Cole Answers Gen Ed Group

Robert H. Cole '52, chairman of a Student Council committee which drew up the G.E. report, last night fired some arguments back at Philip H. Rhinelander, executive secretary of the committee on General Education, who had protested the Council's interpretation of its facts.

Cole alluded specifically to one question in his G.E. poll which had asked students to point out the basic aim of G.E. The five choices were these:

1) To provide a general background knowledge in a field of study.

2) To develop effective thinking.

3) To provide a general body of knowledge which can be held in common with other students.

4) To balance specialization in departmental courses.

5) To make the student inquire into problems of social and personal values.

Cole pointed to the fact that a plurality of the students (34 percent) picked the first choice, the only one not relative to G.E. as defined by its promoters. Unlike Rhinelander, Cole feels that 34 percent is a large enough number to indicate some trouble in the present system.

Cole also referred to another question, asking what the students thought the lecturer was trying to get across. Choices one and two, "factual material," and "generalization from factual material within the field," were the choices less pertinent to G.E. Yet, Cole pointed out, 47 percent indicated one of these two choices.

The answers to these two questions, Cole said, prove that G.E. can be changed for the better. He emphasized that both he and his committee feel that G.E. has great possibilities and that their objections deal not with theory but with application.