Word: leveler
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Since the inception of the general education program in 1948 considerable progress has been made to increase the merit of lower level Gen. Ed. courses. This improvement has been most noticeable, perhaps, in the area of Natural Sciences, where a tendency towards dilettantism is certainly inviting. Nat. Sci. courses have gradually been strengthened, new ones added, and more capable teachers put on the staff...
...criticism of the Nat. Sci. program which has long confronted the advocates of general education, however, is that science concentrators should not be exempted from a lower level Nat. Sci. requirement. This cry came mainly from the Social Science and Humanities concentrators who felt that they were treated unjustly and that, if they had to take lower-level Gen. Ed. courses in their area, the science major should be compelled to do likewise...
...scientists quickly pointed out that the science major is far too busy in his own field to waste time on the elementary trivia with which the Nat. Sci. courses, by their very nature, must deal, and therefore should not be forced to spend a year at the lower level...
While this argument is true to a large extent, it also contains an implicit suggestion for improving both the science concentrator and the scope of the general education program. Development of upper level Nat. Sci. courses has failed to keep pace with that of lower level courses. With the exception of a half course in the history and philosophy of physics, Nat. Sci. 120, they have all been rather uninteresting and have done more to further the use of the word "gut" than any other set of courses...
...science concentrator is extremely involved with intricate technicalities and problems of his field suggests that he might well profit from the broadening effects of a course in the philosophy and history of science. Since to understand fully the implications of scientific theories one must be at a rather advanced level, it is logical that such a course in history and philosophy should not be undertaken until at least the junior year...