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4 Comments

  1. Old Man 01/26/2017

    The possibility os such an approach to GenEd should be explored by UO. The Senate could charge the Academic Council with the undertaking of such a study.

  2. Dog 01/26/2017

    While I strongly support the idea of the common core notion and wish that GenEd would be restructured around this, in practice, in seems very difficult to determine
    what this common core should be. It certainly should be different now, than in the year 1950, and I worry that
    its not. We need a common core that is relevant to the skill set needed in real world and that skill set evolves!

    Its my experience that most thinking in Academia is set in concrete which obstructs evolution

  3. honest Uncle Bernie 01/26/2017

    Unfortunate to call it “common core curriculum” which suggests the controversial and unrelated common core standards and curricula underway in K-12 schools.

    How about just calling it a “core curriculum.”

    But it is a good thing to consider. As it is, general education requirements at UO and most schools are fragmented, incoherent, and riven with much trivial and easy to ridicule material (along with a fair amount of stuff that is worthwhile).

    Most students come into UO with a woefully deficient cultural background, whatever and wherever their origin. I am frequently astounded at the lack of familiarity with the cultural allusions and references that I present in class. Not just high cultural, but middlebrow, and sometimes even antiquated low. Maybe next time in class I’ll see if they know who the Three Stooges are. Probably, but I would bet against the Marx Brothers. Bach, Beethoven (the composer, not the dog), Miles Davis ….

    A core curriculum would help to alleviate this void in cultural background. It would also probably do a great deal to increase the vaunted “critical thinking” and other skills that are so often said to be desired by employers, and lacking in graduates.

  4. Dog 01/26/2017

    Here is an example of a University (a small one) that has completely overhauled its Gen Ed program to be
    relevant to the real world at this time – e.g.

    The Global Citizenship Program

    http://www.webster.edu/global-citizenship/

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