Reading Period ?? To Come First ?? In Two Courses ?? Banfield Will Cond?? Exam Before Cou??

While most Harvard students are s??ing the coming days readjusting t?? lecture routine, those enrolled in ?? courses-Government 146 (Urban ??lems) and History 155a, (Medieval ?? Early Modern Russia)-will be enj?? an early reading period.

Lectures in the two courses will n??gin until Feb. 18 and Feb. 9 respect?? In the meantime, students will spend ?? time doing the basic reading for ?? courses, to prepare them better for ?? sorbing lecture material.

As far as is known, this is the first ?? a Harvard lecture course with a lar?? rollment has begun with a reading p?? The change does not appear to re?? any special University approval. Th? Faculty members involved-Edward ?? Banfield; Henry Lee Shattuck. Pro?? of Urban Government, and Edward Kennan Jr '57. Lecturer on History ??rived at their decisions separately ??.

"I've always felt it would make ?? more sense to do the reading first ?? then the talking," Banfield said in ?? terview yesterday, "but I suppose I ?? had the nerve to bu?k the system b?? In this case, however, I felt I ha?? choice."

Banfield explained that his forth c?? book-The Unheavenly City-con?? the lectures which fornied the core ?? course when it was last given three ?? ago. Rather their duplicate reading ?? lectures, he decided to use his lecture ?? cover points not treated in the book ?? make sure that students read the ?? anyway.

On Feb. 13, students in the course ?? take an hour examination on Th? ?? heavenly City, and The Metropolita? igma by James Q. Wilson, professor ?? Government.

Pass-Fail

After telling the more than 500? ?? dents gathered in Lowell Lecture ?? that the exam would be graded fail ?? pass with honors, Banfield hastened ?? sure them that anyone who read th? ?? books "could not possibly fail" it ?? dictated he was not yet sure how mu??any, reading period the course would have later in the Spring.

A hush of astonishment broken by a buzz of generally favorable comment greeted his announement. "It sure beats late May and 1000 pages on dex," one senior said.

History 155a

Similarly, most of the 75, students gathered at the introductory lecture in History 155a seemed amenable to Kennan's suggestion of a reading period in the beginning. Students will have until Feb. 9 to do the reading for the course; then, each will draw up possible examination questions to prove he has done the reading.

They will not, however, actually have to take an hour exam until late March or April, after another reading period of a week or more. Kennan, who has given the course several times previously under the normal structure, said he decide upon the experiment after finding a notebook of one of last year's students which indicated that the student had gone through the entire course without doing any of the reading.