The act of writing reflects the mind operating from learned techniques, but learning is also being practiced. Writing instruction includes the study of rhetoric as well as literature, which makes it a liberal art. Understanding the principles of rhetoric allows the writer to know that how something is said is as important as what is said. (MSE)

Readers of holocaust literature can learn from the common person as hero. If traditional heroic models are less frequent in holocaust literature than in Greek, Roman, and Elizabethan literature, the common person defying his or her fate and still trying to survive is still worthy of attention. In this insistence on survival, a freedom of spirit is…

The questions addressed are: (1) What would general education be like if perceived through women's eyes and structured by values that they name and order? (2) Would general education be revitalized or continue its decline? The method of feminist criticism characterized as re-vision is discussed in this context. (MSE)

Interdisciplinary studies are not only desirable but possible in the fiscal, ideological, and organizational context of the 1980s. Interdisciplinary studies are defined as inquiries that draw critically upon two or more disciplines and that lead to an integration of disciplinary insights. (MLW)

Evidence that thought is a displaced social process contradicts the assumptions that the mind is a mirror of nature and thought a private, individual process. A curriculum that involves learning to identify beliefs, to analyze and express beliefs socially, and to understand and form communities of knowledgeable peers is described. (Author/MLW)

Based on personal experience, suggestions are given for academic and administrative policy regarding curriculum for the interim term in a 4-1-4 college calendar. Specific potential mistakes are outlined, as are specific recommendations for using the interim term to strengthen the college's academic program. (MSE)

An analysis of the undergraduate transcripts of 465 students from the University of Rochester who applied to medical school indicates a surprising breadth in undergraduate training, which is inconsistent with critics' claims of narrowness in premedical education. Medical educators are called upon to further specify the desired role of nonscience…

The liberal arts are described as the ideological framework for colleges of arts and science on which hangs the curriculum. A definition of liberal arts is proposed that views the liberal arts as a perspective consisting of seven elements: holism, humanism, history, analysis-belief, creativity, recreation, and values. (MLW)

A study examined the definition of student academic standing and its relationship to several administrative and academic standards (graduation requirements, grading systems, calendars, curricula, probation categories and procedures, requirements for readmission, dean's lists, and graduation rates) at 25 small colleges at six levels of selectivity.…

This article describes an interdisciplinary seminar for college faculty which focuses on the process of discovering and crossing disciplinary boundaries to work with colleagues on developing and teaching general education programs. Participants were interdisciplinary teams from different institutions. (MSE)

It is argued that, if today's college students are to be prepared for citizenship and careers, they must learn about both the complexity of American society and global interconnections and that this is accomplished best through general education that is both intercultural and interdisciplinary. (MSE)

The individual element of multicultural education needs to be recognized. The Association of American Colleges' national project, "Engaging Cultural Legacies: Shaping Core Curricula in the Humanities," helps colleges develop curriculum that challenge students to explore the humanities as reflected in their own social values, ideas, and…

Discussion of cultural diversity and the college curriculum refutes three myths: (1) that curriculum expansion to include minority and women's studies represents a minority victims' revolution; (2) that the choice is between retaining and abandoning Western civilization; and (3) that proponents of change try to enforce "correct" thinking about…

Cites ten qualities of individuals embodying the values of a liberal education: the ability to listen and hear; read and understand; talk with anyone; write clearly and persuasively; solve varied problems; respect rigor as a way of seeking truth; practice humility, tolerance, and self-criticism; understand how to get things done; nurture and…

Argues that epidemiology, the study of disease in populations, is an ideal upper-level course for undergraduate liberal arts curricula because it offers a forum for learning and applying critical-thinking skills, as well as other skills important for the liberally educated student, such as analysis of political, social, and demographic contexts…