Some Wear Beanies
In the first year, new Lord Jeff students with or without their beanies depending on whether or not they won the annual bell fight with the sophomores, must take a Science course, a European Civilization course, English 1-2, and a Foreign Language, unless the requirement is passed. In the sophomore year, sequences in Science, American Civilization and Humanities are required.
The Science 1-2 course, which requires Mathematics through calculus of all freshmen, is regarded as the toughest of the "New Curriculum." Professor Arnold B. Arons, who studied under Professor Leonard K. Nash in G.S.A.S. and advocates many of Conant's ideas, make his course purposely tough "to jolt the boys out of a rut and make them exert a real intellectual effort." Unlike Harvard's Natural Science courses, Arons' Science 1-2 and 3-4 serve as the basic courses for science majors as well as other liberal arts concentrators.
Using Harvard Professor Holton's textbook as his bible, Arons in this typical course emphasizes not how high a stone goes when thrown into the air, but an understanding of the conceptual schemes leading to a description of that event. The burden is on the student. He must talk.
But might not this same course, excepting the calculus requirement, be included among the Natural Sciences at Harvard? No, says Arons.
"We are fully aware that any success the course attains is predicated upon the pragmatic fact that we are dealing with a captive audience. If softer alternatives were available this course would not be elected regardless of its good repute, and eventually everything would degenerate to a substantially lower common denominator. We feet, that our approach is practicable in a small, homogeneous college and have serious reservations about its practicability in a broader context."
While it bears many of the earmarks of an extended prop school, this college of just under 1,000 students can boast of several departments that match or extend beyond the best of the big universities.
The Biology Department, with its