A POSSIBLE SOLUTION

The solution of the universities' problem is not to be sought in new systems and requirements, but in a changed point of view. More emphasis must be placed, as President Lowell has urged, on building the brain and less on storing it. But this new attitude is unlikely to grow without being cultivated.

A plan aiming to foster criticism of basic assumptions has been outlined and heartily approved by the tutors of one of the Houses. It has been proposed that candidates for Honors in each of several fields read papers, prepared with the help of their tutors, before the tutors and interested members of the House. Efforts would be made in choosing and handling a subject to consider some of the basic principles involved in the field. In discussion of the paper, guided by tutors, it would be attempted to justify study in the field concerned by analyzing its relations to other subjects and its contribution to general philosophy.

To organize such meetings and to make them effective would require careful thought by the tutors. But the added burden is justified by the incontestable importance of the undertaking. That undergraduate interest could be aroused if the purpose and potentialities of the plan were made clear can scarcely be doubted.

The House Plan has brought together men from different fields, but casual conversation, with its tendency to stay on the surface, does not produce the intellectual clash, and consequent examination of fundamentals, which ought to make the Houses vital intellectual influences as well as superior eating clubs. The plan for House forums is an ideal one; its realization would be difficult. But the prize is worth all the effort which can go toward attaining it.