A COMPULSORY SMATTERING

While a thorough knowledge of two foreign languages would be an undoubted asset to any American student, the educational conditions, as well as the geographical situation, of this country make it practically impossible for colleges to place so heavy a demand on their undergraduates. Harvard has so regarded such a requirement and has worked out a compromise between that and the minimum of one language consisting in a reading knowledge of another one and a beginner's knowledge of another language. The survey of a representative section of the Senior class printed in this morning's CRIMSON shows that a large number of students get through Harvard without fully measuring up to this standard. About ten percent of the men interviewed had but a slight knowledge of any language; many more knew one but had forgotten their slight acquaintance with the other.

Even to the rest, however, the value of a slight knowledge of any language is at best small, especially when that knowledge is obtained under compulsion. The danger moreover, as today's survey shows of neither language being learned well is often great. As long as Harvard cannot require that two languages be mastered by her students, there is little value in her requiring that two be at least dabbled in. Opportunity will always remain for the aspirant to bilingural attainments--many others would prefer to concentrate on perfecting their knowledge of a single tongue.