The Harvardman's Canon (or lack thereof)

"Nick Carraway explains in The Great Gatsby—which I read because my high school and the writers of the Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition test luckily did believe in Great Books—that he is going to take up a heavy reading schedule so that he can become “that most limited of all specialists, the ‘well-rounded man.’ It is embarrassing that Harvard believes a medley of irrelevancies will prepare students for “life beyond college,” and even more embarrassing that the financial crisis is used as an excuse to stop investigating the serious idea that Great Books have a place in undergraduate education. "

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=527921

In an column in this week's Harvard Crimson, a Harvard student condemns Harvard lackluster attempt to modernize their general education, or core, classes. Calling it a game of semantics, Kiran R, Pendri, the columnist criticizes Harvard creating more politically correct course names without setting out guidelines for the type of classes should take. Like many who support a literary canon, Pendri says, "Deeply troubling and extremely questionable, this recent development suggests that the administration is not at all serious about rethinking what ought to constitute a liberal education" because it does not prepare students for a life in academia by teaching James, Mill, or Camus but instead Japanese Pop Culture. His solution: recognize that there is a canon that is worth knowing.

It seems that rejection of the canon has become less about including minority voices to create a more complete, worldly view through literary education and more about allowing students to persue their own interests. This is viable to a degree, but it puts a trust in the student that he/she wants to learn, not just get an easy A. Whether one agrees with the canon or not, it still exists and is still important to many people, and students are still expected to know the "greats" after college, even if they weren't required to learn them.