Although recent American educational practices have stressed the right to be independent, it is thought that education must find ways to affirm independence and interdependence. By focusing curricula on a common heritage as well as current concerns with communication, social institutions, and vocation, students can live wisely in the future.…

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)

College and university faculty members in professional fields were surveyed to determine their attitudes toward liberal studies in their professional curricula. Results show that professional faculty members tend to favor liberal arts courses that have obvious application to their professional field. (BH)

Presents information about Illinois' Father Sweeney School for the Academically Gifted Child. Discusses the school's curriculum, which includes math, French, science, language arts, social studies, and religious education. Indicates that students are taught to become responsible for their own learning. Describes other school activities, including…

Fairleigh Dickinson University (New Jersey) students take four core general education courses from the second half of the freshman year through the first half of the junior year. All sections have the same syllabus, and faculty teaching them on separate campuses review and refine the courses together. Core course faculty participated actively in a…

Draws on a theory of education for a Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) framework based on the structure of general education in modern educational systems. Shows that pedagogical research on school and instruction is formed by the relationship of instruction, didactics, curricular development, and achievement control. (CAJ)

Describes how the Fort Wayne (Indiana) Community Schools improved black students' academic achievement by developing a core curriculum and creating a student-centered learning environment focusing on individualized learning. (PKP)

Discusses the utilitarian goals of education and examines how cultural literacy can contribute to a discourse on art education. Makes observations about utilitarian versus intrinsic education. Maintains that the concept of cultural literacy can help art educators make decisions regarding the common core of art education. (KM)

Argues that the publication of "A Nation at Risk" politicized education and established an environment in which the state imposed a common curriculum on everyone. Emphasizes that this is detrimental as it transfers curriculum control to the state and that teachers then teach to the tests, which become the curriculum. (NL)

Refutes the claims of the neoconservative critics of social studies education. Emphasizes that their work reflects the discontent with public education fostered during the Reagan administration. Analyzes their recommendations for curriculum change, and challenges their assumptions. Encourages the study of social problems as the core of social…

Discusses the accreditation of public relations education programs. Suggests caution in interpreting the educational results of the expansion that has occurred in public relations--as a professional field and as an educational discipline. Offers recommendations on curriculum design for public relations programs. (MS)

The State University of New York College at Fredonia undertook a long-term assessment of its general-education curriculum. The experience confirmed that dedicated college faculty can design and implement ambitious tests to assess general learning based on curriculum design and goals, but that it is very difficult to administer them over time with…

Discussion of a core curriculum in Hungary focuses on the role of information technology in curriculum development in elementary education. Topics include personal computers; networks; multimedia; the Internet; tasks and goals for various subject areas; content elements; and didactic considerations. (LRW)

Teacher and songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie founded the Cradleboard Teaching Project in 1996. The project provides core curriculum through Native American eyes to all learners and promotes cross-cultural partnerships in which widely distant classrooms study Native American culture together. Interactive, multimedia CD-ROMS were designed for grade 6…

Argues for a holistic core that balances the dialectic tensions between social science and humanities, scholarly discipline and craft/praxis, and common and special topics within the discipline. Offers rationales for two other unique features of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington curriculum: research methods at the front end of the…