If higher education is to have a coherent curriculum and a coherent way of thinking about the world, it may need to study premodern ways of thinking for both insights and the courage to think in new ways. The tradition of the humanities, which originated in fifteenth-century Italy, can help. (MSE)

Higher education can resist the need to open the U.S. mind to greater cultural diversity by ignoring the changing ethnic composition of student bodies and larger society, or realize this opportunity to revitalize the social sciences and humanities with a new sense of purpose and more inclusive definition of knowledge. (MSE)

General education is the process of developing a framework on which to place knowledge stemming from a variety of sources. Its goals are to help students think critically, develop values, understand traditions, respect diverse cultures and opinions, and, most importantly, put that knowledge to use. Even though its goals parallel socially supported…

Points out the need for improving the nation's higher education curricula. Offers reasons for supporting a core curriculum and describes difficulties in developing such a program. Provides a summary of the National Endowment for the Humanities' report "50 Hours: A Core Curriculum for College Students." (KO)

This paper addresses the issue of defining the concept of core curriculum by first examining some of the literature on the subject, discussing why there is resistance to defining "core," citing common uses for the term "core curriculum," and exploring the historical roots of core curriculum. Next, the paper describes eight…

This paper describes certain fundamental realities and choices that planners and teachers of core curricula at the college level must take into account in order to devise programs of quality and integrity. Six common sense realities and the choices they demand are presented and discussed. First, core programs must avoid reducing the teaching and…

An introduction is provided to the Interdisciplinary Studies (IDS) Program at Valencia Community College (VCC), a 2-year general education core curriculum divided into four courses. A description of VCC is followed by an overview of the program, which integrates the arts, philosophy, religion, English, mathematics, social sciences, and physical…

Discusses Allan Bloom's "The Closing of the American Mind" and its implications for higher education. Examines Bloom's analysis of historical changes that involved universities in societal pressures, thereby weakening them. Supports Bloom's mandate that universities delineate their function and measure achievement against the fundamental…

The individual element of multicultural education needs to be recognized. The Association of American Colleges' national project, "Engaging Cultural Legacies: Shaping Core Curricula in the Humanities," helps colleges develop curriculum that challenge students to explore the humanities as reflected in their own social values, ideas, and…

In designing a core curriculum, educators should use the cross-cultural methodology of the social sciences to examine the range of values implicit in a core curriculum. Students should also learn how to use cross-cultural studies, to both learn about other cultures and identify inconsistencies or shortcomings within their own culture. (MSE)

Amidst the controversy surrounding the fate of the humanities in modern society, a program has evolved at Dawson College and four other English "colleges d'enseignment general et professionel" (CEGEP) that features a compulsory humanities core. The original purpose of the humanities program was to provide a broad general liberal arts…

Describes present anthropological curricula both within the department and in other campus settings. Examines the role of anthropology in a proposal for revising General Curricular Requirements at Cleveland State University. Future prospects for the program are discussed. (JS)

Chronicles the process of reforming the liberal education program at Franklin Pierce College (New Hampshire), organized around the theme of the individual and community. Discusses objectives in integrating the "civic arts" into the core curriculum and challenges encountered in balancing "individual" and "community"…

This guidebook for curriculum planners reports on two specific aspects of the current wave of general education reform: the creation or revival of common or "core" courses within general-education curricula and the emergence of cultural complexity and multiplicity as organizing themes in these new, or newly revised, core programs. The book…

Outlines a newly designed foundations of sociology course at Mount Saint Mary's college (California) that attempts to integrate the course into the College's liberal arts core curriculum. Suggests teaching this integrated, sociohistorical curriculum furthers students understanding and attraction to the discipline. (NL)