Here and There

I read the Academic Concentration Plan proposed by the Yale News with interest when it appeared in the paper. The idea is in the general direction in which all the colleges are moving, but it seems to me that like some other suggestions it is carrying an idea, good in itself, too far and to the exclusion of other things.

It is a disadvantage of the system of Oxford and Cambridge that a man comes into close contact only with his tutor. It is true he attends lectures much more than he used to, but the difference betwen attending lectures and taking a course in the American sense, with its effect on the relationship of student and teacher, is very great. We have erred greatly in America in counting credits in courses and making the course the unit of education, whereas there can be only one real unit, that is the student himself. Nevertheless, there is great value in a well conducted course, and a combination of the merits of the Oxford and Cambridge system on one side, and of the best American colleges on the other is, I think, better than either alone.

Therefore, while I deprecate fully the exclusive uses of the courses made in American colleges, I also think it would be unfortunate to abandon for any type of man the value that courses can contribute towards college education. --President Lowell in the Yale News.