial contact to the guidance of a single preceptor it seems more than likely that she has rejected one of the chief advantages of the older system.

If tutorial instruction is to be regarded as primarily a plan of comprehensive preparation for a definite set of examinations the Harvard methods is unquestionably the more effective of the two. Tutors can block out a three years course of reading, assigning so much to the student each week, sufficient to cover an entire field of study. If the reading is well planned no dangerous interstices will be left in the student's knowledge; the tutor's comparative ignorance of certain phases of the subject can be covered over by judiciously prepared reading list.

But if the main function of the tutorial system is to allow the student contact with specially trained scholars whose knowledge of their subjects consists in more than an ability to compile an acceptable list of authorities the advantages of the Oxford plan cannot be denied. The specialist in American history is not likely to offer a deep understanding of medieval thought or of the Greek city state. It is only by working under a number of men, all of whom are doing special work in different periods, that the student of history has a fair chance of becoming imbued with a sympathetic or enthusiastic appreciation of more than one country or one age. Furthermore the student who passes from the hands of one tutor to another finds a greater premium placed on his own powers of initiative and coordination.

Whether or not foliation of tutors would be advisable for all Harvard undergraduates is perhaps open to question. Certainly, however, it could not but be an unmixed blessing for students who are working for honors.