THE THINKER

In the perennial gladiatorial combat at Harvard between the proponents and opponents of research versus teaching, the debate rarely turns toward the pith of the controversy, namely the balance of research and development in the individual student. As a theory the whole question of the relative importance of research and teaching is debatable but since the Harvard attitude attaches significance to both these phases of education, a corresponding amount of attention must be paid to the influence of both teaching and research on the development of the student who seeks a reason for four years at college.

The present test of undergraduate reaction toward education is found almost solely in examinations of one type of another. All these examinations have time limitations in common and their grading, especially in large courses, depends not upon the reaction of the student to the facts, theories, or superficial generalities which he has gained from lectures, books, or tutoring schools, but upon the condensation of these acquired bits of knowledge. Strangely enough it is in the smaller courses, in which individual contact between the professor and the student enables a more understanding judgment of the student's worth, that theses are assigned. In these courses, the man interested in his work can unfold his reactions to the knowledge with some degree of honest originality.

In the large courses, where the professor has no contact with the men who take notes from his lectures two or three times a week, such theses are essential, but they are rarely assigned and still more rarely do they produce an answering effect on the grades. If large courses are to provide a full opportunity to judge the ability of students to read, remember, and think, the adoption of theses closely connected with the regular work of the field will be the first step toward the solution of the problem.

The men who strive for something more than a well written blue book will welcome the occasion to turn a few hours of memory work to the discussion of topics in which they find a new source of influence. The casual student, well versed in the mechanics of organizing three hours of erudition will suffer and very justly do so, if the theses assume their proper position. But the hardworking and thinking student who finds that his greatest efforts place him among the ranks of those who cultivate gentlemanly C's will be saved from a period of pessimism concerning, college education.