ABSTRACT
This chapter makes some modest proposals for the revision of curriculum. Intentions have to be realized within an organized structure, and this is the task of curriculum. The physics curriculum provides a fascinating example of a department that has organized four different beginning sequences in the subject. One sequence—called, in the college vernacular, "Physics for Poets"—is a two-term course for "nonscience" students without laboratory work. A second, two-term sequence, which includes laboratory but does not use calculus, is primarily for premedical and other pre-professional students. A third, three-term sequence, using calculus, is designed for engineering and physical science majors. A fourth, "high-speed" track, designed by Professor Melvin Schwartz, is for a small, selected group of freshmen who enter with advanced placement in mathematics and physics. The two-year sequence in Contemporary Civilization and the Humanities had been the core of Columbia's contribution to general education.
