SIGN OF THE TIMES

The announcement of the Government Department's new non-credit courses marks an important development of the present educational trend from note-talking to tutorial discussion. The gap between the tutor and the classes of his tutee has been inevitably wide in the past, and these lectures, dealing with broad topics, knitting together many aspects of the field, may supply the necessary coherence.

There is small question but that these lectures will be of import to the student in the preparation for his General Examinations, that he will find them valuable aid for cementing regular course work into a thorough conception of his particular field.

More significant, however, is the progress they represent towards the ultimate aim of the tutorial system. Coincident with their adoption, it is expected that there will be a reduction from the number of required courses, and an increase in the student's work with his tutor. This will permit the tutee to put most of his course work on elemental and distributive subjects, depending on the non-credit general lectures and his tutorial for the majority of his college education.

As a straw in the wind, it vindicates the optimism raised by President Conant's report; but the era of impersonal education, hack teaching, and crowded classrooms demands a greater reform than the reorganization of a single department.