PHI BETES AND DUMB BUNNIES

In most of the introductory courses at the present time, of which History 1 is the conspicuously successful exception, men who get grades of A sit in the same section as those with C's and E's, as though they were all on an intellectual par. This arrangement is due to a supposition, proved quite erroneous by the results, that men of high intellectual capacities will be helped by such close contact with their mental inferiors and vice versa. This would work out successfully if it were merely contact which the student gets in such a levelled arrangement. However, by all mathematical laws, the sections must inevitably run on at the mean level of intelligence of the men who make it up. As a result, the sections are usually designed for the C-man, acting as a ball-and-chain on the student fitted to go on at a brisker pace and leaving in a hopeless cloud of academic dust the E-man who cannot possibly keep up the pace.

The superiority of History 1 shows the advantages of sections designed more in accordance with intellectual differences. The A-men are organized into mature conference groups in which they can do advanced work and engage in informal and profitable discussion with their instructors and fellow students. The E-men are concentrated in the so-called "dumb bunny" sections where they deal with fundamentals and learn the truth about history in as painless a way as possible. Between the two outposts, the C-men go on at their accustomed pace, neither hindered by their inferiors nor painfully stepped-up by the comparatively breakneck speed of the A-men.

Though it must inevitably bring with it administrative difficulties, this reorganization of the large introductory courses appears to be highly advisable. The present disregard for individual capacities is in large measure responsible for the lack of flexibility now so prominent in the elementary courses.