Seats of Learning

Only after lengthy deliberation could the Administration have removed the history-covered tables in Sever Hall. Yet, in making this considered move, no one suggested that the tradition of which the tables were a part needed alteration. Like the old, the new arrangement of individual desk-chairs puts a premium on the lecture system in small class rooms. Teacher remains on an enlarged platform with students in rows before him.

There is nothing inherently valuable in the lecture system. It has always been excused as the only way of bringing the professor in contact with a large number of students. No one could possibly defend it as the best educational method for groups small enough to be organized as conferences. Such groups, particularly in foreign literature, predominate in Sever. Both by custom and by form however, they are receiving the same treatment as classes of 300.

Rows of seats are preferred over a conference table becauses they accommodate large classes. But the practice of moulding educational techniques to the capacity of available class rooms is hardly worthy of America's wealthiest University. Professors who find undergraduates incapable of benefitting from the conference method fail to understand that discussion cannot begin spontaneously after 45 minutes of one-way communication. Participation must be fostered, and it needs mechanical encouragement in room design.

Before the Administration undertakes further renovating of the plant, it should examine the purposes for which the building exist. A Council Report, giving the "Students' view" of Harvard education, received high praise from the Dean's Office last spring. The Administration would do well to ask the Council's advice--as it did for the Lamont Library--in putting the "students' view" into practice.