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To get breadth, Brown divides college learning into eight areas—linguistics; math or philosophy; physical science; life science; literature; art, music or religion; history, and social science—and requires that each student take a year of all but one. But a student can skip any of them merely by passing a proficiency exam, and from the day he arrives on campus a freshman will freely write his own academic timetable, specializing just as much as he wishes. To spur "professional" learning, says President Barnaby C. Keeney, "a student may avoid further work in certain areas in which he has no interest or real competence."
The idea would panic many another campus, but Brown's Dean Robert W. Morse has a precise aim: "to capitalize on a student's interest at the right time. The key to education is interest, and to deflect or kill interest is the cardinal sin of education." As Morse sees it, freer requirements will produce freer minds and broader education: "A math student, for example, might benefit more from an advanced philosophy course in his senior year than from a general philosophy course in his sophomore year, because he could bring more mature experience to bear." Predicts Dean Morse cheerfully: "It is nearly inconceivable that any two students will go through Brown with identical courses of study."