Monday, October 05, 2009

The Past Isn't Everything

A college with a history-only curriculum? As a history professor who is known to privilege my discipline above all others, I'm supposed to love this idea, right? Not so fast. I am a firm believer in a liberal arts education and believe that history ought to be front-and-center in such a curriculum. But I do not think that history ought to be alone. Literature, sciences, the arts, social sciences -- these too matter. I cannot imagine a university that only produces history majors being a university I would want to attend, or that I could imagine wanting to send kids to attend. I realize that the school in question is a junior-senior college, which changes the dynamic somewhat, but the idea of a single-discipline college or university crashes headlong into my love of a true liberal arts education.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, what an idea! Absolutely, on the other hand, I think students that go to proprietary schools are missing out as well. I have students every semester who ask questions such as, why do we have to take history, english, government and physical education. Okay, duh? However,they make the argument that they just want to get on with their education and feel like they should not have to pay for extra classes they think they do not need. So, I would have to agree that the "history-only" schools would be a not so wonderful idea, except for such folks who love to talk about history all day, everyday! People like me who can go on and on about history all the time.
T. Anderson

dcat said...

Tramaine --
Oh, I agree -- the professionalization of academia is far more worrisome than something like this school, which still intrigues me despite my reservations.

dcat

Anonymous said...

In addition, I did share this idea with some of my colleagues at TCC, I'm interested to see how this experiment with the school turns out. I do like the interest that they are using discussion format instead of just lecture. Okay, now this is my pedadogical educational side speaking, "We need more writing and discussion inside the history classroom!" I'm still trying to figure out a way to do this with 40+ students in each class. However, I think this school has capped it at twenty students, which should make the discussion/writing portion a bit easier. Another thought, I know here at TCC there is discussion of the Honor's college and courses, along with a common book. Anyway, I digress, I hope you have an excellent day!
T. Anderson

Thunderstick said...

I bet there's a lot of courses on survey at that school.

dcat said...

Surveys -- good course. You should check it out.

dcat

dcat said...

Tramaine --
I think when it comes to doscussion in the classroom, the question should be "discussion about what?" The reality is that the lecture is a wrongly maligned tool. It should never be the only tool in the shed, but it can be the most useful ones. To quote my dear friend Tootle, occasional contributor to this blog, a bunch of ignorant people sitting in a circle and talking does not create knowledge.
Yes, discussing reading is vital. But that discussion requires both for the students to have done the reading and for them to have enough of a framework of knowledge to have some context for what they are discussion. I'm certainly not the biggest fan of choosing topic x and letting the students have a rap session, which seems pretty squishy to me and which buys into a lot of the personal-is-political stuff that may have a kernel of truth but that becomes a crutch for students.

dcat

Jim said...

Well. . .history is everything!

dcat said...

Joe --
Don't get me wrong -- I am as big an advocate for the importance of history as anyone. But I am also a firm believer in the liberal arts ideal.

dcat