This essay examines not only the role the humanities play in the community college curriculum but also how our approach to and understanding of the humanities must change. The defense of a 21st-century humanities has to begin in the experience of our students and not in the traditional canons of our disciplines.

This essay and bibliography reports on references pertinent to the theme of humanities instruction in the community college. Although the majority of the sources are in the ERIC collection, also cited are books and articles considered to be basic general references on humanities programs and courses in community colleges. (Author/NHM)

Defines the scope of the humanities. Discusses the role of the humanities in community colleges and the responsibility of humanities instructors to strengthen the discipline. Itemizes the qualities of humanists and identifies them as stereotypically feminine. Discusses the implications for male and female instructors. (DD)

The Los Angeles Community College District has developed a two-semester interdisciplinary humanities curriculum which combines art, music, history, English, philosophy, theatre arts, and technology into a topical or modular structure. Students are offered a wide variety of classroom activities which draw on both verbal and nonverbal skills. (NHM)

Reviews the efforts of the humanities faculty at Valencia Community College (Florida) to restructure the curriculum to allow more time for material to be covered, and to locate, or write, appropriate texts to teach students to examine primary sources intelligently and to identify and organize facts and ideas. (AYC)

We must prevent highly specialized training programs from omitting electives and humanities courses altogether. The humanities will only regain their critical place in the mission of the two-year college when the administration and the faculty consciously urge the institution, the student, and the community in this direction. (Author/NHM)

Gentrain is a time-modulated, highly mediated interdisciplinary general education format which has been initiated by Monterey Peninsula College (California). Each of the 16 independent segments covers a 16-class-hour two-week period, and earns one semester unit of credit. Planning, publicizing, staffing, evaluation, and classroom procedures are…

This article reviews the literature pertaining to community college faculty in the humanities--their backgrounds and preparation; inservice training; satisfaction, attitudes, and values; and approaches to curriculum and instruction. (Author/NHM)

The experimental freshman English course described here weds the teaching of basic reading and writing skills to an introduction to the humanities. Although the semester course is divided into four discrete and sequential mini-courses (semantics, philosophy, history, and myth), the units together develop a common and unifying theme of freedom.…

In order to assist students in the process of self-actualization, and create an awareness of self and environment, an interdisciplinary group of general education instructors organized an on-campus commune, the Micro-College, at Miami-Dade Community College (Florida). Integral components include: modular instruction, grading contracts, and special…

Examines the assumptions underlying mastery learning to identify contradictions between these assumptions and the pedagogy of humanistic education. Finds no such contradiction. Suggests reasons for humanities instructors' opposition or indifference to mastery learning. Reviews the strategies used in the City Colleges of Chicago's faculty…

Three community college districts cooperated to design and assemble an interdisciplinary humanities program which uses rock music, current movies, and television as familiar cultural touchstones which lead the nontraditional student first to an understanding of self, then to an understanding of the arts in their total historical perspective. (NHM)

Offers suggestions for teaching critical thinking in writing and humanities courses. Explains the rules of freewriting as they are presented to students, compares left- and right-brain qualities, and describes assignments involving focused freewriting and metaphor, and efforts to make assignments relevant. Describes the evaluation process and…

Summarizes interviews with philosophy, electronics, data processing, and radiology students about the humanities. Decries the false dichotomy established in the literature between humanities and vocational education. Illustrates three methods of "marrying" humanities and occupational education: free-standing humanities electives; humanities…

Although the emphasis on occupational programs in two-year institutions may be justifiable, the humanities fields must not be totally forgotten. Since two-year college students have special needs, the teaching of the humanities can be made meaningful and appealing only by using new and creatively designed teaching methods. In this anthology of…