"Lady into Fox"

The question proposed for the last of the Open Forums: How far should students control educational Policy? is one which other colleges have in recent years tackled with more or less success and by more or less commendable methods. The survey of our own Students Curriculum Committee has already led to changes in the plan of courses, while at Dartmouth last year, students carried on a careful investigation of the curriculum and suggested wide changes many of which were adopted. Contrast with this the rather undignified symposium of courses published last fall by the Harvard CRIMSON in which each course was individually criticised, giving the personal reactions, pro and con of the students. This is obviously a poor way to go about any constructive criticism of the curriculum. It ultimately collapses into blased prejudices instead of thoughtful suggestions.

It is important to remember in any student attempt to control or change educational methods that attention must be directed to the curriculum itself, not to its interpreters.

Furthermore, the student has the obvious handicap of a lack of perspective, She is directly on top of her course. As a result she cannot draw much comparison from her own experience or judge entirely what is not good for her.

While the attitude that students, like patients should merely take their medicine without questioning its contents, is certainly deplorable, the limitations which students face when they try to control educational policy are great and not to be overlooked. Vassar Miscellany News., May 1.