The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 52, No. 3, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 1, 1964 Page: 2 of 8
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The Rice Thresher
CVENC
Hugh Rice Kelly, Editor
John Durham, Associate Editor
Charles Lanford, Managing Ed,
Jim Zumwalt, News Editor
Richard Foster, Copy Editor
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The undergraduate rat race is presented
in a pure form at Rice. Rice students are
strait-jacketed in a rigid course-require-
ment maze, and a burdensome load of
sterile courses leaves serious scars on un-
dergraduate life. Constant harassment
with hour exams, the vicious competition
of classmates, and the reduction of achieve-
ment at semester's end to a cipher has for
years impaired the intellectual growth of
Rice undergraduates. Intellectual curiosity
and a desire to go beyond ordinary course
requirements are little more than excess
baggage in the Rice scheme.
Odd business, this "education."
But to most the system does not in fact
seem odd. simply because it is so familiar.
Most colleges are the same, with inciden-
tal differences in "toughness" among
them. And the problems are nothing new.
The distortion of effort caused by objec-
tive grading, the harmful effects of the
fragmentation of knowledge inherent in
the traditional curriculum, all these are old
hat in educational circles.
The difficulties lie not in the identifica-
tion of the defects in college educational
methods, but in their solution. Decades of
educational debate have produced only a
handful of moderately successful and little-
i m i t a t e d nonconformist undergraduate
programs in the country. The problem lies
in the enormously complex questions
raised in any attempt to devise a practical
curriculum which lacks the serious defects
WIESS COLLEGE PRESIDENT
of the traditional educational format.
The defects at Rice have long been rec-
ognized, in the lower echelons at least, but
no serious, sustained attempt to correct
them has materialized until now. But the
'Woodward Committee' is in the process of
formalizing plans for a radical departure
from the grind-regurge-grade process that
masquerades as education at Rice. Details
are carried on page one, and Dr. Wood-
ward himself discusses the group and its
goals elsewhere on this page.
What the group seeks is to place the
student in a learning situation whose form
is directly related to its ultimate function.
How to translate the ideal into a positive
program is no doubt the chief difficulty
of the men involved in the committee's
work. Easy, ready-made solutions do not
exist.
The problems are clearly enormous, but
if the group ends up working in a void,
we suspect they will prove insurmount-
able. The committee will need both a
mandate and the active participation of a
large segment of the university to get the
program into the catalogue. It is there-
fore obvious that strong support among
students, faculty, and administrators is
required if these proposals are not to be
relegated to the realm of other "what-
might-have-beens."
The time for commitment-making, how-
ever foreign this may seem to the Rice
mentality, is inescapably here.
Beyond bricks and mortar
By BILL McGREGOR
u - IV'Hpk* I'l't-riilent
All '>f tin.- residential colleges
are engaged in campaigns to
improve and expand the college
system. The success of each
year's college governments is
judged largely not on how
smoothly they manage to carry
out the already existing college
functions, but rather on the
number of new programs im-
plemented, the amount of free-
dom gained from the admin-
istration, and the value of per-
manent physical improvements.
New Programs Good
To a large degree, and pro-
bably to the degree to which
it is presently being done, this
is good, but changes can come
too fast, additions can be made
too often.
At this time I do not feel
that this is the case, although,
due to our present rapid pace,
we are in a vulnerable position
for it to occur. The possibility
exists that colleges are so
"wrapped up in the multitude of
concrete changes, and so im-
pressed by visible improvements
t'hat more important and often
more difficult problems are be-
ing ignored.
Potential In Variety
I am of the opinion that Rico
should be graduating tolerant,
well-rounded individuals. Many
of the experiences necessary for
such well-roundedness cannot be
found- in the classroom, but
only in daily association with
people of all kinds.
The ingredients (varied peo-
ple), Rice definitely has, but
this potential asset has com-
monly been treated as a de-
triment that is best approached
by mentioning as little as pos-
sible.
When the only thought that
some individuals of two groups,
such as athletes and confirmed
(also usually confined) schol-
ai-s, give to the other group in
four years' stay at Rice is,
"We'd be better off without
them," we have a problem. But
by the mere presence of these
two groups, opportunity for pro-
gress exists.
Personal Task
Progress in such an abstract
area cannot be easily measured;
nor can plans be laid or pro-
grams instituted for such pro-
gress. However, significant
strides in a positive direction
can be made by personal, in-
dividual effort, and by re-
cognizing a condition that does
exist.
Alleviation of this situation
is not something a college gov-
ernment can actively undertake
and expect to complete, nor is
it something that individuals
will be hailed for accomplish-
ing, but it is something for
which individuals in capacities
of leadership can make examples
of themselves, and it is some-
thing that can genuinely im-
prove the college system and at
the same time enhance the
meaning of the word "univer-
sity."
Members Are Power
In any area of success or
failure of the colleges the
members are solely responsible.
The initative of a college gov-
ernment' supplies the impetus.
Only through the drive of the
college governments will the
administration approve the
broadening of the colleges'
scope.
But, ultimately, the success
of past college programs will
have strong bearing on present
and future administrative de-
cisions, and this success will
always depend largely on the
individual college members. The
success in overcoming the afore-
mentioned problem is even more
in the hands of individuals, for
here the college government
can provide no step by step
(Continued on Page 5)
BY YAh W. WOODWARD
Associate Professor of Biology
The short history of man's efforts to reason, above and
beyond the limits set by the will to survive, is a testimony
to the thesis of the unity of knowledge. The pressure to
survive stretched man's reasoning powers, but it wasn't
until he gained a certain mastery of his environment that
he awarded himself the luxury to relax from the minute
to minute tensions attendant cm survival. With this new
luxury he began to use his reason in a different way, e.g.,
in the rather sedentary performances of gaining under-
standing. Slow going, this.
Somewhat deliberately, empirically, man learned to
symbolize. He learned to lump more and more information
into symbolic packages . . . marks in the sand, noises, move-
ments of the hand, invisible beings, etc. Given symbols, the
shepherds say, mathematics is inevitable. Mathematics
opened the door to measurement, to further abstraction, to
quantitation; in short, mathematics became a symbol lan-
guage, the common denominator to knowledge and inquiry.
In bygone days knowledge was treated as a body, not
as groups of separate entities. Certain attitudes, methods
of inquiry, means of storage, etc., appeared common in all
searches for truth. But, the body of knowledge grew. Sym-
bols grew in size, abstractions became more abstract, facts
multiplied geometrically. The body of knowledge had grown
too big for its good health.
Gates, Locks, Keys, Chaos
Knowledge was split into smaller bodies, compartments.
Compartments led to departments; departments led to fences,
gates, locks, keys and chaos. Scholars developed into de-
fenders of departments. And it came to pass that depart-
ments of knowledge came to possess independent truths and
truth-systems. And the shepherds wept.
Departmentalization is a product of rationalization, not
of disunity of knowledge. Mathematics is still used to sym-
bolize and quantitate in biology just as in physics and
philosophy, behavior of biologists notwithstanding. Symbolic
language is still used to gain, store, analyze and to sum-
marize information in all areas of intellectual endeavor.
It is the thesis of this article that the unifying concepts
that have held knowledge together in the past should con-
stitute an integral part of the philosophy of teaching. There
is unity in scientific inquiry. There is unity in all inquiry,
in all that we know.
And, of course, this article would not have been written
if I thought we were unifying knowledge as we impart it.
Mainly, we teach things. Rarely do we emphasize relation-
ships among things. For example, we teach as if memory
were the ultimate virtue. We omit emphasis on learning to
learn, the underlying concept of all learning. We act on the
premise, unwittingly perhaps, that if we get our students
to learn how to learn there will be no more jobs for teach-
ers. Rice students get plenty of practice hearing, storing
and repeating information. They get little practice synthe-
sizing; they rarely build hypotheses; reading for fun is a
much heralded summer sport.
Pressures on students are external (tests and grades)
rather than internal (curiosity and wonderment). Learning
has become an art in compartmentalization rather than an
art in unification. Certain modern shepherds, therefore, would
suggest changes of attitude toward teaching, and changes of
teaching curricula. One suggestion follows.
Areas Rather Than Compartments
Students entering Rice University will enroll in Univer-
sity College. During the first year students will not be sep-
arated according to major interest areas, but they will be
given ample opportunity both to define and to develop special
interests.
Four major areas of study are suggested. Students will
read in mathematics, science, western civilization, and read-
ing, writing and reasoning. Periodic, general lectures in
these areas will be presented. These lectures will be supple-
mented with extensive reading lists and will be followed by
seminars.
The same format will follow during the second academic
year. Students with definite, non-science interests will sub-
stitute readings in the area of their choice for mathematics,
and, possibly, science. It must be made clear, at this point,
that the readings in the above mentioned areas are not
courses as now constituted.
T]ie four areas of study include (at least it is intended
that they include) the current body of knowledge. Reading
will permit students to follow their interests; seminars will
provide guidance and organization, if and when the students
desire such.
The evaluation of students will involve essentially three
criteria: Avritten work, contributions to the seminars and an
annual report. Of these, the annual report is "the only new
innovation. It will be made clear to each student that the
annual report represents the student's best scholarly effort.
The report will include the statement" and defense of one or
more propositions, a summary of developing interests, a fore-
cast of hopes and ambitions, etc. Annual reports will be
evaluated by staff members representing several disciplines.
Formal examinations and grades will be given last rites.
At the end of each academic year the tutors will give to the
registrar a brief summary of his evaluation of the student.
After four years each student will have accumulated some-
thing more than a few numbers ranging from 1 to 5, some-
thing that other universities and prospective employers will
be able to understand.
The third and fourth years will provide time for spe-
cialization. The special interest areas can be approached in
(Continued on Page 5)
THE RICE THRESHER, OCTOBER 1, 196 4—P AGE 2
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Kelly, Hugh Rice. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 52, No. 3, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 1, 1964, newspaper, October 1, 1964; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth244921/m1/2/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.