THE SCIENCE REQUIREMENT

Among the victims of the rigid distribution system are those students who, despite the fact that they may have taken as many as three courses in science in preparatory school, are forced to take still another such course in college. In requiring these men to fulfill the science requirement, the College is helping to defeat the proper ends of the distribution system. Students already thoroughly familiar with the scientific method are frequently prevented by the requirement from including in their program a course in an equally valuable subject such as Fine Arts, Economics, or Psychology, not embraced in the concentration-distribution scheme.

If the method of instruction or the general approach to the subject at Harvard differed sufficiently from that used in preparatory schools, there might be some reason for requiring men who have already had their quota of science in school to take a course in college. In some other fields this is the case. But the elementary science courses differ from school courses only in being slightly more intensive.

The College should be ready to make exceptions to its iron rules when they seriously limit the student's opportunity to acquire a welbrounded education. He should not be deprived of the benefit of other equally important courses for the sake of a distribution requirement which falls to take into consideration his previous education.