General Education A Finishes First Term; Freshmen 'See' Essays Criticized in Class

Essay tests given last month to two groups of "matched" students in General Education A and English A will help determine the future of the University's experimental G.E. course.

The Committee on General Education will decide in March whether to expand the course which, if successful, may supplant English A. The tests were designed to reveal which of the two courses is more successful in teaching freshmen how to write.

University Professor I. A. Richards inaugurated G.E. A this fall, but there is some question over how long he will be willing to teach the one-term course which is offered twice a year.

Unlike English A, the G.E. course has two weekly lectures and no compulsory section meetings. Written work consists entirely of six 150-word essays called "protocols." Done on one side of a 5" by 8" card, the essays can be projected on a screen in the lecture hall by a system of reflectors. Using this system, Richards can discuss and criticize as many as fifteen protocols at each lecture.

Essay topics range from "How would you define a square knot?" to "Why do you believe 2 plus 2 equals 4?" The system of concise answers to these abstract questions eliminates the huge quantity of written work required in English A.

Thedore Morrison '23, director of English A, yesterday described Richards' course as an attempt to "short-cut" the old system, but Morrison is doubtful whether any "miracle" can simplify the difficult problem of improving writing style.

One hundred and ninety-two Yardlings and Radcliffe girls signed up for the G.E. course in the fall, and roughly the same number has enrolled for the spring term, Student reaction to the course is generally favorable, despite low grades.

Many freshmen consider Richards' course "less work and more fun" than English A, while a disgruntled minority finds it "over our heads." One Yardling commented, "If it lasts anywhere, it'll last at Harvard."

The idea for the course, at first intended as a half-year, non-credit experiment, originated in the 1945 report of the Committee on General Education in a Free Society. In its report the committee complained that English A had the "weakness of segregating training in writing from the fields of learning."

The Committee proposed that, in place of English A as now given, an experimental course be substituted which would be "more directly connected with the introductory courses in General Education." Besides work in composition, Richards' course emphasizes the inter-relation of the Humanities, and the Natural and Social Sciences