Rule 2. At least ONE of the courses in the Sciences must be in the Natural Science category; the other may also be in Natural Science (including mathematics), or it may be in the Behavioral Science category.

Rule 3. In both Humanities and Sciences divisions, TWO full departmental courses approved by the Committee on General Education, one of which is above the elementary level, may substitute for ONE General Education course. However, at least ONE General Education course that cannot count for concentration must be taken in each of the two divisions.

Rule 4. The TWO full courses required in the Electives division may be selected either from among the General Education Electives, or from among the General Education courses in Humanities and Sciences (to the limit of four for the entire Program), or from among departmental courses that cannot count for concentration.

Commentary on the Rules

The principal advantage of having only two major divisions, Humanities and Sciences, is that a two-course requirement can now be imposed in both areas....Thus a better-prepared student may choose a course that would be the second part of a two-course sequence for the less well prepared.

But while we propose the two divisions, Humanities and Sciences, as the basic units of the Program for General Education and see them as balancing and complementing each other, we do not see them as neatly symmetrical. They are different in important respects.

The Sciences division, unified by certain of the aims and procedures of the studies within it, is not meant to be a wholly integrated unit. For all the similarities between Natural Science and Behavioral Science, they remain significantly different in method and object of inquiry; and they are at different stages of development as disciplines.

We intend the distinction between them to be maintained, and Natural Science to have a special emphasis within the Program. Behavioral Science is made optional; Natural Science... is not optional, and it is not, in the proposed Program, made interchangeable with Behavioral Science.

We intend the opposite to characterize the development of the new Humanities area. We do not wish to introduce a central demarcation within it....We see the proposed Humanities area as a spectrum, spanning history, literature, and art. Far from introducing a break within this spectrum, we wish to place the weight of innovation precisely at the middle point where previously separated phenomena may now come together. The extremes will remain: a broadly conceived survey of Western history stressing economic phenomena should be no less welcome than a course in drama and the epic. Both examine vital aspects of our civilization's development and of the culture we inherit from that development. But we hope that the middle area, where literature and art, ideas and beliefs, may be analyzed in conjunction with social and political phenomena, will come alive and be the subject of experimentation in course offerings just as it has been the subject of scholarly investigation....Though we wish to retain the preeminence of Natural Science within the Sciences division, we also wish to introduce the systematic study of human behavior into the General Education Program and to do so in a way that allows for a gradual development of courses in this area specifically designed for General Education.

The third rule introduces greater flexibility into the General Education Program and permits the student to build up sequences of courses that have their origin in General Education courses....

It is, of course, essential to our conception that this substitution can only be used for one of the two required courses in Humanities and in Sciences. Thus the contact with each division through General Education offerings is maintained.

As for the phrase "approved by the General Education Committee," we do not mean by this to commit the Committee to the examination of the contents and conduct of every course in the catalogue and to the selection of a few specimens for its list. We intend only to give the Committee the power to exclude courses that are clearly inappropriate for General Education....

The student has very great freedom of choice in complying with Rule 4. He may, if he chooses, meet it by taking two departmental courses that cannot count for concentration in his field of study....

As an alternative the student may take one or two courses from those offered in the Humanities and Sciences divisions of General Education, provided he has taken three or two such courses, respectively, in fulfilling the requirements of these divisions. The restriction to a total of four General Education courses insures that students will experience the other options within the Program.

General Education Electives course will offer important opportunities under this rule. It was in part at least to assure a place in the curriculum, and sponsorship, for courses that are not normally offered by departments and that do not readily fit the specifications of Science or Humanities in General Education that Rule 4 was inserted....