The general question of what an undergraduate education is and how it should be related, if at all, to society as a whole, is discussed. Particular reference is given to the issue of liberal education and its relationship with career education. The thesis is that, although career education and liberal education may be incompatible in a specific…

Transcripts of three conversations on liberal education, recorded at a 1977 conference at St. John's College, Santa Fe, are presented. The idea that great books are the best instruments for liberal education is addressed, and it is suggested that great books demonstrate to the student what is possible in the way of inquiry and expression, and that…

An essay on the study of religion at the college level and descriptions of nine programs of religious studies are presented. The essay by David C. Smith suggests that while traditional goals continue to be important, especially in church-related colleges, religious studies has expanded to include insights and materials from such disciplines as…

ONE OF THE MAIN AIMS OF THE CONFERENCE ON CRITICAL LANGUAGES HELD AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON APRIL 6-7, 1965, WAS TO FIND A CONSENSUS OF OPINION AMONG LINGUISTS, LANGUAGE TEACHERS, AND COLLEGE ADMINISTRATORS ON THE PROBLEMS OF INTRODUCING CRITICAL OR NEGLECTED LANGUAGES INTO THE CURRICULUM OF SMALL, LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGES. THE CONFERENCE WAS…

American commitment to education is not just a commitment to access but to excellence as well. We need to ask again the hard questions about our academic purposes. Is there a conscious organization to the curriculum today? The answer is a cautious affirmative, for the goal of diversity has taken us, academically, far from shore. A college…

Arons's article on the role of critical thinking in the liberal arts curriculum is criticized for its assumptions about the high level of intellectual development of faculty and its condescension toward students. It is suggested that Arons's proposals for faculty development in critical thinking be extended to include both teaching and scholarly…

The call for excellence in education must be made together with a commitment to a just distribution of opportunity for education that prepares individuals to participate in a just society. (MSE)

Liberal and professional learning are intertwined because they reflect two important dimensions of human nature: the need to know and understand and the need to make use of knowledge. Perhaps the most difficult challenge for administrators and faculty is to find a happy medium between the two. (MSE)

Proponents of the liberal arts continue to disagree over maintaining the traditional college curriculum versus diversifying it to give a greater role to ethnic and women's studies and to the ideas of non-Western cultures. (MSE)

Four papers on science instruction are presented: "Science as a Human Activity" (Harmon Dunathan); "Science as a Historical Process" (Robert Proctor); "Science as a Creative Process" (Robert Pollack); and "Making Science Assessible" (Walter E. Massey). (MSE)

If art students are to be educated for the twenty-first century, still preserving creativity, students must be taught that art is an integral, functioning part of the world. Their education must go beyond one or two areas in the fine arts to include a solid liberal arts grounding. (MSE)

The American undergraduate arts and sciences curriculum is a great accomplishment, but is in danger of collapsing under the weight of its own successes, to its own detriment and society's. Its cultural and intellectual foundations are crumbling and must be reestablished. (MSE)

In working to integrate liberal and professional education in the undergraduate curriculum, the various faculties must begin to have systematic conversations with each other to discover their common ground and the potential for working together. (MSE)

A "sea semester" space program offered by the Sea Education Association offers liberal arts students a 12-week intensive course in marine science and seamanship aboard a schooner on the North Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea that provides adventure, oceanography, and hard work. (MSE)

If sciences were taught as truly liberal arts, part of the trend toward scientific illiteracy could be reversed, with one result that students could leave college with an appreciation for and understanding of the scientific approach to knowledge. Liberal arts science courses should be conceptually rigorous, mathematically attainable, and…