The American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a conservative-leaning foundation for educational issues, has put out a worthwhile report examining the core curricula of 100 leading colleges and universities in the U.S. The “core curriculum” in most institutions is the part of the undergraduate program that promises to provide a well-rounded education and introduce students to the essentials of learning that they need in order to be a well-educated person.
ACTA set out a list of subjects that an ideal program would include, and found that very few schools addressed the whole list. Interestingly, the state universities seemed to do a better job than the elite private colleges that charge over $30,000 per year.
For parents considering schools for their children, ACTA’s summary report (PDF) is worth seeing, and the accompanying website looks useful too.
(Hat tip to Prof. Jenny Donelson, who found this mentioned in a related NYT piece by not-conservative-leaning literature prof Stanley Fish.)
Category: Education
Back when you could do this in public schools
In North Hampton, New Hampshire, the second grade acted out the Nativity story from the Gospels, for a Christmas pageant in 1965. Karen, poor thing, (“The Angel”) looked great in her wings, and made her first entrance, but gave her second-entrance speech, causing us to leapfrog over a big chunk of the script.
There was no turning back: we were suddenly post-partum, and hands swiftly brought out the Christ Child and popped him into the manger. So the teacher shooed me (Wise Man #2) and my colleagues to go out for our number. I saw the malicious faces of a few rotten kids in the audience, but I was impervious; the song came off all right. And they should have been grateful: we got it over with at least five minutes faster than planned!
On meeting Küng and von Hildebrand
Prof. Michael Healy (Philosophy, Steubenville) recalls two guest lectures held during his student days at Loyola: encounters with Hans Küng and Dietrich von Hildebrand that moved him to shun the era’s fashionable embrace of heresy and to rejoice in the truths that can be known about man and God.
Pope to Jesuits:
What conclusions can we draw from Pope Benedict’s address to the Jesuit-run Gregorian University?
First of all, there is real conflict between the worldly culture’s idea of the good and the true good of man, which is found in God:
“Today,” he continued, “we cannot fail to take account of the confrontation with secular culture, which in many parts of the world tends … not only to deny all signs of God’s presence in the life of society and of individuals, but, with various means that disorient and confuse man’s correct understanding, seeks to undermine his capacity to listen to God.
Theologies of religious pluralism that disregard the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the one savior of man and the uniqueness of the Church do not serve the truth:
“Nor can we ignore,” he added, “relations with other religions.” Such relations “are constructive only if they avoid all ambiguities that in any way weaken the essential contents of Christian faith in Christ, the only Savior of all mankind, and in the Church, a necessary sacrament for the salvation of all humanity.”
The secular human sciences err and cannot be trusted uncritically when they disregard the truth about man, whose nature is directed toward love of God and love of the other, not self-seeking:
Other human sciences such as psychology, social science and communications, “precisely because they concern human beings, cannot omit a reference to God. Indeed, man, both in his interior and exterior aspects, cannot be fully understood if he is not recognized as being open to transcendence.”
He continued: “Deprived of his reference to God, man cannot respond to the fundamental questions that disturb, and always will disturb, his heart; questions that concern the aim and, hence, the meaning of existence. … Man’s destiny, without reference to God, cannot but be the desolation of anguish that leads to desperation. Only with reference to God-Love, revealed in Jesus Christ, can man discover the meaning of his life, and live in hope, even while experiencing the evils that injure his personal life and the society in which he lives. Hope ensures that man does not close himself in a stagnant and sterile nihilism, but opens himself to generous commitment in the society in which he lives in order to improve it.”
Pontifical universities and Jesuit universities in general are institutions with a religious mission and should be noted for their instruction in authentic Catholic doctrine:
Highlighting the fact that the integral formation of young people “is one of the traditional forms of the apostolate of Company of Jesus,” the Holy Father recalled how the university’s statutes and general regulations are currently being renewed, in order, he said, “to define the identity of the Gregorian University more clearly, facilitating the preparation of the most appropriate academic programs for carrying out its mission.”
“As an ecclesial pontifical university, this academic institution is committed to ‘sentire in Ecclesia et cum Ecclesia.’ This is a commitment that arises from love for the Church, our Mother and Bride of Christ.”
We’re educators; it’s OK if we do it
This isn’t going to help Apopka, Florida’s reputation as a place where stupidity reigns in public life: school teachers put eighth-graders through an abusive day-long demonstration of discrimination.
Apparently it’s OK for teachers and administrators to subject children to unjust treatment if they’re doing it for a “progressive” purpose. I thought this sort of experiment was a fad that ended in the ’70s, but officials in Florida still need to get some education themselves about Ethical Restrictions on Human Experimentation. To start with, experimenting on people without their consent has to be totally excluded.
Somebody please sic on the lawyers on these people.