Yale's Experiment

Undergraduates at Yale university will not be required to take mid-year examinations this year. The brief holiday which usually follows the examinations has also been eliminated.

"According to the theory of the new system, the student teaches himself, guided by the instructor." In practice, the new system has failed.

Instructors have increased the number of daily quizzes and monthly examinations. Apparently, the various professors at Yale cannot get used to the innovation; they continue to believe that written work can be the only logical basis for a grade. As a result, the period which was originally intended for consultation with professors is devoted, of necessity, to the compilation of a long report which must be submitted at the end of the "reading period."

Educational experiments are essential if advance is to be made. The new plan at Yale has been handicapped by a lack of instructors in order to carry out the original theory of close faculty supervision, and the natural antipathy against such experiments which is evidenced among faculty members and students. In view of the conditions under which the system has been required to function, it is hardly fair to condemn it until it has been given a fair chance. --The Pennsylvanian.