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The core of liberal education
Writing for Policy Review, Peter Berkowitz has penned a masterful analysis of what liberal education is, how far American higher education has strayed from it, and what can be done to reform our colleges and universities so that they fulfill their duty--not only to individual students, but to the democracy of which they are a pivotal part.
An excerpt:
An auto repair shop in which mechanics and owners could not distinguish a wreck from a finely tuned car would soon go out of business. A hospital where doctors, nurses, and administrators were unable to recognize a healthy human being would present a grave menace to the public health. A ship whose captain and crew lacked navigation skills and were ignorant of their destination would spell doom for the cargo and passengers entrusted to their care.Yet at universities and colleges throughout the land, parents and students pay large sums of money for--and federal and state governments contribute sizeable tax exemptions to support--liberal education, despite administrators and faculty lacking a coherent idea about what constitutes an educated human being. To be sure, American higher education, or rather a part of it, is today the envy of the world, producing and maintaining research scientists of the highest caliber. But liberal education is another matter. Indeed, many professors in the humanities and social sciences proudly promulgate in their scholarship and courses doctrines that mock the very idea of a standard or measure defining an educated person and so legitimate the compassless curriculum over which they preside. In these circumstances, why should we not conclude that universities are betraying their mission?
To be sure, universities and colleges put out plenty of glossy pamphlets containing high-minded statements touting the benefits of higher education. Aimed at prospective students, parents, and wealthy alumni, these publications celebrate a commitment to fostering diversity, developing an ethic of community service, and enhancing appreciation of cultures around the world. University publications also proclaim that graduates will have gained skills for success in an increasingly complex and globalized marketplace. Seldom, however, do institutions of higher education boast about how the curriculum cultivates the mind and refines judgment. This is not because universities are shy about the hard work they have put into curriculum design or because they have made a calculated decision to lure students and alumni dollars by focusing on the sexier side of the benefits conferred by higher education. It's because university curricula explicitly and effectively aimed at producing an educated person rarely exist.
Berkowitz touches on many of the issues that surround liberal education in America today--the shapelessness of college education in the absence of a core curriculum, the enormous price tag placed on a college degree, the dangerous complacency of parents and citizens about what students actually learn in college, the destructive inability of faculties to discuss content in a meaningful way, the similiarly destructive manner in which many institutions have forgotten that the "liberal" in liberal education stands not for a political position, but for an openmindedness that fosters thorough examination of ideas from all angles. He goes on to offer his own definition of a core curriculum--which he understands as essential for a proper liberal education--and to suggest ways academic leaders can work to implement the major but necessary change a core represents.
Well worth a careful read.
Posted by acta online on January 26, 2007 at January 26, 2007 09:14 AM
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