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Individualism vs. Liberal Arts Education
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14557 |
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MODERN THOUGHT
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3 / 1988 |
4,328 Words |
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Robert L. Spaeth
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Teaching in a liberal arts college I have always found to be by and large a pleasant way of life. And the opening days of a new academic year are always especially enjoyable. But it is distressing to learn, as we all have in recent years, that many sympathetic observers of undergraduate education have concluded that we in liberal arts colleges are doing a poor job.
We cannot ignore our critics. They are too numerous, too highly placed, too thoughtful to dismiss without a fair hearing. Moreover, they deserve a thoughtful reply, particularly from those whose life is devoted to liberal education.
Let me remind you of some of the disturbing things recently published about undergraduate liberal education in this country.
· In 1984, when William Bennett was director of the National Endowment for the Humanities, he assembled a distinguished study group to consider the "state of learning in the humanities in higher education." Mr. Bennett subsequently wrote a report, "To Reclaim a Legacy," which bluntly asserted that "both teaching and learning in the humanities are not what they should or can be, and they are neither taught as well nor studied as carefully as they deserve to be." Bennett spoke harshly of college professors when he said that "we in the academy have failed to bring the humanities to life and to insist on their value." With regard to our students, Bennett found "not merely a rejection of a career in the humanities but a rejection of the humanities themselves." Appropriate and at times horrifying evidence was provided to back up these judgments.
· In 1985, the Association of American Colleges published a report, again based on the work of a distinguished committee, called "Integrity in the College Curriculum." In the first chapter, ominously entitled "The Decline and Devaluation of the Undergraduate Degree," these judgments are made about American liberal education:
Writing as an undergraduate experience... is widely neglected.
Foreign language incompetence in now not only a national embarrassment but... threatens to be an enfeebling disadvantage....
As for what passes as a college curriculum, almost anything goes.
The curriculum... is a supermarket where students are shoppers and professors are merchants of learning.
· In 1986, Ernest L. Boyer, reporting for the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, wrote still another critique, entitled College: The Undergraduate Experience in America. This book has become known for its thoroughness and moderation; yet amid its hopeful suggestions for improvements can be found devastating criticisms of the current state of liberal education. For example:
We found during our study that general education is the neglected stepchild of the undergraduate experience. Colleges offer a smorgasbord of courses, and students pick and choose their way to graduation... the college teaching we observed was often uninspired...
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