Whether we are suffering from an "inflated" marking system was a subject discussed by one of Harvard's professors at a recent recitation. It is this professor's opinion that we are. Doubtless other professors can be found who will not agree with his views. According to the former view, the present standard of marking has by slow abuse gradually become so inflated that now it is quite impossible to give positive marks on a just scale, which shall without unfairness indicate the exact standing of any student. Therefore it has become necessary in order that the marks in any one course may not be out of proportion to the standard of marking employed in other courses for the instructor in that course, either to employ an artificial scale and to assign a general mark much higher than could strictly be given to it were it marked in detail, or else to apply some system of equalization, such as raising all the marks in his course by a certain fraction of the mark assigned to each book, or by a certain per cent of the maximum.

This state of affairs, if correctly represented, no one can deny is truly demoralizing. We are not aware that as yet any satisfactory remedy for it has been suggested. Indeed, it is a very serious question whether in the nature of the case there is any remedy possible, and whether the marking system itself is not to blame for the results. That the marking system is in itself essentially unjust and impracticable in any liberal educational system is an opinion that is already largely held and steadily growing. Moreover, it is our opinion that the present form of the marking system in use at Harvard is the very worst form that is anywhere in use. The subdivision of marks and impracticable distinctions employed at Harvard in many cases, are undeniably evil in their effect. The scale of 10 in use at many colleges or even of 5 in use at Amherst we believe is far preferable. The system is a relic of the educational methods formerly in vogue at this as well as all other colleges, but now with us in all other departments superseded.