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Quote by Louis Menand

“My own view is that the general education curriculum that a college picks has to be appropriate for the kind of student body that it has.”

Quote by Louis Menand

Author

Louis Menand is an American writer renowned for his cultural commentary and literary criticism. His writing style is characterized by incisive analysis and a sense of humor, covering a wide range of topics from history to contemporary social issues. more

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“I don't think the same curriculum fits every student body.”

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“I think at a place like Harvard, our experience, I was involved with, at various stages, in trying to implement a new general education curriculum, our experience was that Harvard's all about specialization, that's not just true of the professori, it's also true of a lot of the undergraduates, too, and they come, they kind of know what they want to do, they select it because they have a strong aptitude for something in particular.”

Thinking Knows Want Trying Kind Strong Stage Particular Involved Various Select Harvard Curriculum Aptitude Specialization General Education

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“You have to have students wanting to take the courses, otherwise you're not going, they're not going to be very effective.”

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“Harvard has something that manages, I think, to provide a lot of options for students, but still fairly prescriptive about the kinds of subjects that the courses ought to cover.”

Thinking Kind Stills Courses Subjects Students Ought Manage Harvard

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“The way universities operate is the decision about what students need for the degree are... is the decision made by the faculty.”

Way Needs Made Decision Students Degrees University Faculty Decisions Made

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“Obviously input is helpful to faculty in trying to come up with a curriculum, but ultimately it's the faculty's job to know what students need to know. Make a decision about it and present it.”

Knows Needs Trying Jobs Decision Students Come Up Helpful Faculty Curriculum Input

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“The difficulty with coming up with a curriculum is mainly that faculty aren't trained to think in terms of general education. They're trained to think in terms of their own discipline, or their specialty.”

Thinking Term Discipline Difficulty Faculty Curriculum Specialty General Education

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“Getting faculties to come to a consensus about something that they've never really thought about or had to worry about in their careers before can be a rather slow process and a long process, it certainly was the case at Harvard, and it's the case with most of the general education curricula that I know of, it takes four or five years just to get everybody on board with one idea.”

Knows Years Long Ideas Process Careers Cases Worry Five Four Boards Five Years Faculty Consensus Harvard General Education

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“You want diversity in any intellectual organization. I mean, that's how good ideas arise.”

Want Mean Ideas Diversity Intellectual Organization Arise Good Ideas

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“Universities are set up to get people to work together by having them disagree with each other.”

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