Word: redbook
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...upper level requirement too has changed radically. Instead of the distribution requirement which is the present upper level program, the Redbook suggested that only a very limited group of courses approved by the Committee should be fulfill the upper level requirement. And there was no suggestion that the intention was simply to promote distribution...
...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...
...addition to these two specific difficulties, there is growing resentment of the special status enjoyed by History. As long as the Redbook remained the guiding principle of the program, the dominance of one field could be explained. But with the Redbook virtually a dead letter, this preferred status is an additional irritant. The initial ranks of those who did not support the Redbook have been swelled by those who think that the Redbook is simply being used as an excuse for perpetuating the dominance of the History department...
There are rumors that a major study is in prospect, one comparable in scope to the Redbook. If such a report is written, and approved by the Faculty, perhaps General Education will experience a rebirth of interest and participation. But the present temper of the Faculty is so disposed toward special study and specialization that it is doubtful that a new report which created a program as broad and diffuse as General Education would be approved...
...demand for a new policy is really a demand for a concrete statement of what General Education is trying to do. The Redbook, impractical though it may have been, presented a clear educational policy. When courses multiplied, the Redbook lost its meaning, and General Education is now feeling the results. Unless a new and meaningful policy can be formed, Faculty members will continue to think that the departments can do the job of General Education, and the program will lose whenever a decision must be made...