Tissues of Truth

Definitions of liberal education abound--they range from the cultivation of gentlemanly tastes to the development of a certain frame of mind. All of them, however, emphasize the mature consideration of ideas. As a tool for developing this mature consideration, whether at Oxford or in Palo Alto, nothing has proven more fruitful than the writing of papers. In this light, it is disgraceful that a student of the humanities or the social sciences can go through a complete college year without writing more than two or three course papers.

The principle of paper-writing is certainly recognised in the lower-level General Education courses, which in their attempt to bestir sluggard minds, usually require at least four papers apiece. Instructors of departmental and upper-level General Education courses, however, often require no more than an hour exam. Hour exams do serve to test one's mental agility. And they make a good game, in which one sees how well he can furnish a blue-book from the warehouse of a vacant mind. Even if one does know the material, hour exams permit little time for serious deliberation of a question. The reward goes to the snap-decision, not the really rational consideration.

Papers, on the other hand, encourage a careful study on a problem and a sincere effort to understand its every aspect. Because a paper points more toward understanding than toward argumentation, it proves a much more effective educational device than the hour exam.

Tutorial papers are, of course, of some help, but course papers have the advantage of correlating a vaster amount of material, material seen within a very definite context.

It is this greater amount of material to which course instructors object. Papers are more difficult to grade than hour exams because of their length and because their higher thought content requires more careful deliberation from the grader. This, however, is not a valid argument against having more papers in courses. If the college considers papers to be a really valuable stimulus to education, it must hire more graduate students to perform the drudgery of grading. In this way, it will develop the ability to work out a problem thoroughly instead of the now prevalent hour exam spirit of gamesmanship.