Problems of Generalizing a Specialized Curriculum
We may pursue this example further as typical of the complications which ultimately grow up around any course of study. The original purpose of Harvard was expanded with the passing years. A demand arose for lawyers and doctors; in the effort to meet this demand the institution was divided into separate schools. Still later students came to college seeking a general training not leading to any profession. Through all these changes in the demands of the student body the original courses of study have persistently battled their way down to the present. No clearer evidence can be found than this, that courses of study once created become vital factors in all the later life of the school. The college courses of study were in the first place the product of a particular professional demand. While satisfying this particular demand they became strong enough so that at a later period they have often dominated educational policies.
It is too flippant a remark to say that the classical education of the clerical period became the fashion and that later generations were afraid to be out of fashion, but something of this sort is what really happened. The traditions of a generation are hard to break. The father who took Greek as a part of his education hesitates to see his son enter upon life without the same equipment. Courses of study thus come to have an intellectual sanction which it is extraordinarily difficult to break down.