CONCENTRATED DISTRIBUTION II

Last week the question of distribution was discussed in these columns with the conclusion that in place of the present science and philosophy or mathematics requirements it might be wise to allow a student to substitute either a course in the history of scientific thought or one in the history of philosophic thought, with the material in the latter taken, not primarily from the sources, but more from secondary works in an effort to study the progress of philosophic thinking through history. The reason for this conclusion is drawn merely from the fact that the average undergraduate mind is probably incapable of comprehending philosophy by reading it directly from the sources.

Using a philosophy course as an alternate to a science the question of the Mathematics requirement then comes to the fore. Despite the present tendency of the secondary schools to make more advanced Mathematics optional it seems best not to strike it from the required rolls. Mathematical training in thinking can be of vast importance, but unfortunately it has been thought recently to be less and less essential to the makeup of the educated man. One has the feeling, however, that this tendency has grown merely because of the pressure applied by the secondary schools in this direction. Inasmuch as a single requirement without any alternate is extremely distasteful to present ideas of education, it seems wise to allow for Mathematics an alternate. For this Latin or Greek has been suggested, and it seems to be sound advice. It is indeed unfortunate that the present generation of educated men are receiving their diplomas without a satisfactory knowledge of either Latin or Greek. This may be traced to the tendency in the high schools, especially the public ones, to drop Latin from the curriculum. For this reason the Universities say that they must cater to the schools or they will be unable to find men to fill their halls of learning. It is regrettable that secondary education is in in the saddle to such an extent that the institutions of higher learning, which really should be the dictators, are now forced to follow the schools and agree to their ideas. The excuse of the colleges seems only to be that they must obey the schools now, in order that later, when they are allied with them they may be able to stiffen the requirements. Such an answer to as important a problem as this is most unsatisfactory. For is it not conceivable that the eventual result may be that the schools will gradually exert more and more sway over the universities until the latter are no longer able to secure the changes for which they had hoped?

Such seems to be the present feeling toward the classics, the secondary schools pay less attention to them; ergo, so must the colleges. If Harvard could make Latin or Greek an alternate requirement to Mathematics, this would show that although they were following the secondary schools to a certain extent, they still did desire to have the classics on their list of essential courses. Although a knowledge of them can be gained in translation, the beauties of the language, the real meaning of the authors, and the good training that their study gives are best acquired from reading in the original. The one unfavorable aspect of the elementary classics courses at Harvard is the manner in which they are given. One really cannot achieve a real understanding of the authors from reading them in a schoolboy manner in Latin B. Such uninteresting teaching is not conducive to acquiring a love of the language or the things which are written in it. One learned classicist has suggested that the real way to secure a knowledge and love of ancient literature is to read it in translation until you have sufficient interest to try it in the original. This is probably true, but it seems almost impossible to let undergraduate minds learn it in that manner.

Until better methods for teaching the classics can be devised for undergraduates, it still seems wise to allow a man the chance to take one of them as part of a requirement, and since their study leads one to logical thinking somewhat in the nature of mathematical lines, it seems advisable to suggest that either one ancient language or Mathematics may be offered to satisfy one distribution requirement.

The present literature rule seems an excellent one and the courses which may be taken to fulfill it are also good, with the exception of the foreign languages, in particular French 2. That a man can give as elemental a course as this to fulfill his literature requirement is indeed regrettable, for the knowledge of French authors and their works gained from a year with French 2 may be chalked up exceedingly near the zero point. If this course could be changed into one more like French 6, open to Freshmen, it would indeed offer a satisfactory answer to the requirement for literature.

The present rules in regard to history and government seem excellent also, and the courses used to pass them are of high standard. But it has occurred to many that perhaps in these times of changing economic practices a survey course in economics, differing from that given as the primary one for concentrators in the subject, would make an excellent option for history or government. Although the history aspect would not be gained as well from a course of this sort, the knowledge, while even slight of our present setup and of other types of economic arrangements would be of inestimable value to the many today who have no knowledge of this subject whatsoever. Too many college graduates are ignorant of the most elementary aspects, both political and economic, of the world which they are about to enter. Such a course might go part of the way toward acquainting undergraduates with the troubles which ever possess the world.

These are but a few suggestions to solve the vexing problem of the distribution of courses outside a student's field. While they do not offer a perfect solution, they seem as satisfactory as any. Many there are who feel it wise to allow a student four courses and tell him he may take any four he chooses without regard to subjects at all. This does not seem acceptable with the present curriculum. The tendency might well be to take four snap courses which would not give one a semblance of what is optimistically called a rounded education. It seems advisable to require a certain amount of distribution and as such is the case, one plausible solution is to offer as these requirements (1) a course either in the history of scientific or, the history of philosophic thought (2) a course either in the Classics or Mathematics (3) a course in Literature, and (4) a course in History, Government or Economics.