SPLENDID ISOLATION

Not failure, but experience is the fruit of the abandoned Experimental College at Wisconsin. In the light of this experience Dr. Meiklejohn now projects a new scheme of education. The new system will have a number of small colleges, entirely separate units, each with its own autonomous faculty. This device is intended to foster an esprit de corps among the students by making them "one in purpose and understanding in the midst of all their differences." The faculty, Dr. Meiklejohn claims, will be improved by being smaller and more coherent, and in closer contact with the students. His experience has led him to believe that this plan will improve the instructors as much as the students.

It is pointed out that the new experimental colleges are not a House plan. Whether, they will be housed in dormitories is left to the results of future experiments. But the parallel of the House Plan and the experimental colleges is important because both plans have similar ideals and methods. Under the Harvard plan House autonomy is completely sacrificed to the University; Dr. Meiklejohn's colleges will be absolutely independent.

This contrast points to the fundamental faults in both systems. The dependence of the various units of the House Plan prevents any individuality in them as educational institutions. But the experimental colleges may be so independent that effective cooperation will be blocked. The esprit de corps and the autonomous faculty may make a student in a particular college forege the benefits of sitting under an outstanding teacher in another college. The destiny of the two systems, the House Plan, and of the experimental colleges of the future, would seem to lead them to a common ground, where the House Plan will have at least the shadow of autonomy, and the splendid isolation of Dr. Meiklejohn's colleges will be modified.