In an earlier posting on “General Education and the Engaged
University,” I cited the 1948 Truman Commission on Higher Education’s definition
of the function of general education at mid-century. The Commission noted eleven goals that reflect the need to
rebuild civil society after a half-century of World War and global financial
depression, and attempted to respond to the remarkable changes in the structure
of civil society and the revolution in technology that were among the
consequences of the 20th century upheavals. I had cited the same Commission back in
1988 in The Meaning of General Education,
my history of the idea of general education.
So, I was pleasantly surprised when The Crucible Moment:
College Learning and Democracy’s Future, a report of The Civic
Learning and Democratic Engagement National Task Force, also cited the Truman
Commission in making its case for re-committing higher education to a
curriculum that ensures a “socially cohesive
and economically vibrant U.S. democracy and a viable, just global
community.” This goal, notes the
report, “will require that civic learning and
democratic engagement not be sidelined but central, not an afterthought
but an anticipated and integral part of K-12 and college education”
(p. 20).
Civic education was a focus of K-12 education in the postwar
period. When I was a high school
student in the 1960s, at least one class per day was focused on civic education
of one kind or another. Ninth
grade was split between Pennsylvania History and “Civics”—an introduction to
the Constitution and American government.
Tenth and eleventh grades saw a year of world history and a year of
American history. And twelfth
grade was “Problems of Democracy” – POD—a daily excursion into the issues that
have faced American democracy throughout its history. While most histories ended with World War II, POD brought us
into the present. In addition, I recall that the first
time I saw film of civil rights protestors being beaten was in tenth grade
English.
This was pretty typical of what the first generation of
postwar students experienced. It
is not hard to imagine that this education pre-disposed that generation to
embracing the civil society revolution that was to come: civil rights, women’s rights, the peace
movement, gay/lesbian rights. We
were, as it turned out, a democratically engaged generation. Our education contributed to that. Similarly, it is not hard to imagine
that the lack of civic education that has marked the past generation has
contributed to the very odd disconnect between individual citizens and their
government that has contributed to the economic chaos and social polarization
that defines our present day.
What, then, should higher education do to embrace civic
learning and democratic engagement?
Crucible Moment defines
civic-minded campuses as having four characteristics: “. . . such
campuses are distinguished by a civic ethos governing campus
life, civic literacy as a goal for every graduate, civic
inquiry integrated within majors, general education, and technical
training, and informed civic action done in
concert with others as lifelong practice” (p. 31).
An Opportunity for General
Education
The
idea of a civically engaged university has the potential to re-invigorate the
concept of General Education as our institutions adapt to the changing societal
needs of the Information Revolution.
While
at some institutions General Education has been reduced to a “distribution
requirement”—a collection of introductory courses that give students a glimpse
of different disciplines—General Education has a much more important role to
play in creating citizens.
We
can envision a General Education program that prepares students to be effective
citizens of a global information society as having several elements:
·
Knowledge – The cultural foundations of civic
democracy—a multi-disciplinary approach that includes history, philosophy, and
social change to give students a grounding in the cultural traditions and
forces of change.
·
Skills – At one time, the skills section of a
general education program focused on communications—public speaking and writing,
especially. In today’s global
information society, critical citizenship skills must include how to find and
evaluate information, problem-solving, collaboration, and inter-cultural
understanding. These, in turn,
require an active learning environment in which students work, individually and
together, to local and evaluate information, turn it into knowledge, and apply
it to solve problems.
·
Attitudes – This includes understanding the role
of globalization in shaping one’s identify and understanding one’s role as an
individual in family, local community, national, and global contexts. It is in this area that the
curriculum develops the student’s predisposition to act in different
environments.
·
Experience—Just as the Industrial Revolution
stimulated the inclusion of laboratory courses to help students understand the
scientific process and the standards of scientific research, the global
Information Society requires that students gain direct experience in working in
different communities. This can be
accomplished through local internships, service-focused study abroad
opportunities, or projects that bring together multicultural student teams to
explore social issues and find solutions to problems. This could also be the focus of a capstone course for
professional programs.
I expect to explore the details of a general education
approach to civic democracy in future positions. My purpose here is simply to illustrate the range of
activities that could be integrated into a curriculum designed to address the
issues raised by the Crucible Moment
report.
This is one of a series of postings that I am planning on
the broad topic of General Education for an Information Society. Comments and discussion are very welcome.
