The proposal that advanced placement students majoring in the Humanities or Social Sciences be allowed to waive the lower level Gen Ed requirement in their field caused sharp disagreement among professors of General Education yesterday.
In his annual report to the faculty, delivered last week, Edward T. Wilcox, Director of Advanced Standing in Harvard College, suggested that "the relationship of Advanced Placement to General Education should be reconsidered." Wilcox pointed out that advanced placement concentrators in the Natural Sciences are exempt from the lower level Nat. Sci. requirement, but that advanced concentrators in the Humanities and Social Sciences still have to take an elementary Gen Ed course in their field.
"If we could get advanced placement examinations in the Humanities and Social Sciences, I would be very much interested in having them replace the required General Education courses," Kenneth B. Murdock '16, chairman of the Committee on General Education, asserted last week.
Aiken Approves Possible Exemption
More emphatic approval of possible exemption came from Henry D. Aiken, professor of Philosophy. "If they do it in the Nat. Sci.," he declared, "then I'm all for it across the board."
However, many professors, among them John M. Bullitt '43, associate professor of English, were completely opposed to the proposal. Bullitt explained that the criterion for waiving General Education requirements should not be whether a student has gained Advanced Placement, but rather what kind of actual preparation he has received. Since "some things are done in these lower level courses that aren't done anywhere else in the University," individual decisions should be made in each case, he added.
Finley Stands Firm
John H. Finley, Jr. '25, Eliot Professor of Greek Literature, also opposed any exemption from lower level requirements in Humanities and Social Sciences. Although this is a "serious problem," he admitted, "I, of course, stand by the present rules."
Labelling the Natural Sciences "quantitative bodies of learning," and the Humanities and Social Sciences "qualitative ones," John J. Conway, assistant professor of History, explained that the Natural Sciences have a very specific body of data, but the Humanities and Social Sciences are conceptual.
Reuben A. Brower, professor of English, admitted that the question of waiving requirements should be considered, but opposed any changes.
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