Harvard's new curriculum establishes eight primary subject areas that all students will have to take. The categories include Societies of the World, encompassing subjects like anthropology and international relations; Ethical Reasoning, a practical approach to philosophy; and the United States in the World, which will likely span multiple departments, including sociology and economics. The plan, which is expected to be formally approved by the faculty in May, won't go into effect before September 2009 at the earliest.
But the school is already preemptively dismissing charges that it is embracing purely practical knowledge. "We do not propose that we teach the headlines," said a report published on Feb. 7 by the curriculum committee, comprising professors, students and a dean. "Only that the headlines, along with much else in our students' lives, are among the things that a liberal education can help students make better sense of."
One point likely to raise eyebrows among academic traditionalists is the rationale for the newly mandated study of Empirical Reasoning, which will cover math, logic and statistics. It is being added, the committee report says, because graduates of Harvard "will have to decide, for example, what medical treatments to undergo, when a defendant in court has been proven guilty, whether to support a policy proposal and how to manage their personal finances". Does this mean balancing a checkbook is on a par with balancing equations？ What about learning for learning's sake？ What about the study of history, which Harvard will no longer require, even though its recently announced new president, Drew Gilpin Faust—the first woman to head the institution—is a renowned historian？
The plan's advocates say the curriculum is flexible enough that students will still be able to take courses in whatever interests them, be it ancient art or cutting-edge science. What's crucial, they say, is that the new approach emphasizes the kind of active learning that gets students thinking and applying knowledge. "Just as one doesn't become a marathon runner by reading about the Boston Marathon," says the committee report, "so, too, one doesn't become a good problem solver by listening to lectures or reading about statistics." Acknowledging how important extracurricular activities have become on campus, the report calls for a stronger link between the endeavors students pursue inside and outside the classroom. Those studying poverty, for example, absorb more if they also volunteer at a homeless shelter, suggests Bok, whose 2005 book, Our Underachieving Colleges, cites a finding that students remember just 20% of the content of class lectures a week later.
There were, however, some contemporary