Word: redbook
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...these arguments over the administration of the General Education Program accept the general viewpoint of the Redbook--that a student should take General Education courses because they teach him something he ought to know. There is, however, a justification for the Program which does not depend at all on the material taught being essential to some sort of generally educated man. Most of those who take this view are dismayed by the greater and greater specialization among undergraduates, however helpful such early specialization may be to those who wish to get an early start on their doctorates, intense specialization also...
These critics see the general education program as the last bulwark sep- erating the College from being the first four years of the GSAS. They share the vision of the Redbook committee that the upper-level general education courses would offer support, encouragement, and staffing to interesting courses, experimental courses, which were not specialized enough to interest any single department. Where these critics differ from the Redbook committee is in their vision of the required lower-level courses as an opportunity to offer all this, plus a captive audience...
...committee which wrote the Redbook was unashamedly envious of the power the departments had to prescribe the programs of those who fell into their clutches. "The several departments," it said, "ordinarily have definite ideas of what is to be included within the immediate scope of their interest. They make rigorous demands upon the student's activities and time; and in the absence of virtually all definition of content in general educaeson, concentration inevitably dominates the curriculum...
...critics what is relevant is not how good a substitute the freshman seminar or the high-school preparation shown by the A.P. sophomore is for the lower-level Gen Ed course or even how close it comes to being a substitute for the ideal Gen Ed course of the Redbook. Rather, these programs are dangerous to Gen Ed because they bring the student more quickly under the influence of a department...
However exaggerated such a view may be, it cannot be denied that the General Education Program does not do exactly what the Redbook anticipated it would, and that, in fact, there is little agreement as to exactly what it should be doing...