The Flip Side

Yet not every student who participates in Gen Ed 105 finds the experience as powerful as Briones and Colgan.

Some students object to the atmosphere of sections, which Colgan calls "therapy sessions."

Others say the class, however noble its aims, misleads students into thinking it's more distinct from the average Harvard class than it really is.

"It advertises itself as a pause in your Harvard career," says Benjamin D. Florman '99, a Gen Ed 105 alumnus and out-spoken critic. "I think that's completely untrue. I think it has a very clear agenda of its own."

Florman compares the class to Social Analysis 10, "Principles of Economics", where students "think they are going to learn about economics, but instead learn about the professor's conservative view of economics."

Florman, who says he actually agrees with the many of the goals of the class despite his criticisms, also complains that the authors studied are frequently presented as pictures of perfection.

"The parts of the lives which could bring up conflict are overlooked," he says. "I think there's an inherent paternalism towards the people that you're studying, when you're studying them for a purpose which is to love and understand and valorize them."

Coles acknowledges that not every student reacts positively to his class.

"The course has it critics and should have its critics," he says. "I'm glad we have critics."

But he adds that he cannot imagine not teaching the class. Last summer, he was hit by a car and was almost unable to teach the course this year.

"The course changes my life all the time, because I go back to these writers," Coles says. "It affects my thinking and the way I live my life."