Harvard Undergraduate Teachers are not students who are dying to get into teaching as soon as possible. Although some definitely want to teach, others are not sure and some probably do not want to teach at all. But as David M. Goldberg '59 commented when asked about his motives for originating the group, "You can help put out a fire without wanting to be a fireman."

Because of its youth and experimental nature, the group operates in a flexible, vague way. Once an applicant gets over the initial hurdle of Group IV, junior standing, and honor grades in his field, he arranges his schedule and program directly with the school principal or department head and with his classroom teacher. He reports back to HUT only occasionally.

So far, activities range from directing advanced work in labs to accumulating and arranging outside reading for a history class. Later, the course may include anything an undergraduate knows about that will fit into the pupil's curriculum--as long as the scheduling is less than ten hours a week, the maximum time an HUT agrees to give the program.

As the undergraduate acquires more assurance and experience, he is encouraged to expand his activities. Thus Frank R. Rossiter '59, now giving a series of weekly talks on British History to a Newton High School world history class, will later on in the term work with advanced students on certain topics in ancient history.

If the need is for a "labman" and the HUT would like to work in small groups, he can confer with advanced students on special projects. Most public high school teachers do not have time for work with especially talented students, thus Jerry Bell '58 is able to assist chemistry teachers at Newton High and Judith Silk '59 can work with a Somerville High teachers setting up chemistry experiments.

Other arrangements can be made within the program's flexible limits. Rodney Hinkle 2L teaches a "Problems In Democracy" course, which enables him to utilize his interest in law problems. Jerry Siegel and William Ross, MIT seniors, are coaching advanced physics students in Belmont and Newton.

The success of the experiment so far has derived from the benefits it produces to the schools as well as to the undergraduates. David Goldberg points out that an HUT can fill in the gaps in a teacher's knowledge and bring a fresh approach to the subject. New theories which an undergraduate is studying can be discussed with advanced students.

An HUT does not spend all his time in the classroom. Preparation for talks and drawing up assignments take up time away from school. Classroom time includes observation or leading question periods. These different activities may add up to the maximum of ten hours, but the amount of time spent varies.

Classroom teachers are enthusiastic, if only because they don't have to write reports on HUT's as they do for the horde of "practice teachers" from local college teacher-training programs. And the scheduling process is so flexible that teachers do not feel an HUT is trespassing on his domain. The relationship between the two "varies from flunky to research assistant, to guest lecturer," as a Newton High HUT put it.

"Sympathy, but...."

Like many undergraduate organizations, HUT was the child of a midnight bull session--this time in Lowell House last December. Goldberg took the idea of students helping out in high schools and presented it to several possible supporters, but received no real encouragement until he went to Deans Herzog and Keppel of the Graduate School of Education. Herzog pointed out that they could give some definite support whereas the Yard had "sympathy but ..." about the idea. The Deans served as a liason between Goldberg and schools that might be interested and also gave official sanction to the group.

Goldberg and John Provine '60 tested their idea out last spring at Newton High and established its validity. Convinced by their success, other schools picked up the program this fall.

New Vocabulary

As a guinea pig for the HUT last spring, Goldberg worked in a history class at Newton High. He and Social Studies teacher Charles Peltier worked together on a short unit about Karl Marx. He found that a new vocabulary was needed for teaching in high school, but after a session he confirmed that it "was a lot of fun."

One of the HUT's said that he thought he might not have a chance to have a look at teaching after this year and "wanted to know what it was all about" before graduating. Another knew of the over crowded conditions and thought he might be able to help out with the slower students in a class.