English A, Once Inevitable For Freshman Now Teeters on the Brink of Extinction

English A, for decades the one sure thing about the Harvard academic curriculum so far an freshmen were concerned, is withering. Whether or not it will die is a decision which rests with an imposing collection of University committees.

From 1886 to 1948, an entering student, unless he were one of two present who demonstrated special talent or training in writing, was enlisted in English A's program of weekly themes and readings. Those who took it generally reacted to English A the way a football player reacts to a windsprint. They griped while doing the exercise but confessed it did them some good when it was all over.

In the fall of 1949, an exemption quota of 25 percent was established for English A. Previously exemptions in the course had been limited to some three percent from a class who achieved a certain level of proficiency on a test. This year the 25 percent exemption quota was still in operation, and another 200 wriggled away from the freshman composition course by enrolling in General Education A, and experimental course in which the students explore subject matter through short compositions. This course, if it is judged successful, may soon displace English A altogether.

English A's path toward extinction was outlined on page 199 the report of the Harvard Committee on General Education in a Free Society. The report complained that English A had the "weakness of segregating training in writing from the fields of learning. . . Other members of the faculty too often feel they have little if any responsibility for the development of skill and facility in writing.

"We propose that in place of English A as now given, there be substituted a procedure which will be more directly connected with the introductory courses in general education." Whether students can in fact get training in the technique of writing in conjunction with another course is up to the Sub-committee on Educational Problems to decide. Theodore Morrison '23, director of English A and a member of the committee, is skeptical about trying to teach composition without a trained and large staff.

Another Solution

Morrison has his own solution to the problem of brining English A closer to other fields of learning. It is a system which he has been using since he assumed direction of the course in 1930. At that time he liberalized the subject matter for English A themes to include topics with which students would have outside acquaintances rather than the pre-1939 diet of literary compositions. "Then we added the practice of assigning a long research paper each term to teach freshmen the rudiments of thesis writing," Morrison explains.