Harvard and other colleges have not yet adjusted their curriculum to the summer session. It is far more difficult, for example, to take a useful number of courses when the summer term is not even approximately the same length as the others. Stanford has made things easier by dividing the regular year into three parts, instead of the normal two.

Eliot's Proposal

The summer school is gaining popularity on its own, but while it offers some students and teachers great opportunities, it fails to cope with some of the problems which the widely discussed four-quarter plan could handle.

Back as far as 1883, President Eliot had proposed to the Board of Overseers that the Harvard curriculum should be modified to let a student complete his college work in three years. For twenty-five consecutive years he put the proposal before the Board, and each time it was rejected.

Forty years passed before Harvard again considered the idea of a three-year college. In 1949, President Conant requested a full and thorough examination of the entire undergraduate curriculum, to see if a three-year college program were possible.

Although he made his proposal in very strong terms, it was not carried through, perhaps because Harvard felt that it was already in the midst of one major experiment--the General Education program. However, this proposal too would have done little to ease the position of teachers; the problem of full use during the summer would have remained untouched.

All these programs for giving students a chance to learn during the summer fail to solve the real problem: until the summer session is compulsory, only a minority of students will attend, and a third of the year will still be wasted. A few students who want extra learning will not make up for the majority who are content to stay with the old schedule. Only a radical approach like the four-quarter program seems likely to break through the inertia and provide the efficiency, economy, and opportunity which the more conventional proposals seek to duplicate.

Established Formula

At present no major institution appears ready to adopt the four-quarter program. From secondary and prep schools to colleges, parents and students seem set against it; and where the pressure of admissions permits the institution to dictate terms, the problem of fixed income from endowment and of success based on an established formula seem insurmountable.

If the outlook for such solution is dim, however, the necessity is overwhelming. Without it, there is little prospect that the immediate shortage of teachers can be solved, that the ever-rising cost of classrooms can be met, or that the rising tide of those who wish to be educated can find a place in our schools and colleges.