Transformational Education > New classrooms
Intellectual crossfire
"The Faculty committee for Aldrich Hall," Dean David declared, during his remarks on the dedication of Aldrich and Kresge Halls on June 12, 1953, "was assigned a novel task—to design a classroom best suited for the case method of instruction. Other schools have constructed dining and social centers adapted to their needs—though none more painstakingly than we—but no school has built such a classroom for a maximum of student participation, intellectual crossfire, and group activity. Some of you may have been startled this morning by the unusual classroom design, but this arrangement is uniquely effective. It permits a large number of students to see and talk face to face with each other as well as with the instructor. The windowless walls make it unnecessary to face the light (though they abridge the student's traditional right to think his own thoughts while staring out the window). You see nothing but an empty shell until you see these seats occupied and this great plant in operation.
"The conditions for effective communication among students and instructors, the environment for growth, approach the ideal. Many of the Faculty and staff expect that our experience with these rooms will permit genuine advance in instructional methods. Our Faculty, I believe, has at last every principal physical facility for accomplishing the tasks of business education."
