required curriculum-pros and cons????

rightbackatyou
Sun, 29 Oct 2006 15:22:10 +0000

The required liberal arts and sciences curriculum is supposed to produce students who actually care about Western values and American society instead of just churning out a bunch of math nerds that don’t give a **** about anyone but themselves much less Western values (see MIT).

I only wish Tufts would take it much further, perhaps making the requirements so heavy that students would only be capable of chosing one major.

I’m not so sure about the language requirement though. Somehow the phrase “well rounded” doesn’t seem like a compelling enough reason to be bogged down in 6 semesters of courses. Marx, Shakespeare, Homer, etc…I can see the relevance of these courses in producing dedicated and cultured citizens. I don’t see how 6 semesters of German is going to produce the same effect. Just buy a dictionary of ‘Latin Phrases’ and memorize it…you’ll be all set :)