Council Committee Defends Area Courses, Raps Vocation Training

Defending the proposed "introductory area courses" and hitting out at recent suggestions that vocational education be made part of the college curriculum, Blair Clark '40 last night issued a statement on behalf of the Student Council Committee on Education, of which he is chairman.

The brief document reiterated the stand taken by last year's Student Council, which recommended that five compulsory area courses be established to restore a liberal education to Harvard. The Council at that time maintained that because of over-concentration, inadequate distribution, and the deterioration of the tutorial system, a liberal education here was being seriously undermined.

Area Courses Under Fire

"The proposed 'introductory area' courses, however, have been attacked on the grounds that they are administratively too difficult for a college of Harvard's size, and that they would not, even if ideally constituted, effectively provide the students with the common intellectual content which is their aim," Clark's statement said.

"The validity of the first criticism is lessened by the fact that such courses are already in operation at several American colleges, notably Chicago and Columbia. . . . Too much care should not be wasted on the preservation of Harvard's present administrative set-up intact," it continued.

Answers Adler

In answer to Professor Mortimer J. Adler's characterization of the Chicago survey courses as purveyors of "superficial indoctrination," the statement said, "This remark probably referred more to the Humanities and Social Sciences, rather than to the Natural Sciences course, which is a generally admitted success.

"This committee believes," the statement added, "that a two-year course in the Humanities, with lectures supple- menting careful readings of the most important 'great books' and a well-developed conference or seminar system, would escape the evils of superficiality." It would benefit by not approaching complicated problems "from the standpoint of a single limited discipline."

Later this spring the Council committee will investigate and report on the courses now offered for distribution, which last year's Council report claimed are inadequate.

Favors Some Concentration

Concerning Professor Adler's "100 great books" educational scheme, now followed at St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, the statement said that the Council "favors concentration, which he condemned, but shares his apprehension at the penetration into the liberal arts college of university functions."

In answer to recent proposals that vocational education be introduced at Harvard, the statement reiterated the position taken by last year's Council report, that "the colleges should resist all temptation to buckle down to the standards of the market place and the professions.