Word: englished
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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This re-evaluation of Harvard's English instruction can have some good results if well handled. Certainly the idea of teaching writing along lines useful in later life is a welcome change from the "What I Did This Summer" themes of English a. But this brings up problems which are going to have to be licked to make the program work out. The GE announcement implies that the course papers will be read for writing skill as well as context, and that the student who fails to meet basis standards will be required to take the corrective course: an eminently...
...remodeling of English A is part of the expanded General Education program proposed for the Class of 1955. Freshmen in that class will still be screened by an anticipatory exam, but it will be far less difficult than the present annual fall epic. Those who can't meet the requirement will take a non-credit half-course in corrective English composition, while others can move right into a greatly expanded English C, if they wish. Integrated into the new set-up will be a much stronger emphasis on writing for specific purposes, the type of writing that will be most...
Another problem will be reslanting the corrective course so that it, too, will teach writing for specific purposes, leaving straight composition to English C. There is going to be the difficult job of finding enough instructors who can teach the expended advanced composition courses. There is still the old gripe of regrouping the basic course in ability-selected sections. All these problems will have to be tackled and solved. The general reconstruction of English A is still a long step; if carried through intelligently it can turn a terribly awkward course into a program that should...
...certainly surprised at the CRIMSON editorial blaspheming the Latin or Greek reading requirements for House Candidates in English, as out-dated and worthless. The arguments used against the classical requirement are notably distorted: The defense of the requirement is not historical but based on the fact that the peculiar merits and universalities of the Latin and Greek languages are basic to the study of English. Certainly, the classics are excellent training for the serious student of English in vocabulary, Latin and Greek certainly were NOT the only non-scientific fields in the "olden-days", that time "wasted" on languages...
...English Dept. does not discourage concentrators; it only makes those working for Honors work a little more. (Most of them have probably all had at least two years of Latin in prop school.) It is hardly worth arguing that a course saved by elimination of the classics requirement would enable an English, as all fields have certain prerequisites. Do you expect some English concentrator to study an economic, field, for example, without even having taken the basic course in economics? John E. Rexine...