Core Remains a Valuable Part of a Harvard Education

The Crimson wrongly indicts the core.

First, thought the core certainly has logistical problems such as overcrowding, these are not problems inherent to the mission of the core itself, nor are they exclusive to the core.

Second, The Crimson's finding that two-thirds of polled students are dissatisfied with the core means little how many are dissatisfied with other apsects of Harvard's curriculum, for example? In fact, an informal look at the CUE guide indicates more than 30 core a classes rated four or higher, and also shows that the mean rating for core classes falls inconspicuously among those for humanities social sciences and natural sciences.

Third, criticism that tackling "approaches to knowledge" generates too many specifically oriented classes incongruent with a liberal arts education ignores the fragmentation and specificity present within fields of academia themselves. Core classes provide a more coherent and useful sample from these varied fields than survey classes straining to cover too many fields.

Finally, the core is a better program than General Education. Overall the core has problems which should be fixed, but it is the best program Harvard has seen to address the diversity of a liberal arts education.