Scrap-book on the Past: Reflections for the Next Century

Do I have to make them learn the stuff?

In the latter part of the nineteenth century, great debate surrounded the introduction of the elective system of courses into undergraduate education in the USA. Harvard University led the way in the development of the elective system. This issue raises another that still is a concern for teachers, both new and experienced: what is my responsibility for 'making' students learn?

In an editorial in an 1882 edition of The Nation (as cited in Hofstadter & Smith, 1961), it was suggested that Harvard, by introducing the elective system, is

representative of those who think that the true function of the university is simply to provide the means of learning for those who wish to learn, and that no part of the energy or ability of its instructors should be expended either in stimulating the stupid or inert, or in bringing to punitive justice those who neglect their opportunities (p. 731)

The editorial continued on to say that Yale

represented those who consider a university a place for general training, moral as well as intellectual, in which the professor should stand literally in loco parentis, and not only provide the student with the means of instruction, but see that he gets it whether he likes it or not (p. 731).

• Hofstadter, R., & Smith, W. (Eds.) (1961). American Higher Education: A Documentary History (Vol. 2). Chicago: The University of Chicago.

Previously published in Scrap-book on the Past: Reflections for the Next Century. (1999). Issues of Teaching and Learning, 5(10)