THE TIE THAT BINDS

The early returns from the battle for honors along the History and Literature front, given by Mr. R. D. Howard in his article in the CRIMSON this morning, indicate which way the tide is turning. According to his figures, the majority of the Seniors now in the field were judged, after the divisional examination in their Junior year, potential honors men. The CRIMSON can reduce this statement to its lowest terms; exactly two-thirds of the Seniors in the field were rated as of distinction grade.

How many departments in Harvard College would admit that two-thirds of their candidates for degrees were of honors calibre? If one is to judge by the rubber stamp of departmental approval, the History and Literature field is fortunate in the possession of the men who have chosen it.

The most noteworthy fact allied with these figures is that all of these men are committed to try for a distinction degree through a process of specialized academic work in a limited field. For this work they may or may not be fitted; they may or may not desire to attempt it. But they have no choice. The examination passed in Junior year was not only a ticket to the honors arena; if dismissed from their minds their field as a whole. Without this examination, without dismissing their entire field to embrace specialization, they cannot receive a distinction degree.

A more intelligent plan appears the one which allows a candidate to take a distinction degree with or without specialized work, at his own option. To obtain honors in a general field an outstanding record in a written examination at the end of Senior year, an oral examination, and a thesis is imperative. A candidate for honors degrees who still wishes to examine a portion of his field more closely will simply devote part of his final year to research under the guidance of his tutor. He needs no pass vised by authority to put him across this line of concentration. His thesis, his oral test prove his worth as a scholar; his general written examination, his knowledge of his field as a whole.

The Junior divisional examination, then, sets up a false distinction for the specialist by eliminating the honors degree for the student with a broad interest in his field. More than this, it offers a convenient relief from extended general work to many who accept readily the label of "candidate for honors". What may seem, from the figures it can show, to be emancipation of the honors degrees, is really a narrowing device, which permits the passage of numbers that only cheapen the distinction degree. As a stricture on the fair application of the honors principle, the Junior divisional examination deserves no place in the curriculum.