Criticism of higher education in recent years has been characterized by a failure to examine our assumptions about what education should be and a wish for an authority to prescribe it. Educators have the right and responsibility to educate without arrogance, ignorance, and dogma. (MSE)

Foreign language teachers' catalog course descriptions are criticized for using inappropriate arguments for them and for not clearly articulating the need for language study. These arguments favoring language study are categorized as sociopolitical, instrumental, and cognitive, and are examined individually. (MSE)

Despite mounting evidence suggesting that neither students' nor business's training needs have been served by it, the discipline of business administration has evolved rapidly and now links the fates of business and private higher education. There is potential for both to be improved. (MSE)

Radical college curricular experimentation in citizenship for education could make campuses more exciting places to teach and study. The curriculum can be designed around perennially important questions about community, loyalty, obedience, legitimacy, power, and justice. (Author/MSE)

The development of democratic values as preparation for citizenship is liberal education's true function. Values education should include these forms of inquiry: values analysis, awareness, assessment, alteration, and affirmation. Students can test values against the criteria of consistency, coherence, duration, adequacy, comprehensiveness,…

Contemporary arguments urging educators to return to the traditional liberal arts may be both misguided and overly simplistic. Because Western culture has undergone several felicitous intellectual revolutions (analytical, aesthetic, and professional), the modern liberal arts curriculum should reflect the agnostic, critical, perceptivist style of…

An institution's chief academic officer can encourage faculty to be responsive to student enthusiasm for experiential learning. Faculty participation in policy formation should be encouraged, keeping these standards close to all other educational standards. (MSE)

The relationship between college education and earning ability is examined, and the value of the college experience in itself is discussed. (RW)

Examines whether the administrative location of an economics department in a business school versus liberal arts school alters the character of the program. Uses a curricular character index (CCI) as the dependent variable in a regression model. Finds that the administrative location of an economics department changes the character of the program.…

The loose smorgasbord distribution requirements and free electives of the '60s, have given way to more proscribed requirements and core programs. General education is a response to a need to reaffirm the connectedness among people. The agenda for general education is to teach those common experiences, relationships, and ethical concerns. (MLW)

Traces the history of the debate over the definition of liberal education and the extent to which education should be liberal. Contrasts the position of Aristotle with those of his teachers, and of later theorists, including John Dewey, Mortimer Adler, Robert Maynard Hutchins, Allan Bloom, and E. D. Hirsch. (DMM)

Explores John Dewey's contributions to the recent debate over the role of the classics in the college curriculum. Argues a "modified Deweyan solution" advocating flexibility in the selection and study of classic texts. (FMW)

Traces the roots of the concepts of the humanities and liberal arts education to the ancient Greeks, describing how their customs, language, philosophy, and literature have contributed to current concepts of education. Suggests that the Greek idea of education stressed the arts and mathematics but was opposed to all professionalism. (MAB)

Development of a more integrated and globally focused curriculum at Earlham College (Indiana) is chronicled, focusing on development of interdisciplinary cooperation; internationalization of the curriculum; use of visiting scholars; and redesign of study-abroad programs to incorporate predeparture orientation, a structured ethnographic or…

An unusual degree requirement at Christ College, the honors college of Valparaiso University (Indiana), involves freshman production of an original musical theater production. The role of such a collaborative and imaginative effort in a liberal education is discussed, focusing on the arts as a context for inquiry. (MSE)