The Specialized Curriculum of Higher Schools
If one goes back to the beginnings of any school system, it will always be found that the original courses of study grow directly out of the intellectual ideals of the times. For example, if one goes back to the beginnings of medieval universities, he finds that these institutions grew up because there was an interest in certain well-defined bodies of ideas. At Bologna one Irnerius had made himself acquainted with the laws of the northern Italian cities, and students came from all Europe to hear him expound these laws. The course of study was directly related to a specific demand.
A professional theological curriculum was organized at the time of the founding of the early American universities. Harvard was at first a school for the training of clergymen. At that time there was no demand for lawyers trained in the New World. The law came from England, and from the same source came the lawyers. Medicine had hardly developed into a profession. Preaching and listening to sermons were, on the other hand, among the most absorbing occupations of the colonists, and Harvard was established to provide those who could preach. The courses of study were arranged according to the traditions of the single profession towards which the graduates were aiming.