Freshmen and Shovels

Course papers used to be the most valuable academic hurdles of the Freshman year. But since English A faded away and Freshmen were saddled with a compulsory fifth course, the worth of the papers has diminished.

For one thing, there are too many of them. The average requirement of two General Education courses plus the compulsory Gen. Ed. Ahf affair runs to twenty papers a year--four times the usual upper class load. If Freshmen spent the four or five days their instructors say a typical G.E. theme needs, they would be pouring a third of their first year into papers alone.

This, of course is not done. Instead, Freshmen rush through the themes in a day or so often juggling two at a time. The training in good research and careful exposition that should come with papers is too often sacrificed to the exigencies of time--the golden shovel replacing the imposing array of facts. Thus, although this year's freshman is writing more than past first year groups, his superiority in expressing ideas is questionable.

The best route out of this rut is a system of fewer papers graded at a higher standard. At present, Freshmen write a short paper every two weeks for Gen. Ed. Ahf--on a subject usually unrelated to the rest of their work. If they could offer a Social Science or Humanities paper to Ahf in lieu of one of these two weeks assignments, a part of the paper load would disappear. The section man in the first course could comb the offering for content and ideas, the Ahf man for writing and expression.

This idea would not necessarily have to detour the more technical Natural Science papers. For, as thesis writers in science discover nothing is too technical to be written well. But if the topic of the paper is too obscure for the Ahf section man to perceive, he might trade it with another man in the field (some teach both types of courses), or work jointly with the section man of the other course. The two could even exchange the knowledge of their fields in the margin of the paper.

Along with joint submission of course, would have to come higher marking standards so that the five hour wonders could not continue to bull their way to B's. But the combination of the two would not only work to relieve the Freshman, but also the new system would better realize the aims of the G.E. program.