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Salient: An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria University, Wellington Vol. 24, No. 6. 1961.

On Tutorials

On Tutorials

Sir,—In a Stage 2 English tutorial, on two occasions recently, the class has been set a written exercise to be done in the tutorial hour. I acknowledge that this type of exercise may be very beneficial to the student, and excellent preparation for planning examination answers. But surely this is defeating the purpose of tutorials, in which it is intended that the student voices his opinion to the inevitable enlightenment of his class-mates. The tutorial hour is supposed (and it is the English Department that puts forward this supposition) to be the hour of informal discussion, both of the material brought up during the lectures, and of the new and personal ideas that emerge from the student's own subtle contemplation and interpretation of the works in hand. This sort of impromptu written exercise is a practice of secondary school English teachers, and is right and proper there—but why should the University student, whose hours of instruction and guidance are few, have to put up with it while sacrificing the sole opportunity for personal discussion?

Yours faithfully,

Roger Asham.