CIRCLING THE SQUARE

"With breezy informality, Mr. Kimball brings the operatic stage to you for your pleasure. Without its mothballs and sometimes outdated traditions, the music and action take on new life and dramatic power." This introduction is typical of those to be found in the fall course catalogue for the Cambridge Center for Adult Education, a twelve-year-old information bazaar housed in William Brattle's 294-year-old manse next to the Brattle Hall Theater.

In addition to its course on "Enjoying Opera," the Adult Education Center this fall will offer classes encompassing over 60 other topics. Ranging from the "A B C's of Investments" to "Life Drawing," these topics will attract nearly 1300 adult students from within a 30-mile radius of Cambridge.

One of the nation's few successful adult education centers, the Cambridge center owes much of its success to the assistance given it by Professor Kirtley Mather and other Harvard officers. When originally conceived in 1938 as an activity of the Cambridge Social Union, the Center applied to its Boston counterpart for guidance. At that time, Mather was president of the Boston organization, and he went out of his way to aid Cambridge in setting up its branch. The enrollment that first year topped 300, and the organizers were encouraged into expanding the following year. More rooms were turned over to classes and the basement was made into a well-equipped workshop, while the number of courses grew steadily. In 1940, the Center broke away from the Boston organization and set itself up as an independent Brach of the Social Union.

In addition to providing a casual atmosphere conducive to voluntary study, the Center is well stocked with top-quality instructors. The investment course, for instance, is conducted by Ralph B. Dibble, account executive for Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner, and Beane and an instructor at Boston University. A course in contract bridge is given by Forrest N. Maddix, an authorized teacher of the Culbertson System, while William Drake, staff artist on the Christian Science Monitor, offers instruction in cartooning and newspaper drawing.

The Center, however, doesn't draw the line on its activities at the classroom. A series of monthly programs is always on tap for the general public and members, including concerts by its music staff and contract bridge sessions.

This term's enrollment of almost 1300 is an all-time high. Most of the directors, taking into consideration the recent drop in employment and slight economic regression, had previously expected the number of "students" to drop at this time. Although most classes cost only eight dollars for ten-meeting semesters, they were afraid that the public might hold its money in higher esteem than the Ceenter's courses. They were wrong. It seems that most adults already know something about the A B C's of Investments, and consider the Center's dividend of knowledge a thoroughly enjoyable and profitable one.