The term paper; its values and dangers

The mere fact that a thing or person has possibilities of good in large amount is no assurance that good will result from the use of that thing or from the individual possessed of that possibility. A superficial study of existing conditions is all that is necessary to ascertain the truth of this statement. The term paper is a valuable instrument in secondary and higher education but is abused and falls far short of its possibilities, because of the clumsy use of a good technique by both teachers and pupils alike. If one was to ask a number of teachers, using this device, what purpose the term paper best served they would probably most frequently receive some form of the following statements: (1) It may be used as a supplement to the regular class work to bring in material that ordinary members will be unable to obtain due to lack of time in class or ability in the pupils; (2) It serves the purpose of offering to better pupils a chance to enrich their school work and in some cases to secure a better grade; (Grades are not what we ought to be after, but it is one thing that many teachers emphasize to the point of causing many of our students to strive for them); (3) It gives a chance for valuable training in organizing valuable data and materials into more accessible and usable form; (4) and, it serves the purpose of giving an opportunity for doing rudimentary research and thus developing skill in solving problems along the line covered by the particular course. The term paper seems to aid in developing several worth-while abilities. Students are required to state a problem in workable form and collect bibliographies covering the topic. They must evaluate, eliminate, and organize the data after they have been found and collected. Many times this takes them into libraries but frequently an experiment must be devised or some accepted form of collecting data that is not available in libraries. Conclusions must be drawn and evaluated upon the basis of adequacy of sampling and reliability of sources. Many times the conclusion is unjustified by the data but the development of the technique is more valuable than the academic and etherial facts collected.