LARGE COURSES AND EDUCATION.

From comparative statistics of the Philadelphia Bulletin, it appears that whereas at Harvard the ratio of instructors to students is as one to seven, in the average of colleges throughout the country, it is as one to ten. Such as showing would suggest that personal contact between Faculty and student body is freer and more instructive here than elsewhere. Yet so many are the courses given in abstruse and advanced subjects, where the professor collects a small circle of pupils for research work and the like, that in the large introductory courses this is by no means the case, the ratio there being generally 50 to one and often much higher. Unfortunately these latter are the courses where the need of personal contact is greatest, since the student is a novice in the field, ignorant of phraseology and a typo in method. Yet to these beginners is vouchsafed the least assistance, the section men to whom is left the task of giving individual instruction being in general but little more advanced than those whom they instruct. In striking contrast are the small courses composed of scholars advanced enough in their subject to be able to pursue it, under the general supervision of the professor only. Thus where it is least needed, the element of personal direction is strong; where most, it is weak. To equalize matters, it would be the part of wisdom to increase the number of section men or reduce the size of the introductory courses,--sacrificing to this, if necessary, some of the more advanced studies and research work.