Familiar Courses Can Bring Deeper Understanding

To the editors:

Adam Kovacevich's column, "From Doggishness to Discomfort" (Opinion, March 1) is a very narrowminded and ill-supported view of academic life at Harvard. To assume that the "scientists in Mendelssohn's course and Jews in Harris' course" have "frittered away a valuable opportunity to explore unfamiliar intellectual realms" is to assume that the average Harvard student is incapable of being driven to a higher level of understanding through already-familiar realms of academia. A much more attractive and positive assumption would require us to abandon the view that Harvard students always look for the easy way out and sometimes take a course with a familiar title in the catalog in order to advance to a higher level of understanding within the particular subject.

For example, I am Jewish and also a fairly accomplished musician. This semester, I'm taking Foreign Cultures 56, "Jewish Life in Eastern Europe" and Literature and Arts B-56, "Chamber Music from Mozart to Ravel."

True, the technical points of the readings for chamber music are not difficult for me to grasp, but the theoretical and analytical part of the course forces my mind to combine what I know about music with the analytical skills that I've hopefully picked up at this point in my Harvard career. A course such as this is not an "easy way out," but is rather a course that helps me to understand a side of music that I previously did not notice.

And it is the same for "Jews." I am insulted by Kovacevich's assumption that I am taking this course merely to learn my "ancestral history." "Jews" is not a class that explains what it means to be Jewish but rather why Jewish life has manifested itself as it has in modern life. The class gives me the chance to explore a culture that I am a part of, but have never had the chance to appreciate in terms of its rich intellectual history.

I share Kovacevich's opinion that we should explore areas of study that will enhance our minds as opposed to forcing them into stagnation. But I am well aware that I will reap a much greater personal benefit from furthering my musical knowledge and advancing my understanding of a culture to which I have a tie. ZACHARY H. SMITH '00   March 2, 1999