"General Education" Committee Calls For Modification of Elective Curricular System

To familiarize students who were not in Cambridge when the report of the University "Objectives" Committee was made public with the contents of the Report as it applies to Harvard, the SERVICE NEWS today reprints in part the lead stories in its July 26 issue.)

"General Education" courses are the Committee's answer to the educational dilemma which it sees in the contemporary college. Designed for specialists by specialists in an age which demands specialization, too few of the courses now offered in the college curriculum are of use to non-concentrators who get their glimpse of other fields with but one or two course units in each.

Capsule of Proposed Curricular Changes

While Dean Buck has said that the Report of the General Education Committee, which he headed, must "stand or fall as a unit," the proposals for changing Harvard College's curriculum can be boiled down to the following essence:

I. Three General Courses to be required of all undergraduates.

A. The humanities: "Great Texts of Literature"

B. The Social Sciences: "Western Thought and Institutions"

C. The Natural Sciences: "The Principles of Physical Science" or "The Principles of Biological Science"

II. Three other courses to be elected from a larger group in which most existing college departments would be represented. (Thus seven, counting English A, of the 16 courses required for the degree would be of the "General Education" variety.) None of these courses to be in the student's field of concentration, only one to be allowed in his area of study.

III. English A to be limited to two class hours per week during the first term of the Freshman year, and to be continued in connection with general education courses (rather than given separately) during the second term.

IV. Tutorial to be reserved for candidates for honors in their Junior and Senior years, with occasional exceptions for particularly gifted Sophomores.

Distribution Not a Remedy

Introductory or survey courses may be ideally suited to prepare the concentrator for the advanced courses in which he can really come to grips with his field, the Report continues, but they usually immerse the non-concentrator in a mass of details without demonstrating the essential nature of the discipline.

Neither the existing nor a new increased distribution requirement will meet the demand for a broad cultural basis, the Committee feels. What is needed is a new type of introductory course of greater depth, designed explicitly for those who will not continue in the field. A minimal number of these courses must be compulsory to ensure some "fixity of aim with diversity in application," the Report states.

Specifically, the Committee proposes that six of the 16 courses required for the degree be of the "General Education" variety. Three of these, one in each of the basic Areas, would be required of all undergraduates and would normally be taken in the first two years at college.

Three other courses would be elected by the student from a larger group in which most existing college departments would be represented. None of these courses could be in the undergraduate's field of concentration, and only one could be in his area of study.

Electives satisfying the "General Education" requirement would be chosen from courses now in the curriculum to which would be added new courses designed to fill particular needs.

"Great Texts of Literature" is proposed as title for a compulsory course in the Area of Humanities. The fullest understanding and appreciation of eight or ten of the world's great books is set as the objective for this course.

The Area of the Social Sciences would require study in "Western Thought and Institutions." The main currents contributing to contemporary society are to be considered in terms of the intellectual and historical events which conditioned them.

Alternative Science Courses

Science and Mathematics would be satisfied, according to the Committee's proposal, either with a course in "Principles of Physical Science" or by one in "Principles of Biological Science." Neither of these would attempt to cover the range of technical detail encompassed by present introductory science courses, but would emphasize, the overall development of the science in terms of the history, philosophy, and documentation in the field. Scientific methods and techniques would be taught by detailed consideration of a few particular technical problems in the lectures and laboratory.

Responsibility for administering the "General Education" program would be vested in a faculty committee whose responsibilities would parallel those of a normal department of the University. The men selected would determine which current courses were satisfactory "general" courses and what new courses were demanded. In addition, the committee would have the normal routine duties of budget administration, accrediting students, and consideration of special student problems in a field the keynote of whose administration is to be flexibility.

English A is criticized for being too little "functional to the curriculum. The course emphasizes literary English or writing about English at the expense of integration of the techniques of composition with material studied in general courses. Absorption of the second half of the existing course into the required "General Education" courses, with a demand for frequent themes on the subject matter of the latter, is recommended as a remedy.

Finally the Committee examines the existing Tutorial system. Recognizing the great virtues of the scheme for them better students, the Report concludes that the time and money expended in making Tutorial available to all has not always been justified by results. Accordingly, the Committee recommended that Tutorial in the future be reserved for candidates for honors in their Junior or Seniors years, with occasional exceptions for particularly gifted Sophomores