Ballyhoo at St. Johns II. "The"Grat Books " and Progressive Teaching
HOOK, SIDNEY
Ballyhoo at St. Johns II. "The"Grat Books " and Progressive Teaching By Sidney Hook THERE are two other assumptions behind the curriculum at St. Johns College which are uncritically made by...
...John'* plan are jutt a* much at odd* with each other a* the r**t of the community...
...But there ar* 2,535 large pages in the English translation of Marx's' Capital, most of which are difficult reading...
...John's is better able to produce individuals of disciplined intelligence and imagination than other curriculums...
...Again our master of the liberal arts misses the logical point Anybody can get tomething out of a course...
...John's curriculum is designed not for exceptional students but for fifteen year olds in the normal range...
...John's College, I do not wish to appear to be justifying the present state of liberals arte education in tne country...
...Bear in mind that the St...
...The relevant question is whether in philosophy *»d social science ether materials in addition to great •oeks should be used...
...The result is that there are as many "past*" as there are significances that can be drawn in a never ending series of "presents...
...A college can be better than the books it teaches...
...This view by-passes the great problem of integrating cultural and vocational (or professional) studies on all levels...
...I was myself brought up on Euclid and Newton and I can aee the case for them...
...The more important issae, however, is not whether achievement in one subject facilitates achievement in another...
...This may be hyper-lntellectualism but, educationally, it is downright unintelligent...
...The Bulletin of St John's informs u* that on the basis of solid training in mathematics and science "one may hope for a generation of competent economists, political scientists, and even sociologists...
...And the line from Machiavelli, Hoboes and Hegel it distinct from the intellectual traditicn that connects Locke, Voltaire and Kant...
...Bat matched against students of equsl capacity who have spent the same amount of time in the study of logic, they do not do as well " In the detection of fallacies...
...There is snobbism in a procedure that will sacrifice the very good because it cannot procure the very best And, in the sbsence of experimental data, it is sheer intellectual arrogance to pretend that one particular type of curriculum is better able to achieve the end* of liberal education for all •tudent*athan any alternative curriculum...
...Boole ia not comparable to his successors...
...They ere juttifiod on the ground that they mak* for olear, logwal thinking, for bettor Hf* in a democracy, and for eompetanee in the tocial tcience...
...John's program often write at if critica of its program were opposed to the reading of great books...
...The crisis of our culture i* apparent in countrie* of the most diverse educational systems...
...John's curriculum...
...But any one who reads the current list must wonder whether those who drew up the program are devoid of a sense of humor and proportion...
...On many occasion* they imply that great book* are not read in most liberal arts colleges...
...John's » not conducting an experiment...
...Tradition it more than a matter of books...
...And if it is held that the reading of the classics is sufficient to insure a proper critical reception of great works in the present—why, the very history of the psst reception of great woiks speaks against it...
...Descartes' geometry is surpassed by every modern textbook of analytical geometry...
...One of them is that in reading the classics we come into direct contact with the great minds of the ages who sre "the original snd ultimate teachers" of the St...
...He blithely diaregardt the obvicut fact that the men of Vichy received precigely the same kind of classical education, and read the same bocks...
...Bat its extent depend* apoa the degree of similarity in the subject matter of the different field...
...The science of our day has already extracted the rich ore and put it in a form which facilitates more rapid comprehension and further progress...
...John's educators give of some of their teaching methods...
...One of the more startling innovations of the St John'* curriculum is the prescribed reading of th* historical classics in mathematics snd tcience...
...Whatever principles are at stake la the present war, surely the intelligent study of its causes re* quires familiarity with complex data from economics, demography, mass psychology...
...John's books printed in its President's report, we observe Vol...
...It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that they believe it better for students to get little or nothing from en excellent lecture than a great deal from a merely good one...
...Tkaj in the appendix ef a hook en edncatien which Prof*amr| which he will make a cenatractive statement ef hi* fl proposal* for liberal arte educative in America...
...TllK best features of the St...
...But here we ask the simple question: ia this program of reading proper fare for the ordinary 16 year-old boy T Can...
...John's curriculum—a psychological assumption technically called "transfer of training...
...Many of these books are now read only by specialists after a life-time of preparation...
...Works of genius a* they are, they are also full of false starts, irrelevant.by-paths, and blind allays...
...The reading of the best in modern poetry and the novel is not easy...
...There is snobbism in a curriculum that set* as s requirement for a degree competence only in elementary calculus but which prescribe* the reading of book* that demand competence in much more advanced mathematics...
...What evidence is there ef Mr...
...Although John Dewey has ex asawetisasl practices, it remains true that unscientific sd aseisl interests, and the blind routines of habit have lasasaasnee, he ia still the leading pioneer in American sjashsa critics...
...The past has many continuing effect* into the present...
...Forty-one of the hundred great books are in mathematics aad science...
...Even the tame books, interpreted differently, can be shown to ente* into conflicting tradition...
...Bht both books and students will be bettor read...
...Yet it happen* that the foreign policy Mr...
...Who would not like to go to school to Plato, Aquinas, Newton and Darwin...
...in all courses, except science and mathematics, supplementary reading in classical and modem writers was required...
...Not infrequently they are used as ***ts...
...To enter into the world of Plato, of Plotinos, of Dante, of Calvin is to get a sense of the compulsions which led them to certain key assumptions, problems, and conclusions that seemed credible to them if not to us...
...Can students acquire greater competence in mathematics and tcience and a better intight into their character as liberal arts by reading the historical classics than by systematic study...
...This allegiance grows out of a social position and interest of which they sre not always sware...
...We shall presently call on them directly for their evaluation...
...It should be clear, then, that no pclicy can be justified on ground* drawn exclusively from (he tradition or the past...
...There is little difference here between the St...
...thi* historical tradition ia equally relevant to the study of all subject* from philosophy to mathematics...
...Critical scholarship has demonstrated that those who most glorify the past do so from the vantage point of some present allegiance...
...According to this 'view, their meaning and truth-claims are so integrally bound up with the underlying pattern of culture, that they cannot be understood in isolation...
...For a knowledge of the basic social conflicts of our time, and for an understanding of what it means U live in a technological age, visits to industrial storm centers, guided work experience, participation in social movements and other vital community "activities have been found to be very valuable aids...
...It will just give them an oblique perspective of what is important and what is not...
...I cite it because it shows that those who administer the St...
...This list reflects peculiarities of my own interests but my experience is not unrepresentative...
...Let us assume—eyes and attention and normal distractions of the young being what they are— that after class they read six hours a day, every day in the week, throughout the school year...
...Such statements are intellectually scandalous...
...Th* work* of Euclid and Ptolemy, Kepler and Newton, Galen and Harvey are studied instead of modern lyttematic textbook* in mathematics, physics and biology...
...They reveal not only a lamentable deficiency in logic and scientific method, but the disingenuousness of a purveyor of patent medicines and other universal nostrum...
...Add up the pages of the one hundred and ten b( oks on ths current list, make allowances for the highly technical character of many of them—some have 'to be read with pencil and paper, otlters in Greek—and it becomes a mystery how the books can be read, and even more mysterious how they can be underttood...
...The Lotaa...
...Among them are the place of vocational elements in college study and the sharp separation and invidious contrast drawn between "liberal arts" and "Vocational" arts...
...For example, the study of Greek or Latin undoubtedly improves the students' command of the English langaage...
...nor in order to produce expertne...
...Studying the more modern works by Descartes, Newton, etc., except for a few single items, would be even more difficult and likewise not lead to a balanced understanding of mathematics...
...Some of Machiavelli obviously cannot be properly understood without reference to Italian political life at the end of the sixteenth century...
...This crisis is to be permanently cured by making the St...
...a'nd in the fourth—at the ripe age of eighteen when mitt students enter other college*—Hegel's Logic, Marx'* Capital, Gauss' Mathematical Paper*, Fourier's Mathematical Analyti* of Heat, Galois' Mathematical Paper*, Maxwell'* Electricity and Magnetitm and works of compsrable difficulty by Dalton, Peacock, Lobachevski, Riemann, Joule, Hamilton, Boole, Cantor, Hilbert, Russell and Whitehead...
...Even such a prosaic theme as taxation can be presented in such a way that the great conflicts of social philosophy spring into view...
...It is undeniable that a sincere, an almost passionate, Interest in education pervades the St...
...These cannot be found in any great books but in newspapers, magazines, novels, plays, cinemas—and bad books...
...What comes through to students is inescapably dependent upon the lesser minds of the "auxiliary intermediaries," as teachers are quaintly called at St...
...They are proud of the fact that students listen "to talk that is often over their heads" and claim—one wonders on what evidence— that the lectures are "remembered and absorbed long after the immediate hearing...
...Machiavelli will remain intelligible, alone and unaided, so long as ordinary human experience holds out...
...Some of them were read in elective courses...
...In the glossy photograph of the complete shelf of St...
...Perhaps there is nothing in the twentieth century that can be ranked with the literary productions of pievious centuries, But should not students be encouraged to test their powers of critical judgment on the literary creations of their own times...
...But the same amount of additional time spent directly in the study of English results in a much greater improvement Students who stndy mathematies will be able to detect logic...
...Barr in hand...
...It it interesting to observe that higher education, at corresponding levels, in totalitarian countries like Germany, Italy and France, was much closer to the curriculum of St...
...This cannot always come out of the books themselves because their authors, writing for a contemporary audience, took many things for granted...
...This will explain why, when the list of the hundred books was made public, many experts openly scoffed and some cried "Fraud...
...in the third Newton's Prtnctpia and Leibniz'* Mathematical Paper...
...Appoloniu*' Conic*, Ptolemy'* Almageit...
...The subject of the lecture has no necessary relation to what the students may be studying at the moment...
...But en .the whole Euclid is much too slow-moving...
...Most of the classics on the St...
...We are dealing with average noys from fif*3en to eighteen...
...They are on the same level as the shrill accusation of another of his colleague'* that "American democracy hat more to fear from its professor* than from Hitler...
...Much more important, thia snobbism is revealed in the account the St...
...The Bible, which appears on the St...
...John'* exclusive and eioterie diet of great book...
...I believe that such lectures should be treated as a kind of beautiful luxury and the students should not be bothered With examinations concerning historical facts...
...Really, some logician ought to take Mr...
...Despite thi*, Mr...
...Here is a telling instance...
...The answer la the question can only be given after we consider the broad field* of knowledge in which the student is to he educated...
...It can be decided intelligently only on the basis of an experiment that will test the relative effects of different course* cf ttudy on students ef approximately equal natural ctpacity...
...John's than to the system in other American colleges...
...In this analysis I have been concerned only with the question of the relation between the St John's program and the purposes of a liberal art education...
...In some courses we had textbooks...
...Indeed, why compress what could serve almost as the reading of a lifetime into tour hurried years...
...brought back word , si—us1 and embattled for the cause of democracy in Sbeelef pMlesepher and edacator, all the fundamental pi, phlkwophy es well...
...More important than any book in the instruction of youtht it the role of the teacher who interpret* it...
...This is a very revealing sentence...
...This knowledge challenge* another assumption of the St...
...The significance of the past is noC a physical object that can be recovered like shards from an excavation site...
...II is the skillful publicrelations touch that suggests the entire work is read by St John's students...
...of course, be overridden by empirical findings of •"•trolled experiments in education...
...These, however, are not unique to St...
...Allied with this doctrine is the notion thst certain subjects are uniquely able to generate intellectual discipline and that they should be central in the curriculum...
...In the field of literature, I know of no way of reading great books except by reading them...
...in the second, Plotinos' Ennead*, St Thomas' Summa Theologica...
...Barr, president of S . John'*, has since Pearl Harbor continuously charged that the parlous state of our defense, our foreign policy, and what he call* our "political, economic, intellectual and moral collapse" have all been caused by "a crisis in liberal education...
...These tubject* are not studied for vocational reasons...
...Whatever is valid in these fields has been incorporated in a continuous and progressive scientific tradition...
...Russell writes: "The subject on which you write is one sbout which I feel very strongly...
...Barr does not regard as appropriate for liberal education...
...But here St...
...Even more of Dante requires outside aids...
...Johns College which are uncritically made by its defender...
...There remains one Inal question...
...But it is over-simplified to the point of naivete...
...On the other side, I am convinced that lectures concerning the historical development of ideas in different fields are of great Teh** for intelligent students, for such studies farther very effectively the independence of Judgment and independence from blind belief in temporarily accepted views...
...Where the approach-is determined by problem*, there ia considerable evidence that they can be fruitfully studied by tha use of contemporary material...
...The alternative to a lecture which Ik way above the heads of students is obviously not one that talks down to them or is full of anecdotal irrelevances...
...They invite investigation that space here forbids...
...The same kind of reading in outside sources is indispensable to an enlargement of the understanding of the great books of any period...
...The intelligent qaestion is not whether great books should be read but whether, a* the St John's educator* insist, ONLY greet books should be read...
...The featuring of Vol...
...Other students read different books depending on what courses they took and when they took them, since tbe same teacher would use different bocks when he repeated the course...
...The belief that a great book demands some information that cannot be found within its covers he denounces ss "a modern superstition...
...The topics range all over the universe, from "Paracelsus and Iatro-Chemistry" to "Russian Satanism," from "Grammar" to "Immortality...
...II of Marx's Capital...
...John's list...
...The weighty considerations adduced by these men **y...
...But an earlier book cannot give the contemporary information presupposed by a later one...
...There may be reasons for approaching the ttudy of mathematics and science historically, but they have nothing to do with the logical necessities of understanding the subject matter...
...One devotee of St...
...The italicized word "really" auggetta that Mr...
...John's curriculum universal...
...This view is denied by the President of St...
...Dogmatism on a question of this sort Is unseemly...
...The New Leader ia *r* loeopher* and educators, amoag ip Professor Sidney Hook ia Cktk College, New York University...
...The facte, however, are that on many of the great iteuee of today— war, peace, ieolation, appeasement, Socialism — the advocate* of th* St...
...They spend at least twenty-one hours a week in class...
...Our first witness It the distinguished mathematician, Richard Ccurant, who writes: There is n - doubt that it is unrealistic to expect a scientific enlightenment of beginners by the study III r. Ill llll...
...John's...
...The St John'* curriculum place* major emphasia on language, mathematics, and science...
...The truth ia, however, that the hundred book* do not expreaa one tradition, but many different one...
...But here, too, we are in possession of some knowledge that bears on the issue...
...There.is snobbism in a curriculum that prescribes the reading of books for all students which, as its administrator* admit, it* own faculty has not yet read, and which it has not yet learned how to teach...
...John'* and approved by many of it* critic...
...The secret of effective seminars is not only good books but good teachers who can draw students into cooperative discussion on central Issues raised by great problems...
...I have stated the reasons why a curriculum of Its type it ill-adapted to achieve these purposes...
...They road Harvey...
...Concretely, can the ordinary student understand more mathematics and physics by studying an excellent current text book than by reading the historical classics in theae fields...
...This i* the belief that trained powers of perception and inference, acquired in thetmastery of one field of knowledge, can be transferred to another...
...To what extent are the books on the St...
...The sympathetic imagination required to make the past come alive demands a knowledge of the living context of ideas, of the passionate historical occasions which move men to action or flight, of their actual intent when it differs from the professed one...
...If anything, the proposed cure THIS article en "The Chreat Books and Progress** fj •f two articles devoted to a critical analysis of the • * ] College, Annas***, Md...
...There is only one thing demanded of the lecturer —that he pitch his treatment on the highest possible professional level, without reference to the background, preparation, or capacity for comprehension on the pott of his young listeners...
...No books has been read more widely, more carefully, more sympathetically, more critically...
...Nothing indicates so eloquently the dogmsridden character of the curriculum as this approach to mathematics and the natural sciences...
...Barr tells us that background and preparation ere important but that these are supplied by the chronological order in which books ar read...
...Anyone who knows this book first hand will And it a strain on his credibility to believe that average students cf eighteen can read and understand a work of this character even if they read nothing else for a month...
...Language and mathematical tutorials run for four year* as well a* laboratory courses in th* history of science...
...ana ra« coaster to the L«w« IWesser Hoek address** |jyht« •WTteainn, perticulsrly to Lbsib a Mvtacd form will appear LA satfssk m ta* lato fall and la ^•Taaacattoa inclsdiag positive i/anwOS Bttkm, "Geo, Ueoaxeiry ana mc U O N society, L Aparwi Against Progressive Liberal Education...
...They do not believe it necessary that the young students understand what It is all about...
...All available evidence gathered from experiments in educational psychology show* that the doctrine of transfer of training i* false...
...John's list actually read...
...We call attention te hi* article la the current heat«| and te hi* piece In tbe current issae of The Humaaiat, «| tret is a systematic criticism of Msrk van Dorea's Ueav teen radio broadcast* ef Education for Freedom, I seem greaaive educators te reply te prolonged and virions attsg leading editorial fat The New Leader some month* age The widespread and excited reaction to Professor Bow teachers, student* snd parents, confirms our belief ia thj we are scheduling for early publication article* by ether *j the Scientific Spirit and the Democratic Faith h*U •> a that he had never witnessed edarata education...
...I think the "Best Hundred Books" people are utterly absurd on the scientific aide...
...But St...
...And there are longer and more difficult books on the list...
...Quoted with permission...
...But can the normal ttudent get more out of a more balanced fare of ttudy than he can out of the St...
...There sre other istues of great importance on which St...
...John's educators, assures us that "those who hsve really read the great bcoka" will think aoundly on the issues we face today and support right aetiona in their behalf...
...Unable to win assent for his educational schemes by rational argument, he is now reduced to exploiting war hysteria...
...of some great mathematicians and scientist...
...second ia a difaat and commentary on Thirt tht laMar'a refaaal to permit humanists and pro- Chat wxen *f Si- John's sd Toes tea was the subject of s Carlisle, am avaly asaoag educational theorists but among gsrtsaat end Ibaeliaess of his discussion...
...some in required courses...
...This may mean that fewer "great" books will be fad during college years than are read at St...
...John's curriculum and those its advocates condemn...
...I believe also that the laboratory studies should be selected from a purely pedagogical and not historical point of view...
...John's, through whom the meanings of the authors of the past are screened...
...John's...
...Th* Greek tradition is quite different from the medieval Christian one...
...The evidence show* it can...
...It is whether the discipline we expect the student to carry over from one study to • second, cannot be better developed if an eqnal amount of time and energy were devoted to the second...
...but ao matter how great the books on its reading list, a college cannot he greater than its teachers...
...John's list demand for their most intelligent reading some information about the period in which they were written...
...We read and understand better...
...a'a yHJgli (he sciwUtWe to tli* oast pevewnwo a u M M u w«r « '»»L^ehwas...
...In science and mathematics, only textbooks were used...
...The tret en "Bdeeatios ia hotoJ of the St John's coarse ef stndy and undertook te * * u2 Uatically ever-exaggerated, that they rested oa a* mm Meals ef a liberal edncatien for the modern man...
...For in most colleges some of the great books in these disciples are P»rt of the primary source material in which required "•ding ia done...
...The formal lecture which all students of different class-years are required to attend in a body, is given once a week...
...B K H I N I I the peculiar stresses of the St...
...When we do this, something happens to our ordinary human experience...
...John'a ia banging on an open door...
...But it is marred by a broad and deep streak of intellectual snobbism...
...Ia the field Of physical science, none can speak with greater authority than Albert Einstein: "In my opinion there should be no compulsory reading of classical authors in the field of science...
...The second i* the neo-Spenglerian view—to be di*cu**ed below—that th* understanding of...
...The dividing question is whether only the great poems, novels, and dramas ol the poet should be read...
...Barr stoutly affirms they can "if 'read' mean* to understand to some degree...
...To he sare, there i* mat carry over from one field to another...
...Can he learn more biology by reading a twentieth century work in biology than by reading Harvey T • • ? DEFENDERS of the St...
...John's list, is a good illustration...
...The truth is that in every college great, books are regarded as one of a number of-materials of instruction...
...Elsewhere Mr...
...Barr—like Euclid's Element...
...For in three disciplines, it is no exaggeration—nor does it betoken lack of piety—to lay that the best contribution* of the best minds can be presented in a more systematic, coherent and elegant way than can be found in the work* of the great pioneers...
...John's educators make very curious reading at this point...
...The writings of the St...
...By itself this matter is quite trivial...
...As s result, pa Qajr reporter st the sessions of The Conference on •htsl Castare Society last weekend...
...Yet no book has been subject to greater variety of interpretations, many of them mutually incompatible...
...Adler will admit that great books have been properly read only if we agree with him on what action* are right today—a rather circular procedure...
...It has its root* in the unsolved social and economic problems whose study Mr...
...The historical classics in mathematics and science are often written in an outmoded notation...
...In the field of philosophy and social science the case great books is much more persuasive...
...In the first year, students were going to read books—every line, said Mr...
...They presuppose knowledge of certain conditions and events to which they refer...
...16-16-17-18 year olds actually read books of*this kind profitably...
...It is no detraction from the important has that he writes in the spirit of Dewey's philosophy snwftetisn of whst is best in the scientific humanism »1st them, together with other eminent American phi id aw Department of Philosophy at Washington Square...
...Not tome brilliant ttudent* but all of them I Some of these books have since been replaced by others...
...This is reflected in its claim to be the sole academic heir to the culture of the ages, in the number of relatively esoteric works selected for study, and in the charge that critics who doubt that normal students can thrive best in this atmosphere, o'f intellectual athleticism, are not true democrats and engage in talk that is "unconsciously fascist...
...The broad rule is: historical approach where truth is unattainable, but not in a subject like mathematics or anatomy...
...Barr applaud* is damned by other advocates of St...
...Another is that all great books are intelligible in their own terms without background reading in books of lesser worth...
...fallacies more readily than those who do not study either mat he matirs or logic...
...Bertram...
...la au himself mere explicitly te the content and methods *f % tiw rale ef Traeittoa and Great Books ia Education...
...It has devised its msthematical and scientific program in line with a crotchety philosophical position whose motto seems to •e: we would rather be classical than right...
...A reasonable policy must hsve supporting evidence in the present Mr, Mortimer Adler, the mentor of St...
...Criticiam without such imaginative grasp and knowledge is apt to be irrelevant, and to run oat into thin —i of a text We muet bvwtg to a front war* «/ the pool eometking Uke what its author assumes his audience it aware ef, if tee ore properly to under tUind That ia why intelligent study of, say, the Greek classics, should be accompanied by judicious reading in the works of F. M. Cornford, Jane Harrison, Gilbert Murray and others...
...All l have Bought to ettablith ii that whatever it wrong with it cannot be remedied by the St...
...To say that the real teachers of the curriculum are the great minds of the past sounds very impressive...
...Quoted with permission...
...And even the classical tradition, when it ia free of mobbism, recognises that a lecture—whatever virtues it has— acquires an additional virtue when it is related to what the students are studying at the time...
...John's reading program there is still another set of assumptions...
...It must be interpreted...
...Such integration is necessary if society is to avoid the evil of producing, on the one side, technicians who are blind to the larger ideals and social contexts which should control the applications of science and mechanical skills, and on the other, specialists in "Culture," predominantly of a literary or verbal type, who regard the workaday world as alien soil in which sustaining moral values cannot take root _ Iri criticizing the immoderate and unjustified claims of St...
...John't hat boldly claimed that the reaittance of the French underground it to be accounted for by the clattical education it* heroet received...
...ORDINARY human experience" in one age is not enough to understand ordinary human experience in every other...
...fseted of parti prt* becLaeusst e Phreo fiess sthoer aCuothuorar not f bsee vseuraslfasts of high repute, let us hear the judgment of a Sjsthematieian whose work is one of the only two books af the twentieth century included on the St...
...They abound in peculiar idioms of language and thought...
...Excellent...
...W* * * E now turn to the question whether the classical curriculum at St...
...Some books are best digested slowly and at a later age...
...Some other colleges unfortunately take the same view as St John's toward them...
...t*mj Sht~y Heek ia the M M . j j s a f— csrrtoalasa at St, Job...
...Quoted with permission, from a letter to the author...
...According to John Dewey, ASM problem* of education are probiean i erciaed an enormous influence ea Am tradition*, vested educational, ceaoea exercised an even atronger ialseatt, edacation as well as one of its as contributions of Professor Hook te | which he has fused with an origin of Marx...
...We can do no better than to turn to the mature judgment, based on long years of teaching and active research...
...TlfJJMJJVIlJUS IM I I'll emy...
...These bear, in different ways, on different groups who bend them to their current needs...
...However this may be with other subjects like art or law, in mathematics and tcience it is demonstrably false...
...v * * * IP there is no cultural justification for this approach, it there a pedagogical one...
...Tbe first is that the hundred great book* exhibit only one tradition whose acceptance i* a prerequisite, if not a guarantee, of intelligent belief in democracy...
...John's has taken a position...
...As I recall my own college days, some of the books which were prescribed reading included Plato's Republic and other Dialogue*, Beard's An Economic Interpretation of the Conatitution, Berkeley's Three Dialogue*, Boas' The Mind of Primitive Man, PoincareS Foundation* of Science, Kant's Prologomena, Santayana'* Life of Reason, vol.' 2-6, Dewev'a atruetion in Philosophy, Milton'* SamionAgoniate* and Paradiae Lott, novels by Dickens, Thackeray, Hardy, the major plays of Shakespeare, some poems of Shelley, Keats, Wordsworth, essays by Haslltt, DeQuineey, R u * k i n and Carlyle...
...John's curriculum are prepared to sin against some of the best established principles of good teaching, if only they can get an indulgence from the high classical tradition—as they interpret it...
...in others we were expected, so to (peak, to write our own...
...John's...
...Barr's proud boast that instead of reading selections as Is done in other colleges, every line of them is read by every student...
...It may be argued, as Spengler does, that mathematics and science are really historical in the sense that they express the cultural values of the age in which they have been developed...
...John't curriculum...
...John's program are its small classes and the extensive ase ef seminars...
...John's curriculum...
Vol. 27 • June 1944 • No. 23
