PROFESSOR-POLICEMEN?

In a curriculum as vast as Harvard's there must be some kinds of knowledge that are more easily acquired than others. This does not signify that the substance of a comparatively easy course is any less valuable than that of others--that an easy course is for that reason to be avoided by the super-serious student.

But if a series of biographical sketches of snap courses was to be written, it would follow a mould as definite as do the histories of nations. A thoroughly sincere instructor offers an interesting subject in a manner so informal, so free from petty demands, that once this reputation is established the course is over whelmed by that class of incomprehensible students who regard a successful life impossible without a college degree but meanwhile struggle to make that degree mean as little as possible.

There is obviously something unfair in the attitude that forces an instructor to impose petty requirements on a course in order to free it from the stigma of classification as a snap. The system is wrong that compels a professor to act toward his classes as a policeman continually watching for minor infringements of obscure ordinances that would never be necessary if the student could learn to interpret broadly and honestly the spirit of a few inclusive laws.