Cries of over-specialization have been echoing through the buildings of Harvard for many years, in fact these cries have been so insistent that they have not ceased long enough to consider whether or not anything is being done about it. Several years ago in Eliot House joint tutorial conferences were set up in an attempt to draw the students out of the isolation of their own field of concentration and show them that a subject can be approached in more ways than one. Spasmodically a few other Houses pursued the same plan, but it was only the initiative of a few men that saved an extremely beneficial custom from dying out. Here is a palliative for the injuries of over-specialization, yet very few people are even conscious of its existence.

At first thought the idea of a physicist and an historian thrashing out a common subject over a conference table seems rather futile. Yet last year there was a highly successful discussion in Eliot House comparing the scientific method with that of the social sciences. Perhaps more feasible, however, is a joint discussion among kindred fields. Next week, for instance, the tutors and tutees in History, History-Literature and Music will approach the question of patronage of the arts, presumably from three different points of view.

Since inter-House discussions would be unwieldy and difficult to organize, it remains up to the separate Houses to push forward these meetings. Not only would regular discussions destroy some of the dangers of over-specialization but also they would constitute a positive intellectual contribution to the college on the part of the Houses. Though unspectacular as yet, these meetings have great potentialities which if realized would represent another triumph for the tutorial system at Harvard.