For many freshmen, finishing (or starting) the Penn Reading Project's selected book is one of the least-enjoyable activities of New Student Orientation Week.
But the Reading Project, for better or for worse, is a valuable way to connect on an intellectual level with the rest of the floor or parts of the House community, and it is frequently touted as an introduction to college-level reading and analysis.
This year, however, instead of choosing Your Inner Fish or Free Culture, the PRP has decided to focus the debate around a work of art, Thomas Eakins' The Gross Clinic, instead. Students will be given supplemental reading materials to assist them in evaluating the piece.
While we applaud their effort at a new twist on the longtime project, selecting a work of art, we feel, misses the point of the reading project: to serve as a realistic mock-classroom setting and discussion. Most students will have to analyze the written word during their college career; comparatively few will be required to analyze art. The skills required are similar enough, but should not be confused.
Similarly, reading at a high level is something most Penn freshmen have already acquired and there is a relatively even playing field among students. A book, therefore, is more of a shared experience and something around which freshman can gather.
Art could easily be integrated into NSO through other areas - for instance, tours of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in addition to the evening parties - but the PRP should ultimately remain focused around the written word.
