A program to help "bring education down to the houses" through more informal academic relations among students and instructors was announced last night by James F. Hornig '50, Co-chairman of the Student Council Education Committee.
Prospective methods to decentrate Harvard learning from the lecture halls and infuse it into the student's daily activities include, among other things, more concentration meetings and the organization of pre-exam discussion groups.
The Committee plans to experiment with different systems in each house, however. A report will be made at the end of the year on which methods have proven the most successful.
A committee will be organized in each House to carry out these extra-classroom educational activities, and the Council committee will supervise with an eye to keeping all on the level of a great "scientific experiment."
Faculty Works for Same End
The Council committee's plan paralled that of a faculty committee now existing under Dean Bender which is considering the return of education to the House level. The Council committee apparently feels the same as the faculty, that opportunities for the student in the large University to have personal contact with other students and with his teachers have been greatly reduced by cuts in tutorial and crowded conditions.
The return of the Houses from their present state as "dormitories" to their intended role as decentralized "educational units" would be one method of effecting this personalization of learning. It is with this in mind that the Council committee starts its plan, and it is for this goal that the faculty committee is considering changing the Deans' setup and placing a dean in each House, along with possible (and as yet unannounced) changes in advising and tutorial programs.
Anticipating Dean Bender's committee report, the Council group under Hornig has already planned as a second phase in its program the review of whatever faculty proposals are forthcoming. After this review the Council committee will report to the Council on the faculty's plan and make recommendations as to changes and adoption.
The third phase in the Educational Committee plans will be a try at more effective freshman orientation. The committee hopes somehow to make the Yardlings familiar with the Houses before they must choose among them. It also may try its hand at the previously faculty-controlled art of freshman advising.
More immediate proposals will be forthcoming, according to Hornig, on such matters as the use of plus and minus in grading and the returning of final exams
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