TUTORIAL SYSTEM MAY BE EXTENDED

"When the Division of Modern Languages accepted the general examinations there was a distinct understanding that this acceptance did not imply the immediate institution of a tutorial system," said Professor J. D. M. Ford, chairman of the Department of Romance Languages in an interview yesterday. "There was at the time in the division a very decided sentiment against such a system. As a matter of fact the general examinations were only accepted on trial and not with any definite understanding that they were to become a permanent institution. The division however, is never hidebound and if good reasons can be shown in favor of the tutorial system as it now exists in the University and if sufficient reasons can be urged for its extension to out own division I see no reason why they should not be considered."

The above statement was made in connection with the recent report of the Scholarship Committee recommending that the tutorial system be extended to include the Division of Modern Languages. The question raised by this report is by no means a new one. Members of the division have at various times considered the advantages and disadvantages of such a system. Professor Ford further said:

No Simple Proposition

"The question may come up for discussion before the division at any time in the near future, and if it does it will be pretty thoroughly threshed out. The proposition is by no means so simples as it seems. Consider the difficulty of securing the services of a sufficient member of men of the proper calibre for such work. They would have to be of mature judgement and whole have to be of mature judgement and wide knowledge within their own field. The cost of obtaining such men would be very large indeed. Certain members of the division are not yet convinced that the results would justify the outlay.

"In the Division of History Government and Economics the problem is essentially simply. There the question of linguistic difficulties does not arise. To secure a tutor who is well acquainted with the language and literature of three nations is a more serious task than to find one versed in History, Government and Economics. As a matter of fact there is some dis-

cussion as to whether the system has been an unqualified success within that division. There was a time when it came near being a complete fiasco.

"On the other hand it is quite true that as matters now stand a number of students find difficulty in preparing for the general examinations in Romance Languages. It is in a measure to offset this that students concentrating in our department are asigned to various members of the teaching staff whose duty it is to help them in any way they can. The difficulty with such a scheme is that it puts a great deal of additional work upon the professors which they sometimes find difficult to handle.

"In short there is much to be said on both sides. If the Division at some time feels that it might be wise to try some such scheme as that now used in History, Government, and Economics I have no doubt that the experiment will be tried.

Professor W. G. Howard, Chairman of the German Department in commenting on the same question said: "There will certainly be no move by the German Department acting as a single unit. Such a question belongs rather to the division as a whole, and the division has not yet acted. The situation, however, seems now to call for attention and I should not be surprised if the matter were soon brought up for discussion. Indeed the German department is not unlikely to bring it up if no other department does.

Scheme Useful in Some German Courses

"From my own personal point of view I can readily see that some such scheme might be valuable. The German department has courses of two kinds, those designed chiefly to give instruction in the German language, and those that have to deal with German life and literature. In the first of these there would seem to be no need for the tutor. In the second there readily might be. To have men, tutors or advisers, call them what you will, to oversee, guide, and encourage the individual work of the students in the department would certainly be of great assistance. Such men would inevitably foster a disposition in the students to go from the particular to the general and for example to bring Geography and History into their proper connection with the national literature. In fact this is the very system employed in a course that I give myself, German 25; the assistant performs the duties of tutor and adviser as above defined.

"I should, however, be strongly opposed to any system which tended to lessen the importance attached to teaching and to lead in any manner to the substitution of tutorial work for the instruction in the form in which we now give it. I do not think that a single course should be removed from the cirriculum. The tutorial system as an addition is a possibility--as a sustitution it is wholly undesirable.