Word: core
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...thinking than bodies of knowledge. Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 put it best when I interviewed him back in late 2002: “It is not that easy to differentiate between teaching students ways of thinking and bodies of knowledge. The best Core courses choose really significant material to introduce intellectual concepts.” The trouble with the new distribution requirement, which will give the equivalent of Core credit for esoteric departmental courses, is that students will be tempted to move further and further away from engaging that “really...
...greatest failing of Harvard’s Core is not that it offers too little choice, but too much. Adopting a Columbia-style curriculum with mandatory Great Books courses in a variety of fields would certainly have had its drawbacks, but it would also have been in the best interests of Harvard undergraduates. Sadly, such a move was never really feasible in today’s environment at Harvard—and there are better things to do than bemoan the loss of a curricular pipedream...
...rigorous foundation to a student’s education” and will “introduce bodies of knowledge, concepts, and major texts.” In theory, these courses should provide a fantastic centerpiece to a Harvard education. (Whether in practice they will be nothing more than Core classes with traditional hoop-jumping and banal response papers, of course, remains to be seen.) Still, it is excellent news that a real attempt may soon be made to restore an academic canon obscured by the nonsensical ethos of the Core...
...mind, a shame that through arrogance or indolence some students may choose to skip those courses. But their very existence will be a major step forward for undergraduate education as a whole. Regardless of whether you think Harvard students need more flexibility or less, these proposals to replace the Core should be cautiously welcomed. Little Ricky spotted it in 1978 and undergraduates, alas, still recognize it today—any step away from the Core is a step in the right direction...
Pilbeam said the recommendation to replace the Core with a combination of interdepartmental survey courses, to be known as Harvard College Courses, and a distribution requirement put the Faculty’s sense of ownership in the curriculum at risk, since departmental courses would fulfill the general education requirement...