The Cavalier daily :: Tuesday, September 16, 1969 :: University of Virginia Library

Students in the English 1 program,
meaning most of the first-year
men, will no longer delight in
the essays of H. L. Menken or thrill
to the challenge of sorting through
thousands of file cards in Alderman
Library in order to compile a
meaningless list of numbers and
titles under the guise of a library
project.

Nor will they write essays on
such profound subjects as "What I
Think of the Lawn," or "Co-Education
at the University," or other
topics which first-year men are
notoriously famous for treating
under the guise of an English
course.

Instead, this year's students in
English 1 will study relevant
material, write on repugnant subjects,
and will be challenged intellectually
in their beliefs and opinions.

The title of the course has been
changed from "Composition" to
"Argument Exposition," and the
emphasis has been changed from
lectures to discussion. Also, the
director of the English 1 program
has been changed to Ronald Clapper,
an Assistant Professor of
English.

Mr. Clapper is beginning his
third year of teaching at the
University after receiving his degree
from U.C.L.A. He has been teaching
two undergraduate courses and
a graduate course, and this year the
English 1 program has fallen under
his direction.

This year, the students in
English 1 will "talk about things
they are interested in," according
to Mr. Clapper. The basic text being
used is called "Crisis," and contains
a collection of essays by leading left
and right-wingers, featuring such
authors as Stokely Carmichael,
Ralph Ellison, Tom Wolfe, and
Norman Mailer.

Topics planned for discussion
are race relations, anarchy, cultures,
and the nature of education; but
there are no department requirements,
and no final.

"We have tried to give the
students and instructors as much
freedom as possible," said Mr.
Clapper, "Instead of lecturing on
writing, here the material itself will
be the course. The papers will come
naturally out of class discussion,"
he added.

Aside from the text, "Crisis,"
classes will be free to read and
discuss what they wish, and they
can even do without the text if
they wish. They will be expected to
include outside material dealing
with sociological and political problems.

Mr. Clapper calls the new course
a "high-powered program." He
called the old English 1 program
"boring," and added that he is
trying to get away from the old
image of "drudgery" of the old
program.

"We wanted to deal with the
problems of students in the classroom,"
said Mr. Clapper. He feels
that students should examine the
arguments of people who are
politically or sociologically at opposite
ends from them to see the
reasons for their opinions and argue
against them intelligently or justify
them.

"The problem with politically
polarized groups is that they don't
know anything about each other,"
said Mr. Clapper. "However, we
don't, want to feel that we are
indoctrinating students," he added.

Neither does he want students
to feel that the program is designed
to create a "middle-of-the-road"
intellect. "We want the students to
examine issues from different viewpoints,
and in the end to decide
upon their own individual beliefs,"
he explained.

Mr. Clapper hopes that the
students learn to "think and organize"
their material, and be able
to intelligently argue opinions in
their themes. The program guidelines
call for a theme every other
week. The themes will be returned
with corrections and comments,
and be submitted again to the
instructor.

The classes will be small, 15, and
will cause "more personal involvement"
by the students and the
instructors. All instructors in the
program will be graduate students,
however the program is not expected
to suffer, because it is
designed not for lectures, but class
discussion in which the class leaders
are expected to learn also.

So, upperclassmen can throw
away their copies of Baker. There
won't be any buyers this year.