STUDENT CRITICISM.

EDITORS DAILY CRIMSON. - Considerable comment has been caused by the fact that, out of the half-dozen or more themes in sophomore English, only one has been subjected to the inter-student criticism, which the class was led to expect with every succeeding theme. Have the instructors in this course lost faith in their original plan, or has "ye student critic" got himself into disfavor? It is to be hoped that both have happened, and that the latter especially is the case, for nothing can be more pitiable than some of the expression of jealousy and puerility handed in as criticisms this year, in this and one or two other similar courses.

I have examined quite a large number of these critiques, and almost without exception they confound criticism with fault-finding, and, in many cases, go almost to the extent of abuse. The average man seems to think he is going to "get even" with the world at large and his instructors in particular - presumably for inappreciation of his own efforts in the past - by vigorous "sitting on" the work of some known or unknown classmate. Perhaps this large amount of ill nature, and what might be called literary dis-curtesy, has given rise to doubts in our instructors' minds as to the efficacy of the system.

'88.