Lecture Notes

One of the sad little ironies of academic life in the College is the fact that section meetings, taken for granted during Freshman and Sophomore year, suddenly disappear when the student begins taking large, popular upper-level courses as a Junior or Senior.

While sections in elementary Gen Ed courses may often mean a dull hash-over of generalities, their disappearance in upper-level courses leaves the student alone with his notes at the time when he is best equipped to discuss, penetrate, and challenge course material. It is not unusual for a non-science major to have three of four courses with little or no discussion available and then, for contrast, an individual grilling by a tutor. In short, by the time one is a Junior, one's ideas are one's own business.

For the independent and questioning scholar this is possibly best, since lecture material should provide an incentive to deeper scholarship. But to the unskilled or uncurious student, lectures form a mere skeleton of ideas on which the meat of reading is to be hung. Unfortunately, the American lecture system, rests on a disciple-like trust of the professor and lacks the gusto of an alert and slightly hostile listening body.

"Why doesn't anyone ever rise up from his chair and shout, 'I challenge you on that point, sir!' When I lecture?" asked the American professor.

"And what would you do if someone did?" returned his companion in the anecdote.

"Probably throw the upstart out," the professor admitted.

If lecture-room debates are not feasible in the College, there yet remain several less glamorous but nonetheless workable means for bringing student ideas into a lecture course. A section of seventy-five or eighty, such as has been tried in History 169, is not as unmanageable as it sounds--sixty people will prefer not to talk, and the others will ask their questions for them.

Since section men are expensive, and voluntary sections may be impractical in many courses, the student-lecturer exchanges could be handled politely and effectively through written or oral question-and-answer sessions held at the lecturer's discretion. Professor Tillich's courses are famous for these written student questions, answered from the lecture platform at the start of each class hour. In any event, means should be devised to inject student ideas into upper level courses.