SCHOLASTIC RECIPROCITY

In the light of President Conant's recent pioneering into new fields of educational theory, it is fitting that two educational conferences should gather at Harvard this week and next while the topics he discussed are still fresh in mind. Under the aegis of the Graduate School of Education, two representative bodies of teachers will recapitulate the year's work, will listen to the counsel of some of the most eminent men in academic circles, and then will marshal their knowledge for an assault on those baffling problems which are constantly arising to perplex teachers.

The first of the two assemblies, that of the New England Association of English Teachers, convened yesterday afternoon. Today it will conclude its group conferences, but next week it will merge in part into the small daily gatherings which will precede the plenary sessions of the second conference--that of the University Teachers Association. It is in these small meetings that the basic framework for much new educational theory is evolved--theories which will be carried into actual practice in the ensuing year throughout New England. Harvard is indeed fortunate to have such annual gatherings as these promulgating new ideas under its wings, thus giving the University a chance to bless lesser schools with its findings, and also a chance to benefit by any findings of the lesser schools, a much needed form of reciprocation.