A Test for '32

At 1932's 55th reunion Charles E. Odegaard spoke to his class about the evolution of education, with some specific references to the curriculum he and his classmates faced as entering freshmen in 1928. In this brief adaptation DAM excerpts his remarks about some courses no longer offered at the College. The speaker is president emeritus of the University of Washington as well as emeritus professor of both biomedical history and higher education.

We all encountered three required course in our freshman year. One of these was the course in Physical Education taught by Doc Bowler and better known as Smut. There was some slighting reference to sex. I remember more about the other two, the one-semester courses in Evolution and Citizenship. They were the product of an enterprising spirit on the part of the Dartmouth faculty to deal constructively with a problem which recurrently bedevils faculties, a byproduct of the 19th century educational reform which focused on the future rather than Greek and Latin curricula. It embodied an institutional commitment to what has been called the research imperative, the search for credible evidence of reasoned views about this world.

I seem to remember that the instructor in my section of the Citizenship course was Professor Howe. He was a ruminative type who pushed the burden onto myself and the other students, of speaking to the issue, analyzing it, judging it, forcing us to come up with evidence for whatever assertions or tentative conclusions we might propose for handling the problem.

I have obtained a copy of the actual questions asked of us in the final exam. Do any of you remember your answers to the following?

1. The assigned readings contained several more or less definite proposals for dealing with problems of modern society. Select two of the following, give a brief outline of the proposal and a brief summary of the problem with which the proposal deals. (a) Socialism, as a plan for reducing inequalities of income (b) The application of modern psychiatric methods to criminal cases (c) The League of Nations as an instrument for the promotion of international peace (d) The elimination of machine control of politics

2. Distinguish between birth control and eugenics. Point out the connections between each of these ideas and each of the following problems: (a) Crime (b) The position of women It may be too much to ask how any of you answered the last question in 1929, but would anyone here wish to speak to the position of women as connected with birth control and eugenics? One of our classmates, reflecting on the importance to him of Evolution and Citizenship, told me they were mind openers and had a great deal to do with making his Dartmouth experience a good one.

But shortly after we left the College the social science division of the faculty, yielding to the typical academic pressure to emphasize the dispensation of knowledge within particular disciplinary courses, voted to drop Citizenship. In 1936 Evolution was dropped.

I, however, am grateful for the broad glimpse of the terrain of learning these courses afforded me. Will you join me in saying to our Dartmouth teachers of yesteryear, thank you?