Curriculum requirements necessary

In his Aug. 17 column, Nathan Freeman argues that Duke students such as himself should be allowed to opt out of general education requirements as they would use this greater flexibility to improve their college education. This assumes that Duke students can be expected to use everything they have to improve their education. However, Freeman freely admits that he did not use his Spanish course this summer to the greatest degree possible, or really any degree of usefulness at all. He could have been "writing [his] column in pitch-perfect Spanish" if he had done such basic things as "complete all of the readings and contribute to the class discussion." Instead, he decided that he would rather "coast through." When given the simple chance to choose between excelling for his own improvement or just getting by because his credits would not be transferring to Duke anyway, Freeman took the lazy way out. If he were given the choice in his education between pushing himself in a variety of quality classes or taking filler courses that would just provide him the quantity of credits necessary for graduation, I would not be surprised if he did the bare minimum again. More importantly, I would not expect more of most students. A good core curriculum both forces students to gain a strong liberal arts education and provides them with a guide along the way. Curriculum 2000 does not come close to providing a core curriculum that gives students a strong liberal arts education, but it does push them far beyond where a majority of students would be without the modes of inquiry and areas of knowledge.

Hartley Bancroft, Trinity '10