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A newly
formed group of educational heavy hitters believes that the
traditional liberal arts education is headed for the
endangered-species list.
“The
first duty of a university is to teach wisdom, not a trade,”
Winston Churchill once advised. Precisely so, Edward 0. Wilson would
say. Wilson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Baird professor of science
at Harvard, is worried enough about the direction in which liberal
arts programs are heading—toward vocationalism, for one—that he
has joined forces with a dozen other educators and administrators to
form the American Academy for Liberal Education
(AALE).
Liberal
arts colleges are threatened by “eroding standards, spreading
vocationalism, increasing specialization, rising prices, and
heightened political correctness,” says AALE board member Chester
Finn Jr. ‘65, Ed.D. ‘70, a leading conservative voice in
education reform. Jeffrey Wallin, the group’s director, adds,
“Good solid courses are being abandoned in the name of shallow
courses that sound fashionable but don’t require a great deal of
work or aren’t serious in approach.” Instead, AALE members
believe that traditional liberal arts education should ground itself
in core courses in math, science, languages, literature, and Western
civilization, and should stress, as Churchill said, the teaching of
wisdom or knowledge.
Standards
for a quality liberal arts program as defined by the group include
ample Core courses, an emphasis on teaching—especially by senior
faculty—and a focus on substantive learning over cognitive
development. Having set its criteria, this fall the academy will
apply to the Department of Education for federal recognition to
offer accreditation to colleges and university programs. The AALE
accreditation could be a mark of prestige, a stamp of approval to
help parents judge schools.
Wilson
says he will serve the academy primarily as an adviser on science
education, a subject to which he has devoted many committee hours at
Harvard, including five years as chair of the faculty committee
overseeing the undergraduate science program. Harvard, in his
estimation, would qualify immediately for AALE accreditation: “I
think Harvard students get an excellent liberal arts education.
The Core curriculum is famous, with a very strong science
program, and facts show the senior faculty are more involved in the
teaching of undergraduates than at most small liberal arts
schools.”
This
spring’s unveiling of the academy and its board of heavy
hitters—others include Jacques Barzun, history professor and
former provost at Columbia University; former Colorado governor
Richard Lamin; and John Agresto, president of St. John’s College
in Santa Fe—produced a stack of press clips and a rash of
appearances on Television talk shows. But while talk of education
reform seems to find a receptive audience, the AALE also has its
critics. Some see the group, with conservatives like Finn on its
board and funding from the historically conservative Olin
Foundation, as a right-wing attack on the multicultural
curriculum-reform movement. Wallin refutes such charges, saying that
he worked to assemble a board of educators from a wide political
spectrum, ranging from conservative to liberal, and even including a
Marxist.
Wilson,
who is known as a centrist, sees the group the same way. “So many
people spring to the posture that you’re either ‘p.c’ or
‘anti-p.c.’ We believe multiculturalism should not be carried to
excess,” he says. “We emphasize the understanding but not
necessarily the approval of Western civilization. That could be
called conservative, but I just call it common sense.”
Copyright
1993, Harvard Magazine
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