PROGRESS

One of Harvard's chief claims to educational leadership lies in the trend away from forceful, towards voluntary instruction. The fact that this has become almost a commonplace to Harvard men under the form of the Lowellism "all education is self-education" ought not to obscure the fact that there is still much to be accomplished along the general lines already laid down.

Professor Holcombe's attitude in completely revising Government 1, to answer constantly growing criticism of what was almost generally conceded to be the classic example of the preparatory school course in college, is a step so obviously in the right direction that it deserves more than passing mention from those vitally interested in Harvard's progressive policy. The main point in his new program, as any one can deduce from a careful reading of the Confidential Guide to Government 1, included in today's issue of the CRIMSON is not chiefly a change in the periods between quizzes or the order in which the governments of the various countries are considered. Rather it is the type of reading assigned and whether it is intended to teach the student just how governments are conducted or to arouse a serious and individual interest in the more essentially cultural subject of historical political theory in its broader aspects.

The experiment may or may not prove to be successful in its present untried form; it at least deserves unqualified commendation.