My approach to this task has been to define for myself what I
think the central themes of a liberal education should be. You will perhaps
find my curriculum ideas somewhat conservative—i.e. not so dissimilar to
what we have now--but I think that we do many things very well at Furman
compared to other liberal arts colleges and universities that I know.
This too could just be a lack of
broad knowledge on my part. In the end I don’t envision our curricular
changes swinging wildly away from the strengths currently in our GER program
nor from our established and successful major departments. However many of the issues we have
discussed over the last few months have certainly sparked an interest for me in
expanding what we do with the core at Furman—not necessarily adding to
it but being more encompassing with what we do offer and, perhaps, looking at
the context in which we
currently construct and categorize our requirements. Looking at our mission
statement in the Furman catalogue, along with the purpose and aspirations and
the expected educational outcomes statements do not give me great pause. I find
many of them relate directly to what we are discussing in CRC and probably will
continue to do so even if we adopt a different educational philosophy than the
one we currently embrace. Don’t take the above as a reticence to
change for I am certainly not against the idea of doing things in a way that better serves the
students and that enlivens who we are as educators and how we go about our
jobs. As Goethe said, “life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be
prepared for changes”.
Mission Statement
My overriding educational goal is somewhat simplistic, “To
provide the means for students to become educated persons”. To accomplish this we will offer a
liberal education that:
• encourages intellectual curiosity
•
promotes in-depth inquiry
•
appreciates diversity
• exposes
students to themes and ideas that are central to a world view
• allows
students to develop a spiritual sense of self
We will present students with the opportunity to develop an
in-depth understanding of our world and a sense (perhaps empathy) of what it
means to be human and (hopefully) develop a responsibility for oneself and a
caring for one’s peers. At the core of this is a self-awareness made manifest by
exposure to great ideas and given a sense of context and meaning by imbedding
this knowledge in a curriculum or the course of study that follows.
My Ger Goals
1. Reading and Writing with Understanding
Students should have multiple exposures to the written work both in text form
and as writing experiences. This should include but not be limited to a course
in composition and literature to include books that we agree (good luck) have
merit both in our culture and in a world culture.
2. Scientific Method and Quantitative Analysis
Understanding of the scientific method in imperative in a person who is
educated to see how today’s world works. This should be accomplished by an in depth experience in a
course of study in one of the sciences. Students should be exposed to reasoning
in the mathematical method and understand how this area of human rationality
has changed who we are and what we can become.
3. Critical Issues
Nussbaum made a strong case for teaching students to think through ideas and
not rely on solely the acquisition of content as the sole basis of an
education. I won’t elaborate on her argument but will include it as one of my educational
goals. Creative problem solving and the ability to apply multiple approaches to
an issue also fit here.
4. World View
See Nussbaum above. This is something we already do to a certain extent and are
improving on yearly. However we could do it better by making a concentrated
effort to include more international segments to our courses and encouraging
our students to look beyond themselves. To achieve this we need to make this
goal part of our overriding mission statement and create more opportunities for
students to get outside of their culture.
5. A Sense of Tradition
Historic and cultural exposure, the arts, social sciences and philosophical
thought fit this category, although not exclusively. I don’t
advocate compartmentalization of these areas necessarily but see them as having
a place in an educated persons sphere of knowledge. Hopefully, in my perfect curriculum
these areas will be well mixed with other goals listed above and students will
understand that their context exists within a world community.
In my statement I do include “spiritual” and feel there is a
place for it. An
exposure to the great ideas of any culture will result in a discussion of
religion/god as part of the factors that drove literature, philosophy and the
arts in certain periods of any culture. Also the journey to “know
ones self” for many of our students will surely be partly a spiritual voyage.
Posted by love at
September 17, 2004 05:41 PM
Discuss
this proposal in the forum, or leave a comment below!