ASSISTANTS CLASSIFIED

The following editorial was written by a member of the Class of 1929, unconnected with the Crimson. This comment is taken from the 1929 questionnaire, and will appear exactly as printed below in the First 1929 Class Report. The Crimson does not necessarily endorse the opinion expressed below but feels that it should be of interest to members of the University.

One of the most serious defects in Harvard today is the type of man who has a position of "assistant" in some of the courses too large for the professor or instructor to handle alone. Out of twenty-one "assistants" with whom I have come in contact I have found only eight really good men, five mediocre men, and eight who were very poor. These last eight had no right to be in that position.

It is very easy to spot a good "assistant," and also a poor one. In the first place, the good assistant knows his subject and can present it to his students in an intelligent way. In the second place, his attitude to his students is friendly. The poor "assistant" very often is so unable to teach that he completely conceals whatever knowledge he has of the subject. He gives the impression of knowing nothing whatsoever about it. He also gives the impression that he is out to "beat" the student in a little game that he wins if he can give the student a low mark, and he loses if he can't; An "assistant" should assist the students in his course as well as the professor, and it is high time that they did so. Eight poor "assistants" out of twenty-one is entirely too high a proportion.

I do not know how "assistants" are chosen, so I cannot offer any remedy for the system, but I can say that an assistant's position should not be the means of any graduate student working his way through for a Ph.D., nor should it be a position for any man who happens to want it who can flash a Phi Beta Kappa key. One does not have to be a scholar to be a teacher.

The assistant should be interested in his work as assistant, and too many of them are not. One of the secrets of teaching is to inspire and arouse the interest of the students; this is as much the assistant's job as it is the professor's because it is with the former, generally, with whom the student comes in closer contact.

Isn't there some way whereby assistants can be picked who can do these simple things?