REFORM OF THE TUTORING SYSTEM.

For honest and efficient tutoring there is a wide and legitimate field. The present system in use at Cambridge is, for the most part, inefficient and the honesty of some of its methods has been questioned by "the powers that be." If the Faculty were to assume direct control of the tutoring system, the present unsatisfactory condition of affairs might easily be remedied. Such control could take various forms, but probably the best results would be obtained by the appointment of students in each course to act as tutors. The heads of courses would select, from among their students, a few men who showed conscientious ability previous to the first hour examinations, and announce these selections to the class.

The advantages that such a tutoring system would possess over the existing one must seem many and obvious. Although, no doubt, there are now some tutors who have a real knowledge of their subject and are conscientious in their work, still the majority are, at best, mediocre. On the other hand, a capable man who is doing the work of a course regularly and thoroughly, would be perfectly competent to impart instruction to his less fortunate or less energetic fellow-classmen. Such a plan would supplement the work of the Price Greenleaf Fund and the other "aids" which the Faculty employs to assist men who are working their way through College. In addition to this, by doing away with the advertising and the duplication of work incident to a competitive system, the cost of tutoring would be substantially reduced. A defect,--at least from a pedagogical point of view--of most existing tutoring is its dependence upon printed notes. A seminar in which the men themselves are forced to take notes is perhaps a more arduous, but certainly a more wholesome way of acquiring knowledge, than a tutoring session in which education is swallowed in pre-digested doses. Naturally, printed notes would have no place in a tutoring system controlled by the Faculty.

The evils of a long established custom are too apt to be overlooked and the advantages of a proposed remedy to be dismissed as theoretical and unpractical. Although this natural conservative tendency is the reason for inactivity in reform, it is certainly no justification for the undue continuance of a "laissez-faire" policy. The present tutoring system is not satisfactory, and various expedients, among which that outlined above would probably bring the best results, are possible. Under the circumstances, some remedial action on the part of the authorities should be undertaken.