Director of the Core Program Susan W. Lewisadmits that not all professors in the coreunderstand its mission of "teaching approaches toknowledge."

"Some number of professors do not understandit," Lewis says. "It is very hard to apply."

Some professors who teach in the core evenquestion whether "approaches to knowledge" is avalid way of structuring a course.

The idea of teaching courses specifically togive students an "approach" is "problematic," saysKrupp Foundation of European Studies ProfessorCharles S. Maier, who teaches Historical StudyB-70.

"When I teach a history course, I try to beself-conscious about what a historian is doing,"he says. "I don't think that I personally would domuch different in a core course than a departmentcourse."

"If I knew what [approaches to knowledge] was,I would be very wise," says Higginson Professor ofEnglish Literature Larry D. Benson, who teachesLiterature and Arts A-13. "Like all ideals, it isvery vague. I do not think it actually happens."

The section leaders who do most of theday-to-day teaching in the core also say they haveno sense of a special "core" approach to teaching.

Many, in fact, did not know what the corecurriculum is supposed to be teaching students.

"I'm not exactly sure what the goals of thecore are," says Christina Gomez, who teaches inSocial Analysis 38.

Lecturer on History and Literature Jeffrey J.Cohen, head section leader in Literature and ArtsA-13, says he does not know what an "approach toknowledge" is.

"I think I would have to figure out what themission of the core is," he says.

Most teaching fellows say the have received noguidance as to how to teach differently in a coreclass.

"I do not really know a whole lot about thecore," says Foreign Cultures 40 teaching fellowMatthias Henze. "We talked about why foreigncultures are being taught. Beyond that we werenever told anything about the program."

The core office distributes a handbook to coreteaching fellows which provides a "pragmaticoutline" of how to run a large core class andteach a section. But many TFs say they haven'teven read the book.

"I was never told anything about the mission ofthe core," says Science B-29 TF Gilbert Tostevin.