Introduction 



The college curriculum is experiencing the most extensive face-lifting 

 in its entire career. The early American college was characterized, in one 

 respect, by an odiously rigid set of course requirements, the general idea 

 being that students were entirely devoid of judgment and value-sense. 

 Later this gave way, before the onslaughts of hberals, to a type of cur- 

 riculum in which the student was hemmed in with few required subjects 

 and overwhelmed with a tempting array of streamlined electives. This 

 change was probably predicated upon the belief, equally erroneous, that 

 students, now that they were in college, were mature adults and had some- 

 how mysteriously gained all the mature attributes of responsible citizen- 

 ship. 



At the present time the pattern is being set for a healthy compromise 

 between these two extreme viewpoints, a compromise which assures the 

 student of the basic, broad, general principles of education and at the 

 same time allows a reasonable amount of free choice of subject-matter. In 

 addition, the general education program cocks a realistic eye at the major- 

 ity of college students who benefit most by two years of college and who 

 leave school at the end of that time. The program smooths off the rough 

 edges, gathers up the threads, and attempts to assure that a great deal of 

 worth-while integration will have been accomplished both for those who 

 leave and for those who stay. 



World War II has shown us the important fact that the human mind 

 is capable of performing astonishing feats when put under pressure. It has 

 demonstrated the value of the scientific mind in producing and harness- 

 ing basic research. For example, the atom bomb was not something e7i- 

 tirely new but was actually the careful mixing of previously ascertained 

 knowledge with some new material. Many of the ingredients and steps 

 in the bomb's manufacture had been thought out by scientists who had no 

 idea that such knowledge would be used to usher in an atomic age. 



This lesson of the power of the trained mind was not lost upon the 

 business man or the industrialist. Evidently the better positions will now 

 be made available to those who can initiate and carry out fundamental 

 research on basic problems in industry and business and also to those who 

 can fulfil the requirements of the modern, alert employee in general. 

 Many college professors and college graduates are being recruited into 

 positions of opportunity where their keen thinking ability is appreciated. 



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