ELEMENTARY JUSTICE

In those courses which use section men, there is a great variety in the systems of determining grades. But this variety, far from being the spice of life, is rather the fly in the undergraduate's ointment. Some courses have schemes which insure justice and impartiality. Others, however, make of each section man an arbitrary despot. The natural variation in the rigor of these lieutenants is translated into a vast difference among the standards obtaining within a single course. Distinctions among students of the same merit necessarily follow.

History 1, rightly entitled to its reputation as the best organized course in Harvard, makes a good provision for uniform treatment among the thralls of the various petty tyrants. After the examinations have been taken but before they are marked, a solemn assembly is called in which all the princes are gathered about their shining emperor, a concrete embodiment of the principle of Unity. There it is decided and decreed just what shall constitute a good answer to each question, and the underlings go out with fairly uniform standards to judge the blue books.

A still better system, however, is that employed by such courses as Government 1 and Biology D. In these courses, each question in the examination is assigned to one section or laboratory man, so that each man is concerned with a subject on which he is either an authority or has ample time to become one. The books just pass hand to hand until all the questions have been taken care of. The result is that all parts of each paper have received sober and competent attention; but, more important, all the papers have received exactly the same treatment.

Suffering markedly by contrast are the laisser-faire systems of courses. In these no attempt is made to subordinate the whims of the highly individualistic section men to common standards, and the result is that men of identical merit and achievement receive widely different rewards within the precincts of the very same course. Clearly, then, in all courses making use of section meetings, the systems, of grading employed by History 1, or preferably that of Government 1 and Biology D, should be put into practice. By this universal extension of excellent principles, many minor but none the less annoying injustices would be done away with.