"4. That they also be required to do further reading upon their general field of concentration and take the necessary number of courses specified for Senior year;

"5. That at the end of their Senior year they be required to take a general oral examination covering the field of concentration with special reference to that portion of the held in which their thesis topic falls.

"6. That distinction be awarded upon the combined evidence of course grades, enters recommendations the written Junior generals, the oral Senior generals, and the distinction thesis.

"7. That candidates for a degree without distinction be required to take the general examinations at the end of their Senior year as all candidates do."

SENIORS NEED STILL MORE FREEDOM

The report recommends that the plan be made sufficiently elastic to give every encouragement to those students who decide to try for distinction late in their college careers. It proposes, moreover, that all Seniors who obtain a grade of B or better at the Mid-year examinations be excused from the requirements in that course for the second half-year. In such cases, it is suggested that the tutor be given complete discretion to require such a Senior to attend classes or nor depending upon his own greatest need.

The last section of the report contains a general criticism of Harvard teaching and points out the essential difference between the function of the college and that, of both the predatory school and the graduate school.

"After all, why is knowledge so highly prized?" asks the committee. "Surely it is because of its power to throw light on the problems of human life. It seems reasonable to assert that all knowledge was philosophical in origin. When primitive man first raised the questions. "What?" and "Why" about life he originated the germs from which have sprung all our increasing categories of knowledge.

"The notion seems to be prevalent that the inspirational teacher must of necessity, be an interior scholar. It seems to students that just the opposite is true: that the highest scholarship is that which is riches in human values and that the presence of this additional human quality is that which distinguishes the scholar teacher from the pedant of the old Germanic school.

The report ends with a plea for a more general recognition of this fact by Harvard professors and instructors.

"Harvard is so large, it is not a unit at all. . . . The committee is convinced that the ultimate solution is to divide the upper classmen transversely into permanent groups for purposes of residence; or, in other words to subdivide Harvard College into colleges. . . .

"Candidates for distinction be required to complete the general knowledge of their field of concentration by the end of their Junior year.

"When primitive man first raised the questions, 'What?' and 'Why?' about life he originated the germs from which have sprung all our increasing categories of knowledge. . . .

"The notion seems to be prevalent that the inspirational teacher must of necessity, be an inferior scholar."

"At the present time when organized religion has ceased to command the allegiance of a large number of students, it becomes urgently necessary that the college teach the business of life in all its aspects. The committee recommends, therefore, that a course in Philosophy be made a requirement for distinction without the alternative of Mathematics. . . .

"College education is not simply a matter of attending classes and getting satisfactory grades. . . .

"The dormitories are to the social side of college life what the classroom and lecture halls are to the academic side. . . ."