{"id":184,"date":"2019-05-01T18:18:30","date_gmt":"2019-05-01T22:18:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/?p=184"},"modified":"2019-05-01T18:18:30","modified_gmt":"2019-05-01T22:18:30","slug":"core-texts-community-and-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/2019\/05\/01\/core-texts-community-and-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Core texts, community, and culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Weber, R.J., Lee, J.S., Buzan, M., Flanagan, A.M., Hadley, D., Rutz, C. & Sorger, T. (2010). Core texts, community, and culture: Working together in liberal education.<\/em>\u00a0 Lanham, MD: University Press of America.<\/p>\n

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This selection of papers from the tenth annual conference of the Association for Core Texts and Courses offers an eclectic mix of commentaries on core texts which participants have used in their own courses.\u00a0 The introduction addresses both the value of requiring a corpus of core texts (\u201cworks of major cultural significance\u201d) in liberal education with particular emphasis on the creation of community.<\/p>\n

An important aim of the core texts approach is to foster \u201can interdisciplinary approach, which seeks to blend society\u2019s call for practical learning with education in the arts and humanities\u201d (p. viii).\u00a0 The consensus of the conference participants was that core text education is powerful because:<\/p>\n

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  1. It is based upon sound learning principles which have retained their value over time;<\/li>\n
  2. It spans diverse and comprehensive racial, geographical and subject areas;<\/li>\n
  3. It fosters community;<\/li>\n
  4. It utilizes the past to realize the present and build for the future;<\/li>\n
  5. Its common elements bridge the gaps between seemingly diverse disciplines such as the humanities and sciences; and<\/li>\n
  6. It promotes advanced literacy and expression<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The initial chapter, the plenary address \u201cHumanizing the technological vision\u201d (Phillip Sloan, University of Notre Dame) critiques Boyer\u2019s (1995) recommendations for undergraduate education that emphasize research, specialization and preparation for graduate specialization as \u201cpotentially corrosive, and destructive of humanistic ideals\u201d (p. 4). \u00a0Modern university education, based on the Greek philosophical tradition and Enlightenment principle of \u201cpreparation for the higher faculties\u201d (i.e. career training) embraces the tradition of \u201cliberating\u201d the mind:\u00a0 freeing one from prejudice, developing critical thinking and writing and rhetorical skills rather than reading the classics, especially in the sciences.\u00a0 The sciences today tend to avoid reflection about their foundations and \u201cfocus on the solution of limited and \u201cin principle\u201d soluble problems\u201d (p. 8), widening the gap between the sciences and humanities.\u00a0 Sloan wants to see \u201cmutually productive dialogue\u201d between them, which includes reading historical scientific texts as \u201cliterary productions\u201d so that scientists see science as \u201chuman activity\u201d and humanists appreciate the beauty and complexity of scientific work.<\/p>\n

    The selected core works include classics such as Plato\u2019s Crito<\/em>, St. Augustine\u2019s Confessions<\/em>, Beowulf and the Gospel of John, but also more recent authors such as Virginia Woolf, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Adam Smith.\u00a0 Most authors are from secular universities, but it is interesting to consider the works chosen, the authors\u2019 treatment of them, and the reactions of students.\u00a0 A common theme is the need to honestly engage students in open discussion and bring them to the point of respecting and debating diverse viewpoints.\u00a0 Many authors noted the creation of a class or seminar community built on the shared readings and discussions and a new attentiveness to contemporary societal problems.\u00a0 For example, discussing Montesquieu\u2019s Spirit of the Laws, Mathew Davis (St. John\u2019s College, Santa Fe) concludes that the reading opens the question of whether we might attain \u201creal friendship \u2026 a liberal education that transcends the marketplace \u2026 a genuine citizenship\u201d (p. 42).<\/p>\n

    D.W. Hadley (University of Dallas) makes the important point that successful community building requires students to go beyond \u201cagreeing to differ\u201d work through \u201csurprises, challenges, disagreements [and] discomfort\u201d and \u201cunpleasant encounters\u201d with others and\/or the texts themselves (p. 66).\u00a0 This is certainly an important lesson for future citizenship.<\/p>\n

    In a more provocative piece, Lillian Larson (Columbia University) advocates \u201ccontextualizing religious prose [in this case, the Gospel of St. John] within a broad narrative tradition\u201d (p. 138) as a way of \u201cexploring the ways in which religious prose is imbedded in and informed by culture even as it simultaneously functions to affect and shape culture\u201d (p. 139).\u00a0 The aim here (at a secular university) is to bridge the separation of church and state by approaching religious writings as literature in a cultural context.<\/p>\n

    Daniel Lang (Lynchburg College) offers another thought-provoking piece in his examination of Melville\u2019s Billy Budd.\u00a0 Lang draws attention to the shortcomings of perceiving liberal education as \u201cpreparation for citizenship and leadership\u201d (p 149).\u00a0 First, too much \u201cbook based education\u201d and \u201ccritical thinking\u201d may serve to \u201cdistance leaders from those they lead\u201d (p. 152).\u00a0 Second, and I see this as key, \u201cmastery of a body of knowledge\u201d and \u201cenhanced capacity for self-expression\u201d does not necessarily mean one has made \u201cmoral progress\u201d (i.e. one can be learned but not of good character).\u00a0 Third, liberal education may make one too reliant on rules and theory, and less inclined to consider particular human circumstances.<\/p>\n

    I was particularly interested in the final section \u201cBridging the gaps between the humanities and sciences\u201d, but did not find it especially engaging (although I appreciate the recognition that Keith Francis of Baylor University gives to Darwin\u2019s wonderful book Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals<\/em>).\u00a0 It is certainly true that students in the humanities and especially sciences should read historical scientific works, but it is difficult to imagine today\u2019s students enthusiastically engaging Ptolemy or Euclid.<\/p>\n

    The most interesting contribution was that of Jeffrey Brautigam (Hanover College), who describes his dean\u2019s implementation of a \u201cLiberal Arts Degree Requirement\u201d of 14 \u201cintegrated, collaborative courses which are organized around thematic categories that are directly related to the fundamental questions and objectives of the liberal arts and that are shared among different disciplines\u201d (p. 156).\u00a0 Participating faculty team teach two-semester courses with 12 students in pairs (in this case, a history professor and an English professor) and choose their own texts.\u00a0 The common objectives are to \u201cpush the group \u2026 to propose and examine criteria for discussing what makes a work \u201cgreat\u201d and to articulate whether there are enduring, objective standards for the evaluation of human projects and inventions, or whether all such criteria are culturally constructed and historically contingent\u201d (p. 156).\u00a0 Brautigam describes the initial resistance of many faculty (doubting their expertise to teach such courses and worrying so much interdisciplinary teaching would damage the cohesiveness of their departments) and how eventually they felt it reinvigorated their majors and created a new community among participating faculty and administrators.<\/p>\n

    Note for Praxis participants:\u00a0 This volume includes a lovely piece on teaching St. Augustine\u2019s Confessions<\/em> (with reference to Lonergan) by our own Msgr. Richard Liddy.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n