Word: generalities
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Columbia which captured the imagination of teachers and scholars two decades ago. With the waning of enthusiasm for these two leaders, however, Harvard's program has also suffered. In addition, both the College and the national temper seem to have moved away from the very idea of General Education...
Even before the Sputnik era, emphasis on science and learning taken on their own merits was increasing, and the demand for General Education was on the wane. A similar transformation taking place within Harvard has put more and more emphasis on professional training and scholarship...
...effects of the change in General Education's environment are particularly clear when the lower level courses proposed in the Redbook are compared with those now given. The Humanities course was to be entitled "Great Texts of Literature." "The aim of such a course would be the fullest understanding of the work read rather than of men or periods represented, craftsmanship evinced, historic or literary development shown, or anything else. These other matters ... should be left for special education." It is difficult to contend that recent additions to the Humanities curriculum follow this outline...
...departments have learned the principle of General Education, I think the time to stop General Education has come," says Howe. Again, his attitude is a common one. Although one of the tenets of the old program was that no introductory course for concentrators could be really satisfactory for a non-concentrator, many people, including several members of the Committee, seem prepared to go back to the old departmental basis of distribution, largly because the present program lacks a constructive policy...
...decreasing significance of the Redbook is not, in itself, a disaster for General Education. But when the aims of the old program ceased to be of importance, nothing took their place. Today General Education finds itself in a position similar to History and Literature--the only way anybody can explain the program is to appeal to old standards which no one believes to be true...