FREER CURRICULUM

At first sight the statement from President Neilson of Smith that the curriculum will be altered next year to allow much greater freedom to Freshmen and Sophomores seems to bear great significance as contrary to the strong trend away from free election and toward required general knowledge for first and second year men in the American colleges and universities today. A closer examination of just what this greater freedom means, however, immediately lends a different interpretation to the news.

A specified amount of distribution is still required. The undergraduate must before graduation pass examinations showing an ability to read two foreign languages, he must have taken during Freshman and Sophomore years six hours each in the general divisions of English, literature, and music, of science, and laboratory science, of history, government, economics, and philosophy. This system is strikingly similar to that employed at Harvard and all other of the more progressive educational institutions of the country.

The reasons given for the change are these: "to make the course of study flexible enough to be adapted to the needs and desires of the individual and to lay down requirements designed primarily for the assistance of the good rather than for the support of the poor student."

This might well be described as the article of faith back of the whole system of concentration and distribution, of guidance strictly limited and of adaptation to the student rather than to the "collegian." It is highly encouraging to watch its development and expansion in one college after another. With greater and wider experience in its application its defects will be discovered and eliminated with much greater success than would be possible if it remained confined to only one or two institutions of higher learning.