{"id":239,"date":"2014-10-18T23:57:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-19T05:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/10\/thinking-about-a-core-curriculum.html"},"modified":"2015-02-26T23:14:47","modified_gmt":"2015-02-27T05:14:47","slug":"thinking-about-a-core-curriculum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/10\/thinking-about-a-core-curriculum.html","title":{"rendered":"Thinking about a Core Curriculum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Today my son had a soccer game \u2014 just the house league, and he\u2019s one of those players who, if the ball comes his way, he\u2019ll kick it, but he\u2019s not out there ahead of the others scoring goals.\u00a0 And the weather was unseasonably cold, though happily the rain slowed and ultimately stopped, though the field was drenched.<\/p>\n

Which meant that, having looked at the core-curriculum study<\/a> last night, I spent the game mentally thinking through the whole question of \u201cwhat should the core curriculum be?\u201d<\/p>\n

Writing<\/b><\/p>\n

This is the easiest piece:\u00a0 students should have a \u201ccollege-level\u201d writing ability regardless of whether they major in the liberal arts or the sciences, though students should be able to meet this requirement by taking \u201cfreshman comp\u201d or maybe alternately by a combination of a placement test and some other coursework which involves significant amounts of writing.<\/p>\n

History<\/b><\/p>\n

Yes, not surprisingly, I think history should be a significant portion of a core curriculum.\u00a0 The basic requirement should be a core competence in world history, tested via a placement test.\u00a0 Do you know what the Cultural Revolution was?\u00a0 What the key dates and events were in World War II?\u00a0 and so on.<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s where I\u2019d bring this requirement into the 21st century.\u00a0 The placement test would consist of sections for different time periods and regions, you\u2019d get credit where you could, and would have to take modules for the remainder, probably with a combination of online and textbook learning rather than in the classroom, and probably at a level of rigor that\u2019s less than what it would be if you had to take a full-year US survey and European survey and \u201cother\u201d survey (and with a reduced level of credit granted).\u00a0 But the point is, you need to understand the basic outlines, and colleges shouldn\u2019t take it for granted that kids get this in high school, in the same way as they don\u2019t take it for granted that kids get the writing skills in high school.<\/p>\n

The second part of the requirement would be some kind of a \u201cthemes in history\u201d class which would attempt to try to incorporate the two elements of \u201cactions have consequences\u201d and \u201csame . . . but different\u201d from yesterday\u2019s blog post<\/a>, with a fair amount of choice as to the time period and region selected, so long as the class adheres to certain common guidelines.<\/p>\n

Alternatively, this could be two courses \u2014 one a traditional history course with a heavy does of Cause and Effect and the other a course about another culture, which can be chosen from history department offerings (e.g., Classical Greece) or another department, such as \u201cChinese Studies\u201d or the like, with the stipulation that a foreign student, or a student with a significant background in the country can\u2019t choose that region \u2014 or a series of two courses could be chosen which incorporate aspects of both.

<\/b>Math<\/b><\/p>\n

Placement test, again, or remedial non-credit coursework to demonstrate or attain competence in all the topics of \u201ccollege-prep high school math\u201d would be the basic prerequisite, but the general-education requirement, for anyone who\u2019s not otherwise taking \u201creal\u201d math, would be a practical one:\u00a0 a course in basic statistics (including data interpretation and hypothesis testing), with some interest theory thrown in.<\/p>\n

Science<\/b><\/p>\n

Science is a bit trickier.\u00a0 The required \u201cscience for non-majors\u201d course should decidedly not be a course in environmentalism and sustainability and global warming and so forth.\u00a0 My ideal class would be the result of actual scientists putting their heads together and figuring out what the basic concepts are that educated people need to understand, based on the articles they read, and facebook posts, and the like, that make them want to pound their heads into the wall.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Social Sciences<\/b><\/p>\n

This is where things get trickier still \u2014 because students should understand \u201ccivics,\u201d as traditionally understood (though, again, this should be remedial, remedying deficiencies if a student hasn\u2019t learned the material in high school), should have a basic understanding of economics, and should be able to discuss intelligently the Key Social Issues of the Day, but it\u2019s the nature of universities today that this last component to such a requirement would almost inevitably be taught from a politically-liberal perspective, unless the content was very tightly controlled.<\/p>\n

Again, this would be modular, so that a student could elect a full Political Science 101 for the \u201ccivics\u201d component or an Econ 101 (or Econ 101 & 102, Macro & Micro) instead of the Econ Lite which this would represent, for instance.<\/p>\n

As you can see<\/b>, my core curriculum is actually fairly prescriptive, especially compared with places such as the University of Illinois, where you get thousands of choices<\/a> as long as you conform to general categories.\u00a0 It\u2019s premised on the idea that, if a university education is more than a technical school, then that basic level of understanding the world can\u2019t be obtained by choosing classes based on themes such as \u201cscience and society,\u201d but that there is a real, key set of knowledge and skills.<\/p>\n

Why am I writing about this?\u00a0 Because I think it\u2019s worth thinking about, as one piece of the bigger puzzle of how to reform higher education in the 21st century.\u00a0 And because I had to wait for my oldest son to get back from his first high school dance.\u00a0 (Homecoming \u2014 but not as I remembered it, where you had to hope for an invitation from a Boy, and instead more of a \u201ceveryone who\u2019s willing to get dress up can come.\u201d)\u00a0 But he\u2019s home now \u2014 he didn\u2019t actually dance, but he and the kids he went with hung out in the cafeteria and talked \u2014 so it\u2019s bedtime.\u00a0 Talk among yourselves. . . what, if anything, should a university require besides expertise in your major field of study?<\/p>\n

(Alternatively, we could just add a 13th grade, and insist that college-bound students demonstrate proficiency in these fields before heading off to a shortened college program, perhaps by withholding financial aid from not-fully-qualified students and insisting that high schools provide the curriculum to prospective students of any age.\u00a0 But that\u2019s another post.)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today my son had a soccer game \u2014 just the house league, and he\u2019s one of those players who, if the ball comes his way, he\u2019ll kick it, but he\u2019s not out there ahead of the others scoring goals.\u00a0 And the weather was unseasonably cold, though happily the rain slowed and ultimately stopped, though the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[180,100],"class_list":["post-239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-core-curriculum","tag-universities"],"yoast_head":"\nThinking about a Core Curriculum<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Today my son had a soccer game -- just the house league, and he's one of those players who, if the ball comes his way, he'll kick it, but he's not out\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/10\/thinking-about-a-core-curriculum.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thinking about a Core Curriculum\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today my son had a soccer game -- just the house league, and he's one of those players who, if the ball comes his way, he'll kick it, but he's not out\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/10\/thinking-about-a-core-curriculum.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-10-19T05:57:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-02-27T05:14:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/10\/thinking-about-a-core-curriculum.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/10\/thinking-about-a-core-curriculum.html\",\"name\":\"Thinking about a Core Curriculum\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-10-19T05:57:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-02-27T05:14:47+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\"},\"description\":\"Today my son had a soccer game -- just the house league, and he's one of those players who, if the ball comes his way, he'll kick it, but he's not out\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/10\/thinking-about-a-core-curriculum.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/10\/thinking-about-a-core-curriculum.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/10\/thinking-about-a-core-curriculum.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Thinking about a Core Curriculum\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jane the Actuary\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Thinking about a Core Curriculum","description":"Today my son had a soccer game -- just the house league, and he's one of those players who, if the ball comes his way, he'll kick it, but he's not out","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/10\/thinking-about-a-core-curriculum.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Thinking about a Core Curriculum","og_description":"Today my son had a soccer game -- just the house league, and he's one of those players who, if the ball comes his way, he'll kick it, but he's not out","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/10\/thinking-about-a-core-curriculum.html","og_site_name":"Jane the Actuary","article_published_time":"2014-10-19T05:57:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-02-27T05:14:47+00:00","author":"Jane the Actuary","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jane the Actuary","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/10\/thinking-about-a-core-curriculum.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/10\/thinking-about-a-core-curriculum.html","name":"Thinking about a Core Curriculum","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-10-19T05:57:00+00:00","dateModified":"2015-02-27T05:14:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a"},"description":"Today my son had a soccer game -- just the house league, and he's one of those players who, if the ball comes his way, he'll kick it, but he's not out","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/10\/thinking-about-a-core-curriculum.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/10\/thinking-about-a-core-curriculum.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/10\/thinking-about-a-core-curriculum.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Thinking about a Core Curriculum"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/","name":"Jane the Actuary","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a","name":"Jane the Actuary","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jane the Actuary"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}