BLUE BOOK BLUES

Blue books should be returned after Mid-year and Final examinations. The fact that they are either destroyed or secreted in shy, departmental corners kills whatever interest the examined may have in what he did not know and places the emphasis entirely on getting through with a passing mark. In the Harvard of today, regular course work is only a foundation for a complicated superstructure of tutors, language requirements, Reading Period work, and Divisionals. It is not too much to assume that the majority of undergraduates consider this foundation of sufficient importance to be curious to see how they obtained the indefinite alphabetical tag which is returned to them.

It is said that the University keeps the blue books as records. No adequate explanation of this custom has ever been forwarded. Concentration, distribution, divisionals are magic words which open up a bulging treasure house of scholastic complications. It would be interesting to obtain the "Open Sesame" to the warehouse where the blue books are stored. If the college authorities find this year that all the available space in this mythological spot is filled to repletion it would be a simple matter to send out a short announcement as to where the blue books for each course may be secured.