In 1879 an event occurred which although not as educationally significant as the creation of the elective system undoubtedly has had a very great effect on the education of Harvard students. This was the founding of the Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women (named Radcliffe in 1894). 27 girls were enrolled in the first class of Harvard's annex for women and courses were given by Harvard professors in four small rooms at 6 Appian way. Not long afterwards Radcliffe dropped separate instruction and joined Harvard classes.
Distress
Meanwhile, faculty distress at Eliot's elective system was growing. In 1903 came a report by the Faculty Committee on Improving Instruction, largely written by A. Lawrence Lowell. The report pointed up what Lowell considered the sad state of the Harvard curriculum. "In the college today," the report declared, "there is too much teaching and too little studying." The report went on to state that students were spending as little as 3 1/2 hours a week on courses. It also criticized the elective system for allowing haphazard choosing of courses based on how easy they were or what hours they met. The report also brought to light the surprising number of students who were getting through college in three years.
The report resulted in three main changes in the curriculum. First, many of the notorious guts were stiffened. Secondly, in order to discourage students from getting their degree in three years extra tuition charges were made for all courses over four. The third change was a set of new regulations stiffening the requirements for degrees with honors.
The Faculty report was only one symptom of a growing dissatisfaction among the faculty with Eliot elective and hyperfree curriculum. The faculty opposition was led by Professor Lowell and when Eliot resigned in 1909, Lowell was chosen president.
Major Errors
Lowell wasted no time in remedying what he considered the major errors in his predecessor's policy. The system of Concentration and Distribution was framed 9in 1910 and went into effect for the class of 1914. This system required every undergraduate to concentrate at least six of his 16 elective courses in one division or recognized field for distinction, and to distribute at least six of his other courses among the three general groups outside of his concentration. For the purpose of distribution four groups were created.
1) Languages, Literature, Fine Arts and Music.
2) The Natural Sciences.
3) History, Government, Economics, Education and Anthropology.
4) Philosophy and Mathematics.
In 1928-9 the distribution requirements were changed to one in literature, one in history or government, one in science and one in math or philosophy.
Lowell explained his aim in the system of Concentration and Distribution. "First to require every student to make a choice of electives that will secure a systematic education based on the principles of knowing a little of everything and something well. . .and second to make the student plan his college curriculum seriously and plan it as a whole."
The other big reform introduced by Lowell was the system of the General or Divisional examination, also aimed at integrating the student's curriculum. Lowell did not require departments to adopt the General Examination system, but History, Government and Economics did in 1919, Modern Languages in 1922 and the other soon followed.
When Lowell resigned in 1933 he left a curriculum which tempered Eliot's elective system with his own system of Concentration and Distribution. To President Conant was left the adaptation of this curriculum to the needs of the modern mid-twentieth century world. Conant's "General Education" plan, which replaced the old Concentration, Distribu- tion scheme, was really an extension of it. It sought to mitigate Eliot's elective system by requiring the student to take a full-year introductory course in each of the three main divisions of learning, the Humanities, the Social Sciences and the Natural Sciences.
In the fall of 1946 a "guinea pig" group of freshmen and some upperclassmen, along with a few Radcliffe girls tried out the projected GE program. The program proved successful and in 1949 the freshman class was required to take one GE course. In 1950 the freshmen were required to take two courses and in 1951 the full three, spread out over their first two years.
Perhaps the most graphic picture of the phenomenal development over 80 years can be gained by a comparison of the number of courses offered in the college. In 1873 Harvard listed 92 courses; the 1952-3 catalogue lists over 2,000 courses given in the college alone. A 20 fold increase in 80 years; who knows how many times it will increase in the next 80 years