Word: core
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...curricular review in more than 30 years, the Task Force on General Education—headed by Simmons and Bass Professor of English and American Literature and Language Louis Menand—convened over the summer and completed its 38-page report this October. In contrast to the current Core Curriculum, which emphasizes approaches to academic inquiry, the proposed program connects liberal education to life outside Harvard. “The ambition of the program of general education,” the report reads, “... is to enable undergraduates to put all the learning they are doing...
...this question. It has proposed that the College train students for citizenship in a global society and, to that end, require students to take courses in ten diverse areas from reason and faith to analytical reasoning. I fear, however, that the proposal goes too far in rejecting the Core Curriculum’s “approaches to knowledge” in favor of teaching knowledge itself. Methodology, particularly the scientific approach to human society, should play a prominent role in general education...
...Task Force’s turn against methodology may reflect a dissatisfaction with the Core, which, as I am urging, vaunted methods over facts. The Core’s approach to methodology, however, teaches methods via intensive exploration of a single, sometimes narrow topic. The scientific method’s general applicability, however, can be best taught by applying it in a wide range of settings. The Task Force’s emphasis on broader courses that teach a wide range of facts is a step in the right direction, especially if those facts serve to teach the scientific method...
...pure statistics or empirical tools taught through the lens of a particular topic. Decent citizenship of the world is incompatible with statistical ignorance. A Harvard education must train people to separate compelling evidence from froth. Statisticians do have a comparative advantage in this, but I can readily imagine great core courses taught by Florence Professor of Government Gary King or Ford Professor of the Social Sciences Robert J. Sampson teaching students empirical methods with a focus on politics or sociology. The analytical reasoning component of the proposed system includes such courses but comes up short of mandating them. While other...
...they lived in.” The panel featured three other academics: Jones Professor of American Studies Lizabeth Cohen, Folger Fund Professor of History Andrew D. Gordon ’74, and Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Studies Mary D. Lewis. The four agreed that though the current Core Curriculum needs to change and that students should be able to select from a larger pool of history courses. Often the department’s most attractive courses are closed to students who do not concentrate in history. Revising the Core should be a matter of “improving...