|
Volume CXXXIII, Number 9 |
 |
First-year course choices face criticism
PRIYA SRIDHAR
STAFF WRITER
Taken any Western civilization courses lately? Probably not, says the Independent Women's Forum.
A report recently published by the group entitled "Death of the Liberal Arts?" found that top tier liberal arts schools such as Bowdoin, Swarthmore, Wellesley, Williams, Amherst, and Carleton fail in intellectual diversity based on their first-year course offerings.
Specifically, the report faulted the lack of the English, political science, and history courses at some liberal arts institutions.
According to the IWF, these colleges have become too concerned with political correctness and have compromised the idea of liberal arts.
Melana Zyla Vickers, author of the IWF report, said these schools are likely to "waste the students' time with fashionable examinations of pet social and environmental issues."
First years that did not have the opportunity to study the traditional English and American literary canon, history departments that did not include a course on the evolution of Western Civilization, or political science departments that did not have a course focused on the fundamentals of the American republic were all given a failing grade.
The report concludes that the best liberal arts schools have deserted classical first-year courses and replaced them with "trendy" courses or ones that ignore accomplishments in Western civilization.
The IWF focused on numerous points including the fact that a first year at Bowdoin cannot take a course on Shakespeare, a freshman at Amherst is not able to take an overview course of European or American history, and the few courses that Williams College offers on U.S. or European history focus on "race, ethnicity, and gender" instead of the main developments in history.
Wellesley College requires English majors to take one Shakespeare course, but the report finds that they are able to meet this requirement by taking a Shakespeare course that focuses on "gender relations and identities to national self-consciousness."
Many of the schools that received a failing grade actually have core requirements that include "non-Western civilization" courses, like Bowdoin's "non-Eurocentric" studies requirement, without requiring Western civilization courses.
"I don't understand how requiring students to take Western civilization courses would promote intellectual diversity. It's just one point of view. Secondary education in America is very Western-based and most students who choose to come to a liberal arts school chose to go so that they would have the freedom to study what they wanted to," Katherine Hessler '07 said.
The IWF found that Davidson College, Haverford College, Middlebury College, and Pomona College have a "relatively strong" classical liberal arts education.
In regards to this alleged lack of intellectual diversity in America's higher education system, a group of House Republicans is in the process of enacting a bill of Academic Freedom. Representative Jack Kingston, a Republican from Georgia said students have a right to "get an education rather than an indoctrination."
The bill asks colleges to emphasize diversity in their faculty, curricula, reading lists, and campus speakers.
The bill says teachers should present "dissenting sources and viewpoints" and should not have courses "for the purpose of political, ideological, religious, or antireligious indoctrination."
"I think for the most part that the IWF is right in its assessment of the curriculum here at Bowdoin. In the fall of 2003, the College offered far fewer courses in the Classics department than in the Women's Studies department. Why has traditionalism been perverted by political correctness and neo-liberalism? I think the College has to take a hard look at itself and its course offerings," said Alexander Linhart '06, Chairman of the Bowdoin College Republicans.
Dean of Academic Affairs Craig McEwen said, "At Bowdoin we challenge students to think independently, think critically, and that's what academic freedom is about. There is a legitimate debate about what our curriculum should have for a liberal education."
Clara M. Lovett, president of the American Association for Higher Education, said that the House bill sounds totally "absurd."
"The strength of American higher education has always been that it has a great variety of institutions and programs. Most students can choose not only the programs and the institutions they attend, but usually they have choices in professors and courses," Lovett said.
"So to say that we need a bill of rights to prevent certain kinds of faculty from indoctrinating students is just ridiculous," she continued.
"It's really a question of whether the advocates are trying to have an indoctrination of their own and shape academics to their own values instead of having academic neutrality or freedom," said McEwen. "I have a good deal of faith that Bowdoin students have their own piece of mind."
For information on sending a letter to the editor, please click here.
|
FastCounter by bCentral |