As a result of rapid growth and changes in the student body, the Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) has been engaged in a complete review and revision of its educational system since 1978. As part of this process, the Arts and Sciences Task Force (ASTF) was formed in 1980 to revitalize the liberal arts and science. The ASTF has…

Becoming an anthropologist illustrates on a large scale how valuable examining other cultures is. Anthropology should be incorporated into the college liberal arts curriculum to help eliminate the ethnocentrism of educated people in our own society but should focus on great civilizations nearly matching ours in complexity, historical depth, and…

Cites the Rockefeller Commission's findings regarding humanistic studies. Outlines steps for bringing humanism back to the humanities, e.g., by clarifying the humanities' substance and identity, elucidating a cogent and persuasive rationale for their study, and underscoring the importance of a cultural/humanistic context for vocational training.…

In recent years, education has shifted its goals from acquiring a classical methodology to learning how to make a living. Students are taking fewer liberal arts courses; and at the same time, reading, thinking, and reasoning skills are declining. With the advent of Sputnik in 1957, the idea that hard science had the answers to the world's problems…

There are several well-known arguments for including linguistics in a liberal arts education. Linguistic theory can be presented as an experimental science in which it is particularly easy to do experiments. In addition, it is a field so new that, in an introductory course, areas about which little is known can be reached in some detail, with…

The past is the substance from which the present is formed, but college curricula based on this cultural heritage need not exclude the present. Major classical writers and social thinkers must be central to it but should be accompanied by critical engagement with living texts from powerful and active minds. (MSE)

The future of pluralistic democracies depends not only on laws but on individuals within the societies. Different cultures bring different strengths and conceptions of self and community. By studying different cultures and discovering shared virtues, students can identify those contributing to high quality of life for human society. (MSE)

If higher education is to have a coherent curriculum and a coherent way of thinking about the world, it may need to study premodern ways of thinking for both insights and the courage to think in new ways. The tradition of the humanities, which originated in fifteenth-century Italy, can help. (MSE)

Cognitive science has recently emerged as a new interdisciplinary field incorporating parts of psychology, computer science, philosophy, neuroscience, and linguistics. Its goal is to bring the theoretical and methodological resources of the contributing disciplines to bear on an integrated investigation of thought, meaning, language, perception,…

Raises questions about the value of general education: Is general education a historical ideal whose time is past? Why include general education as a basis for accreditation? In what ways is general education central to other higher learning? Should some specialized institutions be allowed to waive the general education component? (DMM)

Offers six organizational principles for restructuring liberal education focusing on educational coherence and commonality, institutional commitment, alternative models, undergraduate educational needs, and political responsiveness. (DMM)

It is argued that the modern college curriculum should include both skills and liberal arts components, and a three-part curriculum model is presented that provides an arts and sciences base, adds a segment of theory in a given field, and builds a core of skills on the other two components. (MSE)

Provides selected references to help college faculty integrate women's studies into the college curriculum and gives examples of integration projects along with methodologies. Offers resources for integration into the liberal arts curriculum but does not include references for integration into specific academic disciplines. (LS)

Higher education can resist the need to open the U.S. mind to greater cultural diversity by ignoring the changing ethnic composition of student bodies and larger society, or realize this opportunity to revitalize the social sciences and humanities with a new sense of purpose and more inclusive definition of knowledge. (MSE)

From the earliest literary forms, myths, parables, and oral histories, literature has held human values up to the light and given life to the problems of being human. Little else in students' lives provides room for the consideration of values and provides them with a foundation to understand and confront the unavoidable failures and even…