TUTORS--PLUS

At the Liberal Club's discussion yesterday the concensus of opinion--among members of the Board of Overseers, the faculty, and the graduate and under-graduate bodies--was that the tutorial system should be advanced and extended as soon as possible to new fields, other than the Division of History, Government, and Economics. There are many obstacles in the path of such an advance. The two greatest are that the tutorial method is very expensive, and that the attitude, on the part of the tutors and students alike, is not conducive to great success. The financial problem is difficult, but it is conceivable that funds may be found, and also that many professors now tied up with several courses may be relieved of some of them where these courses could be adequately covered by reading and conference with a tutor, and so present faculty member would be able to spend some time on tutorial work. The question of the attitude can be taken care of; if it were possible for a tutor to reach a full professorship by that work alone, the interest of these men in tutorial work would be permanent. As for the undergraduate, if be found that he could not possibly pass any course without doing the required reading and if the recommendation of his tutor were necessary before he could have a degree, certainly the undergraduate would do the reading.

A consideration of this question bring up a number of others. Would not such a system place responsibility on the student rather than on a brigade of deans? Many undergraduates would accept the responsibility, and benefit by the stimulus to original work and original work and original though. Those that did not accept the responsibility would fail; this would be no tragedy, for what place in and education institution has any such "student"?

It would also be possible to eliminate some courses that exist purely for the purpose of disseminating information and nothing else, and a great many lectures whose purpose is avowedly that. Students would profit if they would devote the time to reading, that they they would otherwise spend in lectures. Professors and all instructors would benefit greatly, for under the present situation members of the faculty have to cut their own work down to an absolute minimum. How many professors except when on Sabbatical leave, find time to prepare a book for publication?

The tutorial system should be furthered in all possible ways. The voue to students and Faculty alike is indubitable.

And with every step in advance, the word education will assume a new and fuller significance.