Word: student
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Dates: during 1910-1919
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Before the Faculty decides in favor of extending the general examination plan now used in the Division of History, Government, and Economics to other departments, the failure of the tutorial plan in the present system should be remedied. The average student derives almost no benefit from his fortnightly tutorial conferences, and until the middle of his Senior year looks upon them as an unpleasant and useless extra task to be hurried over and forgotten. Then, too late, he realizes his mistake and sees the connecting and comprehensive values his work has failed to gain...
...system, tutors hand in at the end of the year to the heads of the division their opinions of the ability and work of the men under their supervision. But this annual marking is too intangible and far distant a threat to be of real value in urging the student to look upon his conferences as important...
Would not converting the fortnightly conferences into a compulsory course with a half-point credit for a year's work solve the problem? The plan should certainly be continued as it is most beneficial in linking up a student's single courses and in filling up the gaps in his chosen period. The realization of the fact that he was being closely marked on his work and that he was gaining credit for his efforts would make the average student apply himself to his tutorial conferences. Debates at conferences between students or written essays and reports upon the assigned work...
...Harvard--as is the case in all American colleges--there is little real stimulus for high intellectual achievement. A Phi Beta Kappa key is the only incentive, and, in general, this is accessible only to men with an unusual ability for cataloging and remembering facts. The student who lacks enthusiasm for Phi Beta Kappa turns his attention to some college activity other than scholarship where he is stimulated by what he feels to be real competition. These activities, although they offer valuable experience, are not--can never be, a substitute for scholastic work...
...people, not as individuals. Yet, when we examine his statements we find much truth in them. And paramount among the explanations which we can offer for the dearth of individualism in the United States stands our educational system, with its emphasis on the average student. Our colleges seem altogether to encourage a dead-leveling process, which stifles great individual attainment...