Word: curriculums
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...likely criticism of this approach is that it reduces the core to a distribution requirement. But given that the current core admittedly does not work, the faculty has no consensus on reform, and a distribution requirement is one likely outcome of the current curriculum review, it is a reasonable interim solution...
...education of the current Harvard College students is too important and too fleeting an undertaking to continue application of flawed core curriculum requirements while the faculty debates an ideal solution. Harvard undergraduates deserve better...
...offers, for example, fewer of the kind of survey courses many undergraduates want and need—the sort of connect-the-dot overviews of the arts and sciences that form the foundation of a liberal education. Understandably, most Harvard faculty members want to teach their specialties. The core curriculum tried to bridge the gap by emphasizing methods of study rather than content, but it doesn’t seem to have truly satisfied anyone...
...ongoing discussion of curriculum reform has produced very smart papers by distinguished faculty members, from a variety of perspectives, on the goals of liberal education. And the self-proclaimed “Gang of Four” suggested an offering of rigorous survey courses. The report produced by the curriculum review didn’t reflect those concerns. But maybe the controversy over Summers’ departure provides the chance to look at this particular issue anew...
This is not to say that philosophy professors do not care about students, nor is it to point fingers at a single department. In fact, the philosophy department has done a better job than most of recruiting visiting professors to fill gaps in its curriculum. But the department’s refusal to view its mission in terms of providing full exposure to a field is indicative of a deeply ingrained and problematic mindset both at Harvard and at other research universities; it is unquestioned law that faculty teach the courses they want to teach, regardless of whether those...