Live & Learn

What sort of program should U.S. higher education offer to the adult who has finally decided to go after the liberal arts degree he missed in his youth? After five months of experimenting, New York City's Brooklyn College believes that it has a sound suggestion.

When Director Edwin Spengler of Brooklyn's School of General Studies and his assistant director, Bernard Stern, first began working on the experiment, they had already decided that the regular undergraduate program (enrollment: 15,000) was not entirely suitable for adults. For one thing, some grownups object to being put in a class with boys and girls half their age. More important, many have learned enough on their own to put them way ahead in some subjects. Even without an A.B., a businessman is apt to know quite a bit about economics. A writer should have learned something of English composition, and an accountant probably has a good grasp of mathematics. Why, Spengler and Stern wanted to know, shouldn't the college give such students credit where credit is due?

Last spring, after getting a $15,000 grant from Chicago's Center for the Study of Liberal Education for Adults, Director Spengler and Associate Professor (of English) Stern asked the faculty to recommend adults for the experiment. Of the 130 applicants, Spengler and Stern chose 32. Each student was supposed to cover the regular undergraduate work (128 credits), but before he started he was allowed to take examinations on any subject he thought he could pass without taking the regular course. The adults could go to class or not as they chose; they got extra reading assignments, had special tutorial seminars. Since the 32 had all done well in life, they shortened the work ahead of them by at least 32 credits each. Among the hard-working students now enrolled:

P: A New York City police inspector, 53, who worked his way up from patrolman, now wants to major in sociology. A widely read man, he passed English I and II for six credits, earned six more by taking exams in Economics 1 and Sociology-Anthropology 5.

P: A German-born secretary, 36, who came to the U.S. in 1939, worked as a surgeon's medical assistant, in 1945 went overseas as a special clerk for U.S. military intelligence. The credits she earned right off: nine in German, three in French, six in English, six in algebra and trigonometry, three in anthropology, and three for freshman Classical Civilization.

P: A labor union executive, 38, who had learned enough from his job and his reading to earn course credits. Among the subjects he passed: Introduction to American Government, Composition I and II, U.S. Literature since 1800, Economics 1 and Economics 21.2 (trade unionism and industrial relations).

Last week, as its guinea pigs continued their studies, Brooklyn felt that it had learned a good deal about how to treat students of maturity and experience. It had also learned that--academically speaking--the much maligned College of Hard Knocks can give a pretty good education too.

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