ROBERT FROST LECTURES TO ADAMS HOUSE ON PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION

Drifting through education and the war, Robert Frost, Ralph Waldo Emerson Fellow in Poetry, talked to about 100 residents of Adams House and their friends last night. Following his talk he read several of his poems.

The well-known New England poet, who was introduced by David M. Little, Master of Adams House, chose as his subject "The Discipline of not Understanding." He began by remarking on the two foremost types of education, the progressive, and for want of a better name what he called the "unprogressive."

Criticizing both when carried to extremes, he termed progressive education as "moonlight nonsense," and said that it treated all its pupils as "probable geniuses."

He attacked the progressivists for continually telling their pupils "the whys" and the advocates of the older system for teaching them the "mystic doctrine of obedience," and insisting that everything "is none of your business." He questioned the advisability of knowing everything.

"How much have you a right to know?" he asked. It is a good idea not to be told everything, for eventually you will discover that you can never "know what it's all about."

Remarking on the present situation of this country, he said "We are drifting with a nation, and a president is trying to see which way we are drifting so he can lead us." He commented on the possibility of a "Pax Americans," and of Washington being the capital of the world.