Word: problems
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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This brings me back to the central problem of teaching method and organization of the College. As I said yesterday, the tutorial idea seemed to be one of the best answers. The reason I say this is that it offers under the present system the only opportunity for real intellectual exchange and personal relation between teacher and student. The difficulty of the system is its expense. The question then is, are the available instructors being used to best advantage? I think they are not and what I suggest for consideration as a substitute is the seminar system, particularly as used...
That the restoration of this progressive doctrine after a lapse occasioned by wartime conditions should cause so much discussion is unfortunate. The Council's committee could resolve the problem neatly by making a swift report to the faculty urging the repeal of the wartime legislation and then turning its efforts to the larger questions. Taking such action would demonstrate a real understanding of the situation and a desire for an immediate end to unnecessary delays...
Another aspect of the problem of Harvard's teaching methods that cannot be ignored is the social organization of the College and its effect on the individual. This is closely related to the educational method, as I shall try to point out in my conclusion. The CRIMSON has printed a series of editorials this year stating the facts of the social organization, or rather lack of organization, in the College. The picture those articles gives is of extreme heterogeneity and individualism compensated by attachment to intense little cliques either in clubs, activities, or informal groups. Having lived in the College...
...problem of the tutoring schools has come to our attention again recently and has raised in my mind, at least, a very ominous question. The question is not what is wrong with the tutoring school system, but rather what is wrong with Harvard College? The tutoring school is not a cause of bad education; it is a symptom of bad education...
This brings us to the "why" of the problem and some very fundamental questions about the College's educational philosophy. In the first two hundred years of Harvard's history, the College was small, well integrated, and externally disciplined. The curriculum was narrow and solid and so was the student product. The reaction against this has reached its height in the last few decades in the wide curriculum and the elective system. It is now turning out a broad but superficial product whose principal skill is that of quick retentive memory and an ability to disgorge and forget a large...