Lectures

The professor on the platform read- ing off his notes; the students in their seats, scribbling or snoozing, listening or lounging--are these "going out" ? Last week, came the annual report of President Harry A. Garfield of Williams College. Said he: "Under the lecture system, success depends up- on the power of the lecturer to inspire the student to individual work; but the inspirational lecturer is rare. ... In many instances, it has been found that the best results are obtained by abandoning the lecture altogether, or at least by combining it with small divisions. "The members of the Williams faculty favor the continuance of the small division, not merely unanimously, but earnestly." Last week came also President Hibben's report, at Princeton, endorsing his university's new four-course plan for the two upper classes, referring to freshmen as "boys"; to sophomores, juniors, seniors, as "men," of whom a man's initiative is to be expected. And, last week, came also Professor-Poet Robert Frost's theory of "de- tached education." Interviewed by newspapermen upon his resignation-- from the Amherst faculty in order to accept a permanent fellowship at the Literary College of the University of Michigan (TIME, Oct. 20), Mr. Frost dwelt upon this theory: "It might be described as no more than a slight interference with the students in their self-teaching. I have never been able to care much about following boys up with detailed daily questions. I have wanted to sit where I could ask everything of them at once; where, by a challenge, I could ask them to go the whole length, in some one of the Arts, for example."

*Mr. Frost's resignation takes effect in June, 1925.