TWO CORROBORATIONS

The address delivered yesterday by Arthur Stanley Pease on the occasion of his inauguration to the presidency of Amherst College is particularly notable for his recognition of two theories in American education which are rapidly achieving the dignity of principles.

The advantage of the large lecture is that it enable the leaders in a certain field to reach a maximum number of students. But the inspirational influence of the teacher is bound to be diluted when adapted to the needs of the group. This diffuse quality attracts, as President Pease says, "those members of the student body who seek the maximum of credit with the minimum of effort." He suggests the division of certain kinds of courses into smaller classes as the most immediate remedy. Beyond that lies the tutorial system, which as in use at Harvard is instilling what President Pease calls "the joys of accurate, independent, comprehensive and creative thinking."

On the problem of selecting men worthy of entrance into college the Amherst president has taken a well-defined stand. Harvard determined the members of the class of 1931 in the recognition that the cumulative weight of scholastic attainment was not the only one to be placed in the scales of decision. This pioneer action has proven a practical support of the belief of President Pease that "the guardians of a privately endowed college will, I believe, be more faithful to their trust and better conservators of the money given by its donors if they provide for the merciful exclusion, or even the rigorous elimination, of those obviously unfitted or disinclined for intellectual pursuits, and if they make high quality rather than extensive quantity the distinguishing characteristic of the product of the college."