thoughts on college… March 28
Although no longer an academic, I still work in the sector so I subscribe to the Chronicle of Higher Education. They have some blogs now and one of them has a very interesting proposal for a college. Part II lays out the curriculum in detail. I think it makes sense without Part I, but you might like that, too. Here’s the overarching idea. She is imagining her “perfect college”:
The school would combine the ideas of my cynically rational, somewhat hard-hearted husband, with the lofty ideals I hold about what makes a human being “educated” and what makes knowledge worth pursuing. My husband and I agreed that every college graduate should know enough about numbers to understand a Wall Street Journal discussion about subprime mortgages (and to negotiate with a lender); enough about writing to produce an essay using correct grammar, punctuation, spelling, paragraph development, and rational argumentation; and possess enough reading comprehension to read an essay tackling important ideas and containing big words.
To all of this I added the requirement that our graduates should live with a sense of obligation — if not zeal — to contribute to what is best and most beautiful in the world. In fact, Fendrich University’s “mission statement” (were it to be forced to come up with one by an accrediting organization) would begin, “Fendrich University aims to educate students to become literate, numerate, and thoughtful citizens.”
The discussion in the comments is particularly interesting. Remember, most of the readers are college professors so their take is based on their experience of the students they teach. As I look at that curriculum, I think it would be a good basis for planning your homeschool high-school.
tribeofautodidacts Mar 28
I love this quote! I will be checking out these articles.
shaun Mar 28
Interesting. I have always agreed that post-secondary education should give people a love for “what is best and most beautiful” (not specific works so much as ideas and ideals and the search for truth and beauty). Then I taught community college. My enthusiasm, as a recently married childless woman in her late 20s, seemed totally irrelevant to most of my students, who had returned to school because they were downsized or laid-off, or their supervisor was making them, or they were trying to cram in college between an overnight shift at work and a daytime shift with a baby because they hoped that someday they might get a better job.
I felt a little like Marie Antoinette saying “Let Them Eat Cake!” as I gamely tried to give them some excitement for learning and language, in addition to teaching practical skills.
BTW, if you saw the Chronicle article on “Rex Parker,” the academic who has a crossword blog, he is one of my very best friends ever.