Word: motly
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...faculty set May 5 for debate on its recommendations. The Report endorsed the Modes of Thought program, and the dropping of the old distribution system; but as a concession to anticipated faculty opposition, it included a requirement that all freshmen take at least a year's worth of MOT courses in each of the three areas of Humanities, Sciences, and Social Sciences, as well as a semester of math...
...Maeder Report did not meet with universal approval. One faction of the faculty opposed the emphasis put on the student's "self-realization" in the statement of educational principles, which followed closely the Magaziner formulation. Another faction thought the MOT proposal too ambiguous. The managing editor of the Brown Daily Herald warned that "without a strict grading system, very little academic work would be accomplished." The reformers, he wrote, "have greatly overrated the real concern of the undergraduate at Brown...
...aimlessness and alienation of the freshman year, the Report recommended the creation of numerous new "Modes of Thought" (MOT) courses. Like many general education offerings at Harvard, these courses would attempt to help students understand a particular field. Unlike many general education courses, they would not attempt to survey much factual material. but would be problem oriented...
Like freshman seminars at Harvard, MOT courses would be conducted in small groups only, and encourage the close collaboration of students and faculty members. Unlike freshman seminars, they would de-emphasize specialized content and encourage students to explore the concepts that relate one field of study to another...
Finally, the Report urged more interdisciplinary courses in general, more leeway in concentration requirements, the end of distribution requirements (except for MOT courses), and a greater opportunity for students to work out their own academic program through individual independent study. G.I.S.P. s. and participation as teaching assistants in MOT courses in their field...