A LTHOUGH we have been reared, so to speak, on the milk of progressive methods of education, fundamentally our mode of teaching has remained very much the same. This in itself may not say much one way or other. If anything, it might be construed to mean that the fundamentals of education are so sound that neither time nor man can radically change them. If this be true, our students have not been happier for it. A college Freshman once told me that the only difference that he could see between a high school and a college was that in college one had to read more books and write longer papers. He had expected something quite different, he said. What this something was he did not say, and, had I asked him, very likely he could not have told me. The late George M. Forbes, professor of philosophy, University of Rochester, once pleasantly surprised his class with the announcement that there would be no textbooks, no required readings, no examinations. In so far as the class was concerned, this indeed was without a precedent. Just imagine, to study philosophy without a book! The procedure was simple enough. The class was given a series of questions for discussion. When a conclusion to a problem was reached, either individually or collectively, each student was to write a brief summary of the way he, or the class as a whole, had arrived at it. Although the class was large over fifty, I believe the results were somewhat amazing. Students who otherwise discussed nothing but sports and dances now took time to debate such questions as free will, unselfishness, and prudential motives. Many, of their own accord, were perusing books on philosophy, to steal a march on the professor or their unsuspecting colleagues. I wonder if Mr. Forbe's unorthodox method of teaching may not tentatively point the way to this something which the previously mentioned Freshman had vainly hoped to find at his college. This, however, is not to be construed as a plea for a college without books but rather as one for a wiser use of them. The book may prove an indispensable source of information as well as of knowledge, but it is not indispensable as a medium of education. Ever since the invention of writing, the book has enjoyed certain attributes usually associated with incantations and the magic formula; as such, it was deemed