A NEW LIAISON

There is an ancient but tenacious theory that Harvard is indifferent. Freshmen have been its chief exponents when they have not been received with due regard to their self-importance. Upper-classmen have usually, and with justice sneered at this charge or have accepted it as another distinguishing trait. That they have treated it with such levity has probably been due to superficial consideration and not to any profound Machiavellian conceit. Hence it is with pleasure that they welcome the Student Council's latest offspring, the Committee on Relations With Schools.

The transition form school to college has long been an outstanding problem of education. Many suggestions have been proffered and accepted by those at the helm to make the break less abrupt, the Yard walls less distressing. As time has gone on, however, educators have realized that the real solution to the Gordian knot lay in the students themselves.

The Committee on Relations with Schools will be a sort of liaison organization, especially designed to cater to those in the process of transition. It will in no sense be a machine for proselyting, although there are sure to be some who will read such a purpose into its creed. On the contrary its functions will be studiously non athletic. It will confine itself to strengthening the ties between school and college and thus strive toward the enviable unity achieved by the English system.

Perhaps it is wrong to wish that Ox-onians should prepare at Eton or Cantabridgians at Harrow and yet the singleness of purpose attained is to be desired. Under the present modus operandi one prepares at Oscaloosa High, aims for Harvard, and goes to Georgia Tech,--a diversion of purpose hardly a credit to a student's ambition. While the interchange of educational parts made possible by College Board Examinations is a happy convenience, it has its cultural limitations. It will be far nobler when the man who prepares at Oscaloosa High either secures a Harvard degree or none at all. A substitute is a poor panacea, and it is toward the elimination of such lackadaisical education that the new Committee will work.