Freshmen Dissatisfied with Gen Ed A

After a 12-week taste of General Education Ahf, freshman opinion on the worth of the new required composition course is predominantly unfavorable.

Complaints and criticisms range from "It's a complete waste of time" to "One hour a week isn't enough to get anything concrete from the course."

The idea for the course of this type stems directly from the 1945 report, "General Education in a Free Society." The President's Committee recognized the ineffectiveness of English A and declared that a course was needed that would be "functional to the curriculum... It should be...associated with training in general education rather than with a single course or department."

The Committee recommended that, after a screening test, the "bulk" of the entering freshmen would spend the first semester doing remedial work either for two class hours or for one class and one conference hour each week.

In the second half of the year all students would, instead of attending formal classes, write "frequent themes" in connection with their general education courses. Individual conferences would replace actual classroom instruction. They further suggested that no credit be given for the course.

General Education Ahf is not an exact replica of the picture envisaged by the Committee. All of the 1,113 and 276 Radcliffe freshmen this year are required to take the two-term, half-credit course.

19 Instructors

All work is handled in mixed sections by 19 instructors, many of whom taught English A last year. Besides classes, the instructors hold six hours of open office time a week, during which students are encouraged to discuss their specific writing problems.

One of the most common complaints of the students is that one hour per week is too short a time in which to learn the essentials of essay writing. This opinion is backed by instructor May Sarton, author of "Shadow of a Man" and "The Lion and the Rose." She believes that the limited instruction period is one of the major faults of the course. Two hours a week should be much more effective, she said.

David E. Owen, director of the General Education Program, explained that on the old 16-course basis there wasn't room for a full composition course; therefore, a half course was arranged, raising degree requirements to 16 1/2 credits.

Aim to Please

Another freshman criticism is that the tastes and marking systems of the various section men are so diverse that students have come to the point where they write, not honestly, but merely to please their respective instructors.

They further complain that they are assigned, for the most part, dull descriptive and definitive papers, and are forced to write in a dry, choppy manner.

"One of the best things here," said instructor Charles H. Olmsted, formerly a member of the English department at the University of Iowa, "is the freedom that instructors have to teach in their own ways, but within the broad limits of the department."

Frustration is "Natural"

"The purpose of Gen. Ed. A.," said Director Harold C. Martin, "is to help the student think and write clearly, accurately, and concisely, thus enabling him to handle writing problems in his undergraduate years, particularly in the General Education courses."

Martin declared that, since many of the students who come here have been trained to write "creatively," and since impersonal, expository writing is a prime aim of the course, there is a natural feeling of frustration and resentment on the part of these students.

New Emphasis in Spring

"There will be much greater latitude in writing during the second semester, when emphasis will be placed on points of view and structure," he said. There will also be some criticism of General Education themes in class.

Martin stressed the fact that Gen. Ed. A is still in its infancy. Plans for utilizing regular General Education section men also as composition instructors should improve integration of the courses, he said, but the problem of limited class time remains unsolved