Higher learning will find itself essentially leaderless, if the deterioration of principles and standards in American society is not reversed. (Editor/PG)

The notion that the interdisciplinary enterprise involves abandoning a discipline for a consistently holistic stance is critiqued. It is suggested that there are ways of exploring interdisciplinary relationships from the perspective of a discipline. (MLW)

Describes a new taxonomy of liberal and professional learning--a Table of Learning--that creates a system for classifying the kinds of learning faculty seek for their students, and also serves as a stimulus for the design and evaluation of education. (EV)

A noted feminist author and a prominent educator talk about the good and the bad aspects of mass education. (Editor)

Highly specialized education is no longer relevant to the needs of our diversified society. A return to a broad, general education curriculum is needed. (HS)

Any debate about general education is seen as a debate about culture, curricula, and proportion; common or not so common values; the nature of knowledge and the desire and necessity of transferring traditions from one generation to the next; and the degree to which undergraduate study should emphasize specialization. (MLW)

Discusses why the transformative experience of education ideally includes cultivating in students an attitude--both intellectual and social--that is at once playful and responsible. Asserts that in order to do so, institutions must organize themselves and their teaching and learning in particular ways. (EV)

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)

There is a gap, it is suggested, separating the generally cultured person, not just from the scientist, but from specialists in many fields. Dictionary definitions are seen as one means of seeing the extent to which specialists and those in the general culture speak the same language. (MLW)

Discusses several recent publications describing assessment methods available to institutions of higher education as they assess the outcomes of their general education programs. Briefly explains how each publication contributes to institutions' understanding of the range of possible assessment strategies. (EV)

The success of a college or university must rest on its academic integrity. The college president sets the tone for an institution, determines the strength of general education and liberal learning. The presidents, the provosts, and the deans must take the initiative. (MLW)

The University of California at Santa Cruz had an innovative curriculum but in 1976 was unable to hold on to its students, and enrollments started to fall. The Santa Cruz experience gives an insight into liberal learning and the impact of professionalization on education today. (MLW)

The designation of "liberal" as the educational path toward a person's cultural completeness has given way to use of that term in contexts implying freedom for personal exploration of all kinds. The primary functions of the liberal education institution have become sidetracked by consumerism. (MLW)

Noting that "career education is only the latest in the grand parade of American learning fads," the author points out that despite the proliferation of technology in France and the habit of accepting American fads, the French still consider education to have three aims--for work, for public life, for private life. (JT)

General and liberal education is the thread to weave a pattern of meaning into the total learning experience, particulary in liberal arts colleges. Unless such balance is restored, career training will be ephemeral in applicability and delusive in worth; a value education will be casual, shifting, and relativistic. (Author)