Communication for What

The type of so-called communications course in freshman English described by James I. Brown in his article1 will not in itself satisfy the student's "general education" needs for at least two reasons. First, it must be assured that the student will be presented with materials challenging to his imagination and stimulating to his intellect. (I mix the trite expressions deliberately.) Second, those materials must be presented to the freshman student by teachers. Mr. Brown's course, as presented on many college campuses, does use challenging and stimulating materials and does enlist the services of excellent teachers. But there is nothing in the bald outline of his course which will ensure its being good, just as there is nothing in the bald outline of what Mr. Brown calls the "old look" freshman English course to ensure its being bad. Mr. Brown's course stresses such media as radio, newspapers, books "of all kinds," and, one would infer, motion pictures and television. His purpose in emphasizing the study of these media is to furnish the student with, first, "a unifying orientation to the broad use of language," and second, "a firm foundation for any subsequent specialization which may be desired." These most English instructors would recognize as good and noble objectives. They satisfy, on the surface, basic recommendations made by the Harvard Report on General Education, the American Council on Education, and the President's Commission on Higher Education. They also seem to go in the direction of the "cardinal principals of education" stated by