Page 222 - WhyAsInY

Why (as in yaverbaum)
was entitled to see my grades because he was paying for my education, a position that I came to appreciate more when my children went off to college. (I would add only that the grading system at Amherst was such that an 89 was a wonderful score, whereas one would be embarrassed to get such a number at Midwood.)
Freshmen, as I said, lived together for reasons having to do with education, and not just social education. In the 1960s and for some time thereafter, freshmen at Amherst all took the same courses (with the exception of foreign language courses, in which each student had to reach a certain level of competence), and not because that made life easier for the faculty. Freshmen took the same courses because the courses were integrated on a philosophical level and, where it could be achieved, on a substantive level as well; and they took the same courses because the faculty believed that in the intellectual boot camp that was freshman year, students who lived together and were compelled to face the same intellectual challenges would investigate, discuss, and try to puzzle out the courses with one another. In that way, it was hoped, the learning process would be reinforced, augmented, and fueled.
In the first semester, in addition to satisfying his language require- ment and his gym requirement, each freshman was obliged to take English 1 (also known as Composition), Science 1 (which we referred to as Physics), Mathematics 1, Humanities 1, and History 1. Composition and Humanities each met for three hours each week. Physics had three one-hour lectures to the entire freshman class (of which one was given each Saturday morning), and two ninety-minute labs. I’m not sure whether Math 1 met for two or three hours, but I am sure that one of its sections met at 8:00 on Saturday mornings. If you had to pick a course that challenged the befogged mind at 8:00 a.m. in the morning after a night when beer was oxygen, you’d choose Math, right? History con- sisted of three one-hour lectures to the whole class and two hours of discussions in various sections of about twenty students each. As a group, the foregoing courses were referred to by the college as the “New Curriculum.” I also had my French class, French 5, which met for three classroom hours each week, plus two mandated ninety-minute
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