A STEP FORWARD

Breaking the bonds of a thirteen-year tradition, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences upon the recommendation of the administrative Board has voted to abolish the Rank List, for upper classmen. Since the inception of the tutorial system there has been felt a necessity for such action in order to lessen the emphasis placed upon course grades, and to give proportionate credit for tutorial work.

Such action was inevitable if the tutorial system was to assume an important place in the educational program of the college. At last the traditional system of ranking students will be made flexible enough to take into account a student's originality and his ability to do independent work without complete regimentation imposed by courses. But the abolition of the Rank List must not be considered as solving finally the problem of independence from the routine of courses. This can only be accomplished by abolishing course grades. If some distinction between the work done by student is desired, three grades could adequately the three types of work students do. Besides providing the student with a sufficient estimate of his work they would relieve the instructor of teh difficult task of deciding whether a student deserves a C plus or a B minus. Honor degrees could be awarded upon the student's showing in general and special examinations within his field and upon the recommendation of his tutor. The latter is in a much better position to pass upon the student's creative ability and understanding than are most of his instructors, and it is upon the possession of these attributes that the honor's degree should be awarded. Course grades are inadequate, and often unfair tests of a student's understanding or ability to think creatively. Those are best displayed in tutorial work and the culmination of that in general examinations at the end of four year's intensive study.

Education does not mean the ability to lamas a large number of facts but the ability to correlate and understand intelligently what the facts mean and their relative importance. Students who have the ability to learn and recall minute details and unrelated data without any attempt at creative thinking or originality certainly do not deserve to be graduated with honors, as many of them now are. Only with the abolition of course grades can the proper emphasis be given to those attributes of thinking that distinguish an educated man from an uneducated one.