Changes Seen

This influx of applicants has required much more selectivity than was allowed in the past, and as those who survive the admissions race are turning out to be brighter each year, the college pressure has worked in two ways to make the curriculum stiffer in school--in bringing more able students each year and in requiring more achievement for admission. This year and next will see broad changes in certain areas of study at Middlesex. In the field of languages, three years of German will be offered, instead of only two as before. German will now be in direct competition with French as a language study. And in extending this program, the school has eliminated one of the banes of college applicants--the two-year language study. It had found that less than three years of any language left even the brightest students in a difficult position on College Board exams. Their scores, even if good for second-year students, were not likely to be high enough to impress colleges. And in further changes, Middlesex now starts people on languages earlier in their school career if they wish--it is possible to start French in seventh, eight or ninth grades, and Latin and German are similarly pushed ahead.

Science and Math Revisions

The Sciences and Mathematics programs have also undergone revisions, with a particularly strong emphasis on biology and natural history courses and a new advanced math courses giving a solid introduction to calculus. There has been a particularly large demand recently for the Physics and Chemistry courses which are electives in the upper two classes, and the teaching of these subjects is now being brought up to date with the assistance of an M.I.T. science teaching program. But this does not mean that the school feels an increased need to push all students ahead in the sciences. One math teacher observes that only the most mature as well as bright students will be able to take the most advanced math course. "The rest," he says, "need the old pound and repeat." And science courses are only required for the youngest two classes.

Teaching in the sciences and languages has improved since Sputnik I. Yet Terry denies that this public awakening is responsible for the school's curriculum changes. In fact he thinks it quite unlikely that Sputnik-inspired pressure will have any effect on the school, unless it be indirectly, through pressure on colleges. Rather, the changes have evolved naturally, through faculty turnover and normal self-evaluation.

The Place of the School

Relatively untouched by the waves of public opinion now hitting the public schools, small independent schools like Middlesex can continue to operate pretty much as they please. If the front-page place of education in the past eight months has had any effect in relation to the prep school, it has been to diminish the public conception of the private school as a "nest of snobs." While the larger private school, or even the very good public school, may offer a better and more varied textbook education, neither can provide the individual attention and the chance for personal development which, ideally anyway, the small private school gives