Rethinking the Curriculum

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What is the purpose of a college education? What is the purpose of the curriculum designed by academic affairs specialists? Do the two directly relate to one another or do they serve contradicting purposes? These are the questions that every institution of higher education must answer when reviewing the requirements they will place on a student in order to complete a degree from that institution. Many would say that a college education is one that expands the minds of students and prepares them for living life in the real world. The skills that a student learns in their college classes can prepare them for a career through content preparation, and it can help a student think differently about the world around them. The classes offered through humanities and the social sciences do not always translate directly into careers such as engineering classes might. The requirement of these classes is a remnant of time gone by and the general liberal arts degrees once coveted by colleges and universities.

The humanities and social sciences required in the core of most programs of higher education today seek to attempt to provide a well-balanced education to students, specifically those students who otherwise would not choose to take such classes. For the student uninterested in art, music, or literature, they are asked to participate in a course that requires them to learn something about at least one of these areas. Particularly for the few remaining liberal arts college, this requirement is designed in hope of producing a well-rounded student with a minimal knowledge base in all areas rather than just their chosen area of specialty. In redesigning a humanities and social science curriculum, the first decision made must be that of wh...

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...s serve to do for our student populations? If these classes are here to enlighten our students to the ways of classical theorists, writers, and philosophers then we must adhere to the classical methods of teaching and how we require students to complete these requirements. If we strive to provide students with a useful method of viewing the world outside of their own sphere of knowledge, changes must be made to assist students in discovering these subject areas as not just a requirement but courses that have helped develop who they are personally and professionally.

Works Cited

Bloom, A. D. (1987). The closing of the American mind: How higher education has failed

democracy and impoverished the souls of today's students. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Levine, L. W. (1996). The opening of the American mind: Canons, culture, and history. Boston:

Beacon Press.

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