REPRIEVE FOR THE "FLUNKER"

It is characteristic of our present-day educational reform that everything is made as easy as possible for the pupil. The effort of attention is reduced to a minimum by the employment of all sorts of devices for making the subject interesting. "Child psychology" with its array of "complexes" has driven from the field the older method of teaching by rote. We are further shifting the emphasis from the dry and musty Classics to the newer and more fascinating Sciences. But though we try to impart a great deal of information, it is against modern principles to demand the expenditure of any more energy on the part of the pupil than is absolutely necessary.

It is not strange, then, that Princeton should be experimenting along this line by allowing "flankers" a second chance. On the supposition that failure to keep up in college work may be due to round pegs in square holes, the University will allow a man who has "flunked" in one department to transfer to a different one for another trial. If, at the end of the following term, he has made good in his new field, he is permitted to remain in college. Otherwise he at last severs his connection with the University.

Certainly such a plan is all that can be asked for in the way of leniency. In a place like Harvard where each student's courses are fairly well distributed, it is even doubtful whether a change of department would be of any real service. Men usually know what they can get along in leg before the flunking time comes around. Rather, however, than fail to aid the one person who is in a position to benefit by the system, it is perhaps better to establish it likewise for the "ninety-and-nine just persons" who need no such provision. At all events, the college that adopts this principle cannot be said to be behind the times in its education view-point.