PATENT MEDICINE

The announcement that twenty six percent of the Freshman class is on probation comes as somewhat of a shock to the unsophisticated individual who believes that probation is an academic punishment designed for the occasional dull or lazy student. The figures certainly indicate that the Freshman on probation, if not quite the average student, is far from the abnormal one; and only little less clearly that this form of discipline has begun to lose all significance and to become a mere nuisance.

One explanation for this phenomenon night be found in the argument that the new "first seventh" rule has introduced a class of students somewhat below the average. But by this rule was admitted only a relatively small part of the class whose representation on the Dean's List made up more than a third of the total number of Freshmen on the List. Undoubtedly the true explanation is to be discovered in the requirement that first year men must satisfactorily pass four rather than three courses, as hitherto, to remain in good standing.

As an index of a general raising of scholastic standards the statistics are not entirely unsatisfactory. The upper class representation on the Dean's List is certainly a commendable feature, especially when considered together with the fact that the figures for probation and dropping of upper-classmen are in general no greater than those of last year. This fact, indeed, brings out clearly that the stiffening of college work has fallen with peculiar severity on the Freshmen.

One way of forcing preparatory schools to send men to college better equipped to undertake collegiate study is to make the first year so difficult that only those who have been adequately trained can survive. But such procedure works an injustice upon the first year men; the more reasonable method would seek to eliminate the insufficiently prepared student before rather than after he has installed himself in Cambridge.

If the explanation is to be found in parsed standards, disciplinary action such as probation can be justified only if it aids the weak scholar to meet the higher requirements. The fact that after a half year of study two hundred and forty-six Freshmen are still on probation, only sixty-seven of whom have been added as a result of Mid-year grades, seems to indicate with no little degree of certainty that probation has not aided many men in raising their scholastic rank. Certainly it was of no marked advantage to the fifty men who were dropped. And to continue to wield an instrument whose discipline does not accomplish the purpose intended is paternalism in excessive and unscientific doses.