The Harvard-bred educational philosophy survived the decades. Even in the middle of this century, when the GI Bill of Rights made higher education affordable for the masses, it was likely that a professor in a four-year college would be a classically trained male in charge of downloading information into privileged young brains. At the end of this millennium, though, Greek and Latin are considered slightly esoteric studies, applied sciences are more popular than pure mathematics and pedagogy has morphed from teacher centered to student centered.
College students are no longer absorbers, but active learners and educational consumers.
Teachers have become coaches, helping students find ways to learn what they need to know, using all the tools at their disposal, along with tricks they invent themselves. You can't just give the students busywork. Basile tries to offer something for each style in her curriculum, she says. Back then, we had one chance a day to get on the computer, and we had to make it work. Now all my freshmen have computers in their rooms, and they're not afraid of them.