At least a quarter of every college curriculum should consist of small seminars in which the "Great Books" are discussed, Mortimer J. Adler, chairman of the Board of Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica and an authority on innovative teaching techniques, said yesterday at the opening of a Britannica publications display at the Coop.
Adler, who is also a noted Philosopher, lecturer and author, came to the Coop to cut the ribbon on the first-floor display which includes his new book, "Six Great Ideas," and the 54-volume "Great Books of the Western World" that he helped compile and edit.
The 78-year-old philosopher sharply criticized teaching methods at most universities, saying students are "talked at" in lectures and large classes and assigned "shallow, unprovocative books." Teachers should engage their students in active discussions of the ideas and philosophies of great works, he added.
To illustrate his ideas, Adler has recently conducted seminars with selected public high school students in Queen-stown, Md., and Oakland, Cal. The six-session seminars, discuss Truth, Goodness, Beauty, Liberty, Equality and Justice.
Adler said that the Public Broadcasting System plans to film his-next seminar in March for a series of ten hour-long shows. In addition, six segments of the public television series "Bill Moyers' Journal," featuring Adler in seminars filmed last July, will air in September, 1982.
The Coop's Britannica display is a "trail-blazer" for other permanent displays planned for bookstores of schools such as Dartmouth and the University of Chicago, Joseph B. Connors, New England branch manager of Britannica, said yesterday.
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