<p>I haven’t read all the posts in this thread, so I apologize if my comments are either redundant or tangential. That said, I am a big proponent of not having required courses or a core curriculum. My undergrad had no required courses outside my major (actually double major), but I still chose to take a wide variety of classes interest. If I had been required to take an English, History, Philosophy or Religion class, I might have been less passionate about the classes I chose. I took them because I wanted to, not because I had to. I think students can make wise choices, and as someone said on pg. 1, students who do not have to take distribution courses do it anyway. Most college students have a thirst for learning.</p>
<p>I never took another language class once I got out of HS (I had taken 2 languages in HS and I was more than burnt out) and ditto for math, though I did take statistics. If I recall, back then, some of the schoolw whould let you substitute Statistics for a language. Don’t know if that is still true anywhere or not.</p>
<p>My s. chose his school in part because he had only distribution requirements-- no core courses. He is clearly a chip off the ol’ block, and also wanted to avoid taking a language in college. Funny though, he was considering signing up for a language just because it was an elective, though he decided against it (didn’t fit into his schedule). </p>
<p>Would it be helpful to be proficient in another language? Sure. Would he be more well rounded if he took som classical literature classes? Maybe. Do I think he will be any less successful in life without these?? You can guess my answer to that one. </p>
<p>… I managed to communicate in French one summer of college when travelling abroad (though apparently I spoke it with a British accent-- many people thought I was from Angleterre). My Russian is essentially gone, except for a few canned phrases, counting skills, and a few things I can’t say in mixed company (funny how those phrases stuck in my head). I can’t say that my language skills would be any less rusty if I’d taken a proficiency course in college. I have friends who spent a semester abroad, but haven’t kept up their language skills and are pretty rusty too. </p>
<p>I am all for an open curriculum. Personally, I think Brown has it right.</p>