The Bruner report of last spring, despite its inability to define the aims in a manner narrow enough to be within the reach of a one-year course, brought a fresh outlook to the program, and, apparently as a result of either the report or pleas by members of the Committee, several prominent natural scientists have become interested in Nat Sci--Edward M. Purcell, professor of Physics, is teaching half of Nat Sci 2, and George Wald, professor of Bio-chemistry, will teach a lower level course next year. Nevertheless, it is clear that prominent scientists can give time to the program only at considerable personal sacrifice, and it may be unduly optimistic to expect that the present improvement will persist.
The basic difficulty is the same in Social Sciences and Humanities. Now that the initial glamor of General Education has worn off, and with the rising significance of departments in the College, successful professors are increasingly reluctant to spend their time on non-departmental work like General Education.
Murdock feels that this is the greatest threat to the Gen Ed program. He was pleased when the Corporation abolished joint appointments (like summer, because he felt that it would both reduce the chances of getting men who were not qualified members of their departments and cut down the feeling in certain areas that a few individuals were responsible for the department's work in General Education.
Outlook is Uncertain
But minor changes in title will not solve the problem, and unless general Faculty support can be obtained, he is afraid that the program will virtually collapse. One of the great fears Murdock holds, in common with many other members of the Committee, is that Harvard will acquire a faculty of General Education like that which the Chicago and Columbia experiments created. Such a division, he feels, would be disastrous not only for the program but for the College as a whole. Others of the Committee agree with him. They recall what happened at Chicago when two faculties were created: complete scism between general education and the rest of the curriculum. It is not a situation many people want to see duplicated at Harvard.
The future is entirely unclear. A great deal will depend on who is selected to replace Murdock, who will retire soon. Unless the new chairman has both Murdock's prestige and his interest in General Education, there is little chance that the program will survive the competition which other experiments will give it over the next five years.
Of equal necessity, however, is a new definition of aims, for unless the program can find a policy to build on there is little chance it can find the unity to oppose further departmental strife and build the Faculty's interest in preserving Gen Ed.
There are rumors that a major study is in prospect, one comparable in scope to the Redbook. If such a report is written, and approved by the Faculty, perhaps General Education will experience a rebirth of interest and participation. But the present temper of the Faculty is so disposed toward special study and specialization that it is doubtful that a new report which created a program as broad and diffuse as General Education would be approved.
New Policy Needed
The demand for a new policy is really a demand for a concrete statement of what General Education is trying to do. The Redbook, impractical though it may have been, presented a clear educational policy. When courses multiplied, the Redbook lost its meaning, and General Education is now feeling the results. Unless a new and meaningful policy can be formed, Faculty members will continue to think that the departments can do the job of General Education, and the program will lose whenever a decision must be made.
The obvious policy is interdepartmentalism, for this is the most significant and conspicuous aspect of the present program. Even this will have to be maintained in the face of strong opposition, however, for, as the Freshman experiments indicate, there is much sentiment toward making the college experience a completely specialized one.
Even among many who would like to see the General Education requirement eliminated, there is feeling in favor of the program. Professor Brower, who feels that the job can be done by the departments if they are carefully supervised, says of the committee, "It has fulfilled a function that nothing else has fulfilled--someplace where people think about what is happening to the average undergraduate."
"Princeton," Woodrow Wilson wrote half a century ago, "is a place to find a vocation, not learn one." The crisis in General Education is the test of Wilson's ideal at Harvard. If the program cannot survive, Harvard will lose its greatest claim to liberal education.