General Education for the Information Society

 

In 1988, I wrote The Meaning of General Education (Teachers College Press), a history of innovations in the general education curriculum as U.S. institutions responded to the impact of the industrial revolution in the 20th century.  Much has happened in the intervening 3+ decades as the Information Revolution matured, creating a new context—whether you call it the global information society or the fourth industrial revolution – in which we need to consider freshly the role of general education.  I have written a couple of blog posts about the issue over the past couple of years.  Now, I’ve written an expanded piece on the role of general education in this new environment in a free ebook.  It is available here. 

Please take a look and share your thoughts.

 

 

Thinking About K-14

 

President Biden’s new infrastructure proposal includes an education element that would, essentially, provide free access to the first two years of undergraduate education for all Americans.  It is a major educational innovation that responds the maturation of the Information Society, just as universal access to high school was a response to the maturation of the Industrial Revolution early in the 20th century.  It also builds on several state-level initiatives, such as the recent New York State move to make free access to the first two years of college available to high school graduates in New York. 

The move toward a national pre-K-to-14 public education has some broad implications for higher education and for American life.  Looking at the pre-K part of the plan, for instance, there are benefits that go well beyond the obvious one of giving all children a better start to their education.  It also means that many mothers will be able to rejoin the workforce and help provide financial security for young families.

That said, the potential changes for higher education raise some important strategic planning needs for higher education.  Some thoughts:

*Assuming that free access to the first two years of college is limited to community colleges, one impact could be that both public and private four-year institutions lose enrollments in those first two years while the demand for community college enrollment expands significantly. Some four-year public institutions have regional campuses that they may want to transition to serve as community colleges.  Other institutions may want to focus on upper-division majors and graduate programs, partnering with community colleges so that students can effectively migrate to a four-year program. 

*At many universities, supporting introductory and general education courses is a job assigned to graduate assistants.  If funding for K-14 is limited to community colleges, institutions with graduate programs may need to find new work for graduate assistants.  This could mean putting more energy into serving adult learners, so that, while their relationship with students begins at the Junior year, they can maintain a relationship with them far beyond the undergraduate degree.  Historically, institutions have talked about the three-legged stool that supports learning:  instruction, research, and public service. The K-14 movement might open new doors for doctoral students to participate in research transfer and other forms of community engagement related to the research and dissemination function.

*The K-14 movement would mean a more seamless curricular sequence between high school and college.  This raises obvious questions about the role of general education in the undergraduate curriculum and the relationship of undergraduate general education to the high school curriculum.   The goal would be to minimize duplication in general education courses taught in both high school and college and, importantly, to ensure that there is a logical progression—curricular unity—in general education from high school through the first two years of college as students prepare for both adult citizenship and, ultimately, a profession. 

* The move also raises other curricular questions.  Should there be a “gap year” built into the educational experience?  If so, should the gap be positioned (a) between high school and college? (b) between the first two years of college and the upper division of the undergraduate experience?  (c) at the end of the undergraduate experience?

*What are the implications for colleges that want to attract adult learners and international students into associate and baccalaureate degrees?

The K-14 movement is very likely to continue regardless of how this one Bill fares in Congress.  There is much to consider in terms of strategic planning in this new environment.  Now is the time for higher education to begin thinking seriously about the best ways it can serve its students and its public purpose as the Information Revolution matures and the interest in a K-14 environment continues to grow.

Thoughts?

John Meacham's "The Soul of America"

The Soul of America by historian Jon Meacham is about events in the history of the United States, but it is also book for our times.  Published in 2018—in the midst of the Trump Administration—it looks at other times when our core beliefs were challenged in order to inform our lives today.  “The war between the ideal and the real,” he writes, “between what’s right and what’s convenient, between the larger good and personal interest is the contest that unfolds in the soul of every American. . . The message of Martin Luther King, Jr., –that we should be judged on the content of our character, not on the color of our skin—dwells in the American soul; so does the menace of the Ku Klux Klan.  History hangs precariously in the balance between such extremes.  Our fate is contingent upon which element—that of hope or that of fear—emerges triumphant” (p. 7). 

            He begins with a look back to when the Presidency was first defined during the debates that led to the Constitution.  Alexander Hamilton proposed that the president be elected for life. Others suggested that Congress should select the President.  Their trust in George Washington led them to a create an elected office as “an act of faith in the future and an educated wager on human character. From the start,” he writes, “Americans recognized the elasticity of the presidency and hoped for the best” (pp. 25-26). 

            Meacham goes on to take a fresh look at times when that hope was tested, starting with the Civil War and its aftermath—the Ku Klux Klan and Reconstruction.  He examines the rise of Theodore Roosevelt and Progressivism as the Industrial Revolution matured and, with it, brought millions of immigrants into the nation and sparked new cultural tensions as the idea of America as a “melting pot” took hold.  He documents the rise of women’s suffrage movement in the early 20th century and the cultural conflicts that attended the Roaring Twenties. 

            A chapter on “The Crisis of the Old Order” looks at Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and the challenge to Roosevelt’s vision led by Huey Long, as Fascism grew in Europe.  Meacham goes on to describe the anti-communist McCarthy movement reaction to Truman’s Civil Rights initiatives in fifties, and the ultimate successes of Civil Rights brought about by Martin Luther King and Lyndon Johnson.

            Meacham concludes with some thoughts on how the lessons of the past can help the nation survive crises that arose during the Trump administration but that are still with us today.  “How then,” he wrote in 2018, “in an hour of anxiety about the future of the country, at a time when a president of the United States appears determined to undermine the rule of law, a free, press, and the sense of hope essential to American life, can those with deep concerns about the nation’s future enlist on the side of the angels?” (p. 266).  He suggests five steps that all citizens can take:

·      ENTER THE ARENA – He urges all citizens to become politically engaged, noting, “. . . the paying of attention, the expressing of opinion, and the casting of ballots are foundational to living up to the obligations of citizenship in a republic” (p. 266).

·      RESIST TRIBALISM – Meacham quotes Jane Addams: “We know instinctively that if we grow contemptuous of our fellows and consciously limit our intercourse to certain kinds of people who we have previously decided to respect, we not only tremendously circumscribe our range of life, but limit the scope of our ethics” (p. 267).  Meacham adds, “Don’t let any single cable network or twitter feed tell you what to think” (p. 268).

·      RESPECT FACTS AND DEPLOY REASON—Meacham quotes Truman: “The dictators of the world say that if you tell a lie often enough, why, people will believe it.  Well if you tell the truth often enough, they’ll believe it and go along with you” (p. 268).

·       FIND A CRITICAL BALANCE – He notes that, “Being informed is more than knowing details and arguments.  It also entails being humble enough to recognize that only on the rarest of occasions does any single camp have a monopoly on virtue or on wisdom” (p.269).  This is one of the values of a free press.

·      KEEP HISTORY IN MIND – He argues that it is good to look back, as this book does, to see how other generations have responded to similar issues.  “To remember Joe McCarthy,” he notes, “. . . gives us a way to gauge demagoguery” (p.270).  The past also teaches us “that demagogues can only thrive when a substantial portion of the demos—the people—want him to” (p. 271).

The Soul of America brings important, but often little discussed, issues in our history to bear to help us understand where we are today as a nation and as a culture.   A great read.

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Meacham, John. The Soul of America: The Battle for our Better Angels.  New York: Random House, 2018.