HARVARD FOR ADULTS (2)

Education for adults at Harvard is practicable right now. The Crimson recently stressed the need for a system allowing further training for older men and women who had to leave their schoolbooks to satisfy their pocketbooks. A system similar to that now in effect at Columbia was advocated. The purpose of this editorial is to show how such a scheme is within the University's immediate grasp.

The natural goal for those enrolled in the proposed adult courses would be the "A. A.", or Accumulative Arts degree, already given to those who complete a required number of courses under Harvard instructors in the state-run extension school. There is no need for a new degree; this country is already overrun with initials.

To permit those working in the metropolitan district to attend, the hours for the new courses would be after 5 p. m. on week days and after 2 p. m. on Saturdays. The University would probably have to be satisfied with breaking even in this venture. Such result would be secured by all the grownup students' paying a flat rate per lecture, from which the lecturer's share would be taken.

Finally the question of curriculum could be solved by giving ten courses each year; ten of them stable fare and the others varying to serve the variegated demand. The regulars would probably be made up of the old scholastic guard: History, English Literature, Government, Economics, and so forth. The variables would be chosen out of the motley group represented by the Fine Arts, Music, the Social Sciences, and the Humanities.

Thus whether we look at the forest or at the trees, adult education looks highly desirable and highly workable. Columbia's example should allay the qualms of the skeptics who don't like experiments. Harvard needs only a little urging and a final push to do for Massachusetts what Columbia has done for New York.