Many features of the Furman experience are attractive to
students and prospective students. Some of our students are here as a result of
careful consideration of what Furman has to offer academically; some are here
because their parents were students here; some are here because the campus is
pretty; some are just here.
Whatever their reasons for being
here, it is our privilege to help guide them through four significant years of
development. What should we offer them while they are here? In what follows, I
will suggest several answers to this question, and I will offer a few specific
curriculum proposals. Even in this early stage of the curriculum review
process, I have already heard and read many wonderful and intriguing ideas and
suggestions. My goal here is not to suggest alternatives to these other fine
proposals, but rather complements to them. I offer these suggestions as topics
for further conversation.
What should we offer our students while they are here?
I. We should offer opportunities to discover and explore
connections.
The lines separating areas of study should be thin and dashed,
not bold and solid. Students should gain an appreciation for the often quoted
expression, “everything is related to everything else.” Our
lives are (surrounded by, infiltrated with, enriched by, nurtured by, etc)
relationships among
people, ideas, procedures, and fields of study. We should help cultivate the ability
to recognize the connections that exist among these entities.
II. We should offer opportunities for each student to discover
and explore individual passions.
William Butler Yeats said that “education is not the
filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.” While I am not ready to
completely discount pail filling, I do appreciate the importance of lighting
fires. Isn’t our community ideal for striking
matches? Numerous disciplines
and subdisciplines are represented here, together
with faculty members who understand the passion-finding process. Further,
opportunities for fire lighting are plentiful in the many extracurricular
activities that are available. We should do what we can to help ignite
passions, and we should avoid practices that tend to extinguish them.
III. We should offer opportunities for each student to discover
and explore a sense of personal meaning and purpose.
Students participating in the programs of Furman’s Lilly
Center have experienced enriching (and in many cases, life changing)
discussions and activities. Students here are at a stage of life in which
guided self reflection can be of great benefit. We can help provide such
guidance.
IV. We should offer our students an educational experience that
is distinctly different from a typical high school experience.
Four years at Furman should be more than just 13th through 16th
grade. Many of our students, however, come to us expecting just that (and
understandably, since this is all they have really known). I like an expression
I heard in a recent conversation: we need to “rewrite the contract” with
students as soon as they arrive. We need to prepare students to experience the
types of things I’ve discussed in the above points, and I worry
that the typical high schooler’s approach (if there is such a thing!) will not be
conducive to the type of growth we hope will occur.
My list does not end with these four points. There are other
things that I think we should strive to offer (to name a few, an appropriate
combination of breadth and depth; opportunities to develop critical reasoning
skills, communication skills, numeracy, and
technological fluency; experiences that enhance environmental awareness). I
lift up the four points given above because they are particularly relevant to
the proposals I suggest below.
A Few Proposals
Proposal A. Connections Courses
I propose the creation of a collection of Connections Courses,
modeled after the current Humanities sequence courses and IDS 30. The concept
behind the Humanities sequence and IDS 30 is a good one, and these courses have
been cited by many students as particularly meaningful and memorable
experiences. Connections courses would be team taught by faculty from several
departments (see suggestions below), and the idea would be to present major
ideas together with underlying connections. I envision two categories of
Connections Courses.
Category 1
There would be four distinct Category 1 Connections courses:
• Arts
Connections (Art, Music, Theater Arts)
• Humanities Connections (Classics, English, History, Modern
Languages &
Literature, Philosophy, Religion)
• Mathematics and Science Connections (Biology, Chemistry, Earth & Environmental Sciences,
Mathematics, Physics)
• Social Science Connections (Economics, Political Science,
Psychology, Sociology)
These four could be single courses (similar to IDS 30) or
sequences of courses (similar to the current Humanities sequence). Whatever the
length, each student would complete each of the four Connections courses in
Category 1.
You will notice that several departments do not appear in the
descriptions given above. I certainly do not mean to suggest that faculty from
these departments would be excluded from the teaching of Category 1 Connections
courses. Indeed, I envision these faculty making significant contributions to
the courses as they see fit.
Category 2
Connections courses in Category 2 would be team taught courses that cross
divisional boundaries. Courses could be proposed by teams of faculty members,
and, again, the underlying goal is to present major ideas and connections.
Possible combinations that come to mind, just to name few, are
mathematics/music, science/religion, political science/environmental science,
mathematics/philosophy, computer science/psychology, sociology/education,
political science/business, and psychology/communication. Credit for these
courses could vary from 2 to 4 hours. Students would be required to take a
certain number of hours of Category 2 Connections courses.
An added benefit, of course, of this proposal is the potential
for enhanced collegiality and enriched cooperation among faculty members.
Proposal B. Reflections Courses
I propose that every freshman take a Reflections Course — a
course specifically designed to stimulate self-reflection and analysis. This
sort of course could take on any number of forms. One possibility might be for
the course to focus on biographies. Students would spend the term reading,
analyzing, and discussing
a (well chosen) set of biographies. Students would do a good deal of writing in
the course, and they would be asked to think through questions such as “What
are my foundational beliefs?” or “What are my short-
and long-term goals?” or “What do I hope to gain from my Furman experience?” It
would be helpful for students to confront these questions early in their time
here. In many cases, the answers will not be fully formed yet, and that is ok!
The wrestling will be good for them.
I also propose that every senior take a course like this. It
would be interesting for a senior to reflect on how her or his responses to the
above questions have changed over the undergraduate experience.
A Reflections course could be taught by any interested faculty
member. We could discuss what an appropriate number of credit hours would be
for a course like this.
Proposal C. Thesis Project
I propose that a thesis (or some type of senior project) be a
graduation requirement. This type of activity can provide a wonderful capstone
activity for the in-depth study one undertakes in a major. As has been
mentioned in another posting, graduates from colleges that have such a
requirement often point to the thesis project as one of the most meaningful and
memorable features of their undergraduate experience.
Proposal D. Schedule/Grading/Class Size
We need to acknowledge the significance of the learning,
comprehension, and growth that take place outside of class. We also need to
recognize the importance of allowing enough time for this growth to occur. I
have experienced five-day-a-week classes both as student and teacher, and I’ve
experienced two- and three-day-a-week classes from both perspectives as well.
For me, classes that meet every day just do not seem to allow enough time for outside-of-class growth. I
propose that we consider a new schedule that will address this issue.
Grading is a tricky issue. Students are grade-focused when they
arrive here, and this mentality/attitude has served them well (from their
perspective) throughout high school. While grades can serve as tools for
motivation, grade-obsession can be detrimental to the growth and development
that we hope will occur. How should we address this? Completely doing away with
grades is not the answer (at least it is not an answer for which we are ready).
Perhaps we could modify the system a bit, though, and agree that certain
courses (possibly the Connections and Reflections courses) are to be taken
pass/fail. I am open to suggestions here.
Class size, particularly in the Connections and Reflections
courses, should be small. From what I understand, the good things that can be
accomplished in our current IDS 30 course are diminished (to an extent) by the
large class size. For maximum benefit, small groups are a must.
Posted by love at
October 1, 2004 09:45 PM
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