Or, it could derive from the perception that a Harvard diploma is nothing more than a means toward some career-oriented end, leading students to treat academics as merely some obstacle toward graduation. At other times, this attitude is based on a priority set that places academic coursework below social, extracurricular or athletic obligations. And, more often than we’d like to admit, this attitude is fueled by sheer laziness.
Most of us, members of the Class of 2001, have studied at this fine institution for four years. We have enrolled in at least 32 courses for which we have received academic credit. Without over-generalizing the whole of our academic experiences, it’s a safe bet that few of us—if any—can honestly say that we’ve harbored a “positive” attitude toward every one of those 32 courses.
It’s probably more accurate to say that we’ve felt an intimate attachment with only a handful of courses. Moreover, it’s also likely that some of us haven’t felt such an attachment with any of our coursework at Harvard.
From the University’s perspective, undergraduate attitudes toward education might seem like something outside its control. But the University is in a strong position to affect these attitudes. Exalting student extracurricular involvement, as the Dean of the College does, inevitably creates competition between academic and extracurricular obligations. Courses that place too much emphasis on a single final examination invite students to spend all their time studying to, rather than for, the test. A House system with no academic significance, save for “tutors” that exist only in name, creates distance between our residential and academic lives.
The point is not to push for a specific academic reform, but to remind the University that structural reforms to undergraduate education are not ends in themselves. Hiring more Faculty may lead to smaller class sizes, but smaller class sizes won’t mean anything unless they can significantly affect undergraduate attitudes for the better. The freshman seminar program is valuable not because the classes are small, but because it is a rare opportunity for first-years to develop and discover academic interests, free from grade or exam worries.
If president-to-be Summers is genuine in his commitment to undergraduate education, he must do more than simply implement a few structural reforms. Instilling within all undergraduates a positive attitude toward learning will require no less than a critical reexamination of the relationship between academics and other parts of College life.
Richard S. Lee ’01, a social studies concentrator in Pforzheimer House, was editorial chair of The Crimson in 2000.