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Harvard 1869 entrance exam

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Re: Harvard 1869 entrance exam

#2
Curious to hear about the 'General Supposition' (in the Greek question for sophomores). Seems like it's really only found in New Testament Greek. Makes the test rather biased towards a particular religion. But perhaps that started to change right around that time with Eliot.

Charles W. Eliot, president 1869–1909, eliminated the favored position of Christianity from the curriculum while opening it to student self-direction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_University

Re: Harvard 1869 entrance exam

#7
post #2

Curious to hear about the 'General Supposition' (in the Greek question for sophomores). Seems like it's really only found in New Testament Greek. Makes the test rather biased towards a particular religion. But perhaps that started to change right around that time with Eliot. Charles W. Eliot, president 1869–1909, eliminated the favored position of Christianity from the curriculum while opening it to student self-dire…

I am Greek and had to do six years of Ancient Greek. I don't understand how you got to that conclusion. The test is asking questions on ancient Greek grammar and only. It has nothing to do with religion or what so ever, New Testament Greek is very close but also very different from Ancient Greek -it has some idiosyncrasies of it's own.

I really want to know how you concluded that this has something to do with religion...

Re: Harvard 1869 entrance exam

#8
Amazing how curriculum focus has changed--in no small part due to the invention of the computer. These topics have almost nothing to do with what most Harvard students study today. There's been so much new knowledge generated since then...

Re: Harvard 1869 entrance exam

#9
Where is the modern history? Where are the questions on governments?

Worse, this test doesn't call for much analysis; it's mainly regurgitation of memorized trivia and the most mechanical arithmetical techniques.

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