This high percentage of accepted applicants and the comparatively superior record of Amherst men at the business, medical, and law schools over university graduates would seem to be partial proof at least that the original American College form of education, through small classes, teaching professors, and an intimate community, is not dead or outdone by the larger colleges with their "great men" and "superior facilities." Once the fraternity menace to higher education, in the form of its emphasis upon mere "good fellowship" has been partially subdued to its proper perspective, as at Amherst, the dream of vigorous small college scholarships becomes a reality.

The central Massachusetts college was founded in September of 1821, 45 miles west of Worcester as a seminary called the "Collegiate Charitable Institution." It has as its nominal founder men like Noah Webster and Samuel P. Dickinson, the grandfather of the poet Emily, but was largely made possible through the contributions and physical labor of more than thirteen hundred citizens of the neighboring countryside. Although it still instructs in "all branches of literature and science," it long ago adopted the surname of the renowned Indian hunter and has long since extended its influence beyond the sons of the Connecticut Valley farmers. Now a national institution, it tends to draw most of its students from the upper-middle, suburban classes of the middle, western and seaboard cities.

De-emphasized Fraternities

The first secret society was organized in 1832. Other societies followed so that today the common is surrounded by eleven national lodges, two local fraternities, and a college club, the Lord Jeffrey Amherst Club, founded in 1935 for all undergraduates who did not wish or were not asked to join one of the fraternities. By the 1930's the transformation from the combined social and intellectual societies of a hundred years ago to the present purely social societies was completed. In the decade immediately preceding World War II the fraternities' contributions to the student and to the college were of such an extremely negative nature that from many quarters it was urged that the organizations not be allowed to return to the campus after the War. When the two parallel and independent reports considering the post-war college were submitted early in 1945: "Amherst Tomorrow" by the alumni committee and a report on Long Range Policy by a faculty committee and a report on Long Range Policy by a faculty committee, both also recommended abolition of the fraternity system.

A section of the alumni report stated: "The majority finds little in the recent fraternity tradition or character calculated to give assurance that fraternities at Amherst can be made important supports and leaders toward intellectual interests and attainments." Yet as significant as the accompanying recommendation was, it was one of the few in the report that was not entirely followed. The fraternities were instead reformed. The main concern of both committees, however, the development of Amherst's "New Curriculum," has now been in operation for six years.

It is a little known fact but a source of pride to all Amherst alumni and faculty that its survey of post-war education slightly preceded Harvard's celebrated and supposedly original "Report on General Education." Remarkable point about the Amherst program is the number of its observations and recommendations that later appeared incorporated in Harvard's report. The "new curriculum" went into effect with the class entering in the fall of 1947, and now serves as the basis of Amherst's realistic approach to education.

Captive Audience

The program is in general more drastic than General Education. Like Gen Ed, it centers on the first two years and organizes the curriculum into three basic divisions: the mathematical, physical and biological sciences; history and the social sciences; and literature and the fine arts. But unlike Harvard it does not permit a wide range of choice within each of the divisions. Every Lord Jeff freshman and sophomore with few exceptions must take exactly thhe same courses as all his classmates. Only one completely free elective is permitted before majoring begins in the junior year.

From the standpoint of the many young, active instructors and professors on the Jeff campus this discipline and control over the academic life of the student represents Amherst's greatest single attribute and attraction to them. With such a community tough, radical courses, which would never be selected by the students in a free elective college, can be required of an entire class. As instructors candidly admit, they have a captive audience.

"There aren't enough 'great men' to go around," points out one of the men who helped set up Amherst's unique English 1-2 course in communications; "so the idea is to decide what you want the student to do and then make him do it." Another professor points out: "Many professors at Harvard are still working on the 'great man' theory; the trouble is they just don't happen to be great men."

If Amherst does not have all great men, it has some of them, and many good men. One of the "greats," Professor Packard, teaches the only remaining lecture course ("European Civilization") in the freshman-sophomore curriculum. Most of the good men--including professors--prefer to take one of the small sections in the basic course pertaining to their field. For at Amherst the method of teaching is that of intimate student-teacher contact through small always under 25 classes. In English J-2, for instance, every associate professor in the English department must teach a section. Although Amherst might not have enough money to hire only "great men," it certainly does have enough money to hire what is one of the best small college teaching faculties in the country. The members of the freshman and sophomore classes have the opportunity denied students at so-called "robot-controlled" universities like Harvard of meeting, knowing, and often being inspired by these men. In the last two years, all honors work must be done partially in required seminars, giving further opportunity to know intimately at least one full professor.

Yet these small college advantages in varying degrees might occur in many small colleges. The unique aspect about Amherst is its "New Curriculum":

It is built around the "laboratory" type course and has a two-fold purpose: to provide for reinforcement of certain basic skills in mathematics and languages and to round out the student's general education by providing a body of common knowledge that will serve as a basis for later specialization in any particular field. A certain amount of lectures are still given to provide background material: Professor George Taylor who heads the new sophomore American Studies course calls them "a bout with traditionalism." At the heart of the curriculum are seminar sections based on the principle of "learning through doing."

The basic "New Curriculum" courses are organized, in the humanities and social sciences as well as natural sciences, around broad topics or problems chosen to introduce students not specifically to a certain amount of facts but to the kind of work done in a particular field. For instance, Taylor's American Studies is based around twelve problems, such as "The New Deal: Revolution of Evolution?" or "National Health Insurance." The idea is to investigate each problem through reading and lectures and reach a conclusion about it, pro and con, stating reasons for the decision in a short paper. At the end of each two or three week problem session, small two-hour seminars are held to thrash out the problem. Taylor says he doesn't care about a student's position as long as his reasoning is vaild. By thus emphasizing practice, that is, by relating the abstract portions of a subject to a student's experience, the College hopes to give the subject matter greater meaning and vitality.

So far, it would seem to have succeeded. Graduating seniors who four years earlier cursed text book-less, communication-teaching English 1-2 as the most confusing bewildering course they had ever taken, today call it the most valuable of their college education. The same is true of other courses like Science 1-2 which flunked almost a third of the present freshman class at mid-years. The belief is that through such courses Amherst men will be best able to comprehend intelligently their present complex society and will best be able to understand how their specific function as doctors, lawyers or loafers fit into the pattern of society.