This essay argues that emphasizing "college and career-readiness" as the major goal of public education is too narrow a purpose for education. College and career readiness, if pursued exclusively, may deprive students of the problem-solving skills they need to live well-adjusted, flourishing lives. The purposes of education that were…

Derrida's account of Kant's and Schelling's writings on the origins of the modern university are interpreted to show that theoretical positions attempting to oversee and master the contemporary university find themselves destabilized or deconstructed. Two examples of contemporary attempts to install the liberal arts as the guardians and overseers…

Discusses the future of the humanities in American institutions of higher learning, including the role of elementary and secondary schools in raising academic standards. (AM)

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…

St. Anselm College's new core humanities program includes as a language requirement a special culture and civilization segment. The Native Speaker Program is described. Students meet once a week with native speakers. The textbooks contain magazine articles from the countries under study. (MLW)

Provides an overview of findings from a general survey of applications to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and describes NEH's activity in the area of language instruction. (AM)

Designed as a forum for views on issues concerning the humanities in two-year colleges, this journal begins with "A Call for Common Learning," in which Ernest Boyer discusses the goals of education and outlines six themes which students should study to understand themselves, their society, and the world in which they live. Responding to…

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)

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)

In this essay the author examines the state of the humanities with respect to four indicators--production. financial support, demand, and influence; offers a hopeful prognosis for the future; and prescribes ways for the humanistic disciplines to strengthen their positions, such as reinstating core curricula and teaching basic skills. (JMD)

Making a list of essential information is seen as a hopelessly inadequate, and perhaps even dangerous, way to face America's educational problems. Opposition to E. D. Hirsch's book, CULTURAL LITERACY: WHAT EVERY AMERICAN NEEDS TO KNOW, is discussed. (MLW)

Pacific Lutheran's integrated studies program includes eight courses and one seminar, all with "dynamics of change" as the theme. Courses are related to each other in pairs or sequences, each sequence having its own unifying and controlling topic expressed in the particular subjects of each course component. (Author/LBH)

The author discusses the effect of the rise of technology on the liberal arts. The benefits of liberal arts to society are sketched and ways to protect them from demise are suggested. The liberal arts core curriculum, as introduced at the University of Bridgeport, is described. (CT)

Rather than return to a core curriculum that reflects the structures of knowledge and education developed for other contexts and needs, the humanities should create new structures appropriate to the students', culture's, and faculty's needs today, particularly through interdisciplinary collaboration. (MSE)

The School of New Resources is described as a liberal arts program that helps adults enrich their lives by building on their life experiences within a formal learning environment. Core courses culminate in a seminar to integrate or synthesize the educational process and reinforce the humanistic thrust of the program. (Author/MLW)