Senior Faculty members could not be counted on for much more tutorial work, if any, unless there was a great cutback in course offerings. Committee responsibilities have increased tremendously (Murdock last fall served on nine Faculty committees) and this seems to preclude the Faculty's deciding to assign itself much more tutorial.
Before Finance
One reason for the lack of a cost estimate and proposals for financing is that all these discussions are still in the preliminary stages, and that the educational desirability of the program has not been established to the satisfaction of the faculty.
The ideas, at least as far as they have been publicly discussed, do have some flaws. There is something illogical in arguing that grades are a poor stimulus to education, and that therefore they will be used only for three years instead of four. Again, if one maintains that grades do not stimulate a student to exceptional work, how can one have confidence that capacity for excellence will be shown by the grades of the first three years? This can be justified only by postulating a remarkable transformation between the junior and senior years, an unlikely concept. Speaking purely in terms of educational philosophy, Murdock agrees, one would have to ask for application of this type of independent education to all, for four years.
In practical terms however, there is no chance of this within the foreseeable future. Budgetary considerations and old-fashioned conservatism would prevent any immediate universality for the plan. There is another great factor, a lingering belief that many of the students in the College actually learn more because of the grade stimulus than they would without it.
Fixing the Limits
If, consequently, there must be limits to the plan, how best may they be fixed? There is nothing wrong with restricting it to honors candidates, provided one is clear of the standards required for honors candidacy. But why institute independence in the senior year? Discarding hour exams and some essays in the junior year curriculum will not prepare the student for a courseless senior year. Removing grades is not so much the aim as making the study more vital, and grades are a symptom as well as a cause of learning's failure to excite.
Tutorial for credit could be required for junior honors candidates. Grades could be given to insure adequate competition with courses, although a tutor who inspired respect would probably not need this club. The tutor should write a searching report on the student, a report carrying great weight in determining his status for the senior year, and his admission to a courseless program.
Nothing is more critical to this program than good teachers. When a professor who has the student's confidence criticizes a piece of work, if only for a minute, the effect is infinitely greater and more permanent than a lengthy treatise in red pencil at the bottom of a blue-book or essay. Perhaps the graduate student who writes there is a better critic than the professor; it does not matter, for the student doesn't know that, and the comment carries little meaning.
Kerby-Miller's View
One of the strongest arguments in favor of increased flexibility for qualified students comes from an area that is intimately concerned with the quality of Harvard education, but is frequently overlooked by that system's planners. Radcliffe's Dean of Instruction, Mrs. Wilma Anderson Kerby-Miller, offered this view:
While a person working just for a grade gets quite a lot out of a course, I wish we didn't have to lay so much stress on grades, particularly in areas like scholarships. We have sixteen and one half courses for everybody, and the same system all the way through.
I often feel that many of those who graduate from Radcliffe could have had a better education, for while we try to educate these people to be critical, the process often stops with college. Something we often forget is that it's important to know how to buy books, and to want to buy books.
Her suggestion is that while the quality of Harvard-Radcliffe education is quite high, it may frequently be too "test-ridden" and fall to develop an inquiring, critical-mind. Sometimes it may only have filled this mind with a certain quantity of facts.
Dean Elder does not regard the problem as this critical although he conceded that it is a real one. While courses suggest a quantity concept of knowledge, he admits, Harvard's approach does no generally do this to a significant degree. "In fact," he says, "because Harvard's education is so good, Harvard must lead the way. If by his senior year in college a man is not ready to think on his own, there is not too much likelihood that another year of courses will lead him to do so."