Students rarely give one class credit for changing their lives.

But Matthew M. Briones '94 says General Education 105, "The Literature of Social Reflection," did just that.

Because of his experiences in the class, Briones says he was inspired to become a high school teacher after graduation. At Belmont Hills School, he tried to pass the lessons of the course on to his students by modeling his curriculum on Gen Ed 105.

"For me, it helped focus my own teaching, really quite literally," says Briones, who has now returned to graduate school and works as a teaching fellow in the class. "It really has changed my life."

Real People, Real Problems

Agee Professor of Social Ethics Robert Coles '50, who has been teaching the class for the last 23 years, says he wants students to examine their own lives by reading literature with universal human themes.

"The hope is that the students will take the books to heart," Coles says. "If you read books with seriousness and enthusiasm they can become companions."

The syllabus, which Coles says has remained virtually unchanged since he began teaching the course in 1975, requires students to read works by journalists, doctors and writers including James Agee '34, William Carlos Williams, Raymond Carver and Ralph Ellison.

In section, students are asked to relate the themes of the readings to their own lives. Discussions frequently lead to stories about personal experiences with love, parenthood and other issues.

Students in a recent section used brightly colored markers to draw pictures of a time when they felt out-of-place. The week before, they grappled to define love, by relating stories about their parents and grandparents.

"It's one of the few classes at Harvard that actually deals with real people and gets our heads out of Cambridge a little bit and reminds us that there are real people with real problems out there," says Matthew T. Ozug '00.

Students say this emphasis on the personal makes the class a moving experience-and unique within the Harvard academic experience.

"I think the value of it is simply to be able to take a piece of literature, realize that it hits a theme that runs through everybody's life, no matter the time period you live in," says Scott A. Taylor '99. "It brings into focus the issues that we all deal with no matter where we are."

A New Part of Your Brain

Many Gen Ed 105 enthusiasts say it is a welcome change from the typical Harvard course. Students often spend more time in section discussing themselves than discussing the readings, and Coles often begins lecture by describing the sights on his morning commute to work.