Copy 2 of DOC - Caltechcampuspubs - California Institute of ...
Copy 2 of DOC - Caltechcampuspubs - California Institute of ...
Copy 2 of DOC - Caltechcampuspubs - California Institute of ...
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One <strong>of</strong> the distinctive features <strong>of</strong> the <strong>California</strong> <strong>Institute</strong> is<br />
its emphasis upon the humanistic side <strong>of</strong> the curriculum. In the<br />
degree and genuineness <strong>of</strong> this emphasis the <strong>Institute</strong> has differentiated<br />
itself from other American schools <strong>of</strong> science, most <strong>of</strong><br />
which accord little more than a gesture <strong>of</strong> recognition to the<br />
liberal arts. As a rule, in schools <strong>of</strong> engineering, the pr<strong>of</strong>essional<br />
studies monopolize nearly all the available time and money,<br />
leaving the humanities to take what is left, which usually turns<br />
out to be very little.<br />
This has been particularly unfortunate. It has recruited into<br />
the engineering pr<strong>of</strong>ession large numbers <strong>of</strong> young men with<br />
inadequate cultural backgrounds, lacking in social sympathy, in<br />
breadth <strong>of</strong> outlook, and in their acquaintance with those imponderable<br />
forces which even engineers have to take into account.<br />
It has crowded into the lower ranks <strong>of</strong> the engineering<br />
vocation too many unimaginative routineers who get no farther<br />
than the drafting-room. That should not be the case, for there<br />
is no good reason why engineers should be more limited in their<br />
intellectual versatility, or in the range <strong>of</strong> their human interests,<br />
than men <strong>of</strong> any other pr<strong>of</strong>ession. Many <strong>of</strong> them are not. On<br />
the contrary, there are those who have shown, time and again,<br />
that scientific erudition can be illuminated by humanism, and<br />
technical skill vivified by imagination. It is to men <strong>of</strong> this type<br />
that the world must continue to look for leadership in all branches<br />
<strong>of</strong> science, and it is to the training <strong>of</strong> such men that the energies<br />
<strong>of</strong> the <strong>California</strong> <strong>Institute</strong> are primarily directed.<br />
Hence the <strong>Institute</strong>, from the very outset, has recognized the<br />
desirability <strong>of</strong> making a place in its undergraduate curriculum<br />
for a generous amount <strong>of</strong> instruction in the humanities. The<br />
faculty, in thorough sympathy with this aim, has cooperated by<br />
eliminating some <strong>of</strong> the more specialized technical subj ects commonly<br />
included in undergraduate engineering courses. As a re-