The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-06-10
YALE PLANS
 NEW SYSTEM Faculty Committee Outlines Method Looking to Improved
 Scholarship IDEA. OF "HONOR GROUP" Adoption of Plan Used at Oxford Combine With the Pre-
 sent System.
IDEA. OF "HONOR GROUP"

The plan for introducing . Pass
 somewhat after the system in use at
 Oxford and Cambridge. and which has been under serious consideration for
 the last three years, is outlined in the
 current number of the Yale Alumni Weekly by the committee of the college
 faculty on the course of study-Pro-
 fessors Edward s. Dana, Edward P.
 Morris, Henry A. Bumstead and Give
 Day. While the system is widely
 changed to adapt it to Yale needs, 1t
 is still a great departure from the
 present plan-athougl1 if adopted, the
 two plans, the new and the old, will
 be continued together for the present.
 Although 1t is not certain that the
 Honors system will be adopted this fall. serious consideration is being
 given 1t and it is likely to be put on
 trial. The plan is new in this coun-
 try.
 posed Yale Honors system follows:
 The general plan on which we have
 been working is in a way an adapta-
 ton of the English system of honors.
 but with essential notifications to
 adapt it to conditions existing here
 tied number of Honors groups. each
 embracing at least two related sub jects. In these the work is to be pre- scribed for sophomore end junior years, but Left more or less elastic in senior year. One or more freshman fundamental and preparatory. The total amount of work called for in these Honors courses would then ag- gregate about one-half of the total sixty hours per week, distributed through the four years. now required %l candidate for Honors would still have left one-half his time for other cleo tive work, except as this may be linn ited by the proposed requirement that Honors students shall have Q reading knowledge of French and German by the end of junior year. Of the Hon ors courses, it Is proposed that fifteen hours shall be embraced in the work of the sophomore and tanior years.
 The scheme would be laid before incoming freshmen in outline, but the choice as to the definite honors group would not be expected from the stu dent till the end of sophomore year. The honor competition would be open l to all. irrespective of previous rank, | and the final grading would depend | on the work in the honors courses alone.
 Two related subjects are called for in the scheme in order that the work
 
 row and specialized: but it contem- plated that in senior year it may be possible for the candidate for honors to devote himself more or less exclu- sively to one of the two subjects which he has pursued up to that point The work of senior year would also in many cases be more free from the minor classroom restrictions than would be the case with the ordinary man. AS examples of the groupings ,IJ@ R>- I th,1c oy. tentatively laid out may be mentioned the following: history and economies, and economies, Greek and Latin French and German, physics and mathematics. chemistry and geol ogy. chemistry and physics. and some others.
 Many of the details of the plan have not as yet been worked out. and it is obvious that the methods of work must differ more or less in different would be to strive to make quality of work. rather than mere quantity. the standard of the honors courses. More over, depend upon special examina- ton at the end of senior year, design ed: to show what the student has ing, rather than to measure the amount of information acquired; the papers for these would not be made out by the instructors in the individual courses.
 In formulating this plan. the mem bers of the committee have been very clear that it is undesirable to attempt to push down into the college the work of the graduate, or of the professional schools: nor have they desired to en- any undue amount of special ization. The underlying thought has been that the best education Is that which is based upon the study of some closely allied subjects in which the student is interested, and which he can carry far enough to get beyond the mere acquisition of facts to the power and training which come from dealing with the higher principles.