HARVARD AND SECONDARY EDUCATION

The appointment of a new committee to study methods of teaching in the secondary schools is a practical application of President Conant's announced desire for an attack on these school problems. At the present time there are two ways in which Harvard can approach the secondary school, one through the Dean's office and one through the School of Education. The present committee is a combination of the two, and through these media it can indirectly affect pre-college training.

Through the Dean's office there is constant contact with the hundreds of schools that annually send men here for their Freshman year. This winter Dean Gummere is visiting some of these schools in the South and Middle West, interviewing prospective candidates. While a student is here, the Records office sends back reports on his progress. In this way Harvard standards are carried to the schools, influence those schools.

The School of Education goes about it in another way, taking prospective secondary school teachers and attempting to acquaint them with the problems which they are going to have to face, especially in public school work. The A. M. in teaching combines the practical work of the Education faculty with thorough knowledge of the subject to be taught, gained from courses under the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The new committee, divided in personnel as it is between the two faculties, should draw them closer together in approaching the problem of secondary education. If the activities of the School can be expanded, it will soon reach a status where hundreds of policy-forming headmasters and school super-intendents will be Harvard trained.

This is Harvard's approach to the problem, following the ideas of the President's recent annual report. By its admission requirements the college helps the schools form their curricula; by its School of Education the University can send out men well trained and aware of the problems ahead. The University cannot dictate to the schools; it can only influence them indirectly, So the findings of the new committee will be eagerly awaited, and may well affect both what Harvard requires of its candidates for admission and what the University will teach prospective school teachers, superintendents and headmasters.