594 Skiddoo

Each year, hundreds of men stop up their brains and fill them with bith of vocabulary and grammar. Then they take Harvard's language requirement examination. If they pass, they pull the stopper and let what they have learned dribble out.

Admittedly, this is not the case for all students, but it is what happens to a great majority of concentrators in fields where knowledge of a foreign language is unnecessary for undergraduates. They haven't the slightest interest in learning a language and forget most of it immediately after they get a grade of 594 or better on the examination.

This is not as it should be. Men in this position should be permitted to sidestep the useless rote processes of memorization now needed to pass the minimum language requirement. Elementary language is a field where the philosophy of general education simply does not apply. The forgettability factor is too great and a smattering of grammar and vocabulary becomes almost completely worthless in a year or two, if it is not followed up with more advanced courses where it can be applied.

What is needed to remedy this situation is a modification of the present universal language requirement. Since it is feasible that men in certain departments like European history or science might find some use for a language, they should continue to meet at least the present minimum requirement. Perhaps there should even be a broader and more comprehensive one, including some basic knowledge of foreign culture and intellectual history. But for others, an altogether different standard should be set perhaps in some cases no standard at all, since a little language is not worth much.

Such a revision could best be carried out by transferring the jurisdiction over language requirements to the individual departments. By allowing them to set departmental requirements, the difficulties in the present college-wide system would be avoided. Whereas some students would acquire a broader and more useful language background than is now mandatory under the present system, others could better use their time taking general education courses.

A language requirement, after all, is like a suit. The closer it comes to being custom-made, the better it will fit.