The target of present-day curriculum revivalists is the curriculum that came into being in the late 1960s. The purpose of the reform is to restore a sense of a shared or common culture among undergraduates and thus among the leaders of American society. (MLW)

Developing a core curriculum at Harvard College involves the problem of producing change in a self-governing but externally-oriented community. Critics of Harvard's curriculum planning are answered in this essay, which focuses on the problems and positive aspects of faculty involvement in the curricular change process. (JMD)

The loose smorgasbord distribution requirements and free electives of the '60s, have given way to more proscribed requirements and core programs. General education is a response to a need to reaffirm the connectedness among people. The agenda for general education is to teach those common experiences, relationships, and ethical concerns. (MLW)

The debate over the nature and form of general education is discussed. The Project on General Education Models, which surveyed colleges and universities that had taken concrete steps to review or revise their general education programs, is described. Some new programs are outlined. (MLW)

The future demands a renewal of community and a curriculum that will counteract the excesses of individualism and broaden social visions, suggest these authors. This article is adapted from a forthcoming book and emphasizes the need for a curriculum that deals with the American heritage and the university's role in it. (Editor/LBH)

Harvard's recommendation of a core curriculum is examined and related to the general status of American higher education. It is suggested that the Harvard curriculum offers insight into the crisis faced by academe, and that the so-called reforms reveal failures of imagination and will and offer too little too late. They fail to examine the…

Changes in undergraduate curriculum are seen to be generated by significant social, political, and cultural forces at work throughout society. After World War II a core curriculum was encouraged, but an imposition of a core curriculum in today's institutions is seen as inappropriate and ineffectual. (MLW)

Four goals for a Second Wave of general education reform should be: broaden existing reforms and embed them more firmly in the life of the college; engage a larger number of colleges; attract new individuals to the movement; and confront more candidly the barriers to devising, approving, and implementing reforms. (MLW)