Word: particularity
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...stampede departments. Of course, there are many rational explanations; their prestige and quality vary from time to time, and changing conditions in the world at large are necessarily reflected in the college curriculum. More important, however, is the fact that a large number of floaters, men with no particular interests, decide to follow the crowd and concentrate in whatever department seems most popular at the time. That the current popularity of Economics is largely a fad has been the contention of President Conant for several years, and in view of the history of concentration he is probably right...
That the situation is serious is obvious: overloading of tutorial staffs, lowered intellectual standards, strained budgets, and charges that Harvard "starves" a particular branch of study, result. To offer a solution is far more difficult, for floaters always have and probably always will exist. But certainly it should be possible, through more conscientious Freshman guidance and through the establishment of broader survey courses, to provide those men capable of choosing their best field the information which they need. Broad knowledge of little depth is eminently desirable for most men at the Freshman level, for with certain exceptions, only those Sophomores...
...such, it must, in general, be lauded. But not in unqualified terms, for it must be also recognized that there is a sacrifice involved. This sacrifice is a firm grasp of a particular subject. The proposed system tends away from a complete comprehension of a single field, tends toward the "broad knowledge of little depth" so feared and hated by the English Civil Service Examiners. Its danger is rank superficiality...
...final analysis, this question resolves down to two comparatively irreconcilable theories of education. The one favors a deep, firmly rooted, but extremely limited knowledge. It leans toward vocationalism. The other favors a broader and more integrated type of learning. It admits less depth in a particular department, but argues that an examination of all the possible approaches within a wide area to a specific problem, and a consequent understanding of the relations between these different approaches, outweighs the loss. If it is admitted that the objects of formal education are to train the intellectual powers and to further the cultural...
...sometimes wonder what the "townies" think of Harvard students? Or perhaps you don't know what a "townie" is. The definition is very simple; it's nothing you have to work on until 9 o'clock on Saturday nights. It's merely a native of Cambridge, in this particular instance a female...