The Program of Marriage Instruction at the University of North Carolina

Abstract

IN RECENT years the idea of instruction in preparation for marriage has spread rapidly. The first full-credit college course in the subject was offered at the University of North' Carolina in i9z6. Today scores of colleges are offering similar courses. In addition there is a growing demand for comparable instruction on the secondary school level, in adult-education classes, in short courses, lecture series, and for marriage counseling. Many of these courses, especially those for college classes, have been patterned after the plan of presentation as it was developed at the University of North Carolina by Professor Ernest R. Groves. His textbook Matriage, itself a product of the development of the course and written only after several years of practical handling of the materials in classes, is used widely. The result of all this is a growing need for more information on the whole subject of marriage and family life and a demand for instruction for those who plan to specialize in the presentation of these materials. The development of undergraduate instruction at the University was discussed by Professor Groves in an article, Teaching Marriage at the University of North Carolina, in Social Forces, Vol. i6, No. i, October, I937, pp. 87-96. In that article he pointed out how the course had arisen from a request by the students, how it had been organized around the materials in which they were especially interested, how the need for a basic gatheringtogether of materials called for a textbook and resulted in the publication of his Marriage. He further indicated that experience in teaching the course many times proved (i) the value of the plan of having one instructor who was responsible for the course rather than a symposium of specialists; (2) the value of emphasizing those items that were of practical concern to the students, with the instructor reserving the right to include items that might not seem to be of immediate interest to them but which he knew would be of help later; and (3) the value of facing issues squarely and completely with no attempts at evasion. Since the publication of that article the undergraduate courses have been continued in the same manner except that a second instructor has been added who offers the course all four quarters of the year. Professor Groves has been thereby