Wednesday, December 12,1984/THE BLUE BANNER/3
General Education hearings now history
By Chris Streppa
The last General Educa
tion Curriculum Review is
now history. When the.
dust clears, and the fi
nal decisions are made,
(hopefully early next
year), UNCA will have a
new list of required
courses which all stu
dents must pass to gradu
ate.
The primary focus of
Saturday's new hearing
was the largest chunk of
the proposed general edu
cation curriculum: the
three-course, 12-credit
Cultural History sequence
and the three-credit Cap
stone course.
The current 16-hour
humanities sequence re
quires all UNCA. students
to coD^lete four consecu
tive courses that trace
the interconnections be
tween history, litera
ture, philosophy, reli
gion, fine arts, and the
natural and social sci
ences.
The General Education
Task Force proposal par
allels the content of
these existing humanities
courses• If approved,
however, the name and
structure of the require
ment would change.
The 12-credit Cultural
History alternative in
cludes three (instead of
the current four) human
ities courses; a sepa
rate, three-credit Cap
stone course would re
place the current senior
level course. The Future
and the Individual.
Dr. Alan Comer, chair
man of the Faculty Senate
and Task Force member,
explained that the Cap
stone course "grew out of
the idea that [the final
humanities course] was
different."
Whereas the focus of
the first three courses
is historical, the last
course (with its emphasis
on the role of science)
could "serve as the cul
minating course" for the
proposed natural and so
cial science require
ments, he said.
Dr. Ileana Grams, as
sistant professor of phi
losophy, agreed that the
senior-level course does
spotlight the sciences.
But, she insisted, it
"flows naturally" from
the preceding courses and
should remain part of the
sequence.
While Dr. Peg Downes,
chairperson of the human
ities department, said
she supports "continued
improvements and revi
sions of the [humanities]
courses," she advised the
Senate to look closely at
the proposal and the ex
isting sequence before
"redesigning" the re
quirement.
There is not much dif
ference between them, she
pointed out.
Downes also questioned
the proposed name change.
"Humilities," she ex
plained, means the same
thing to educators
throughout the country.
Changing the name would
just create confusion.
"Essentially," she
said, "we should keep
doing what we*re doing."
But several faculty
members raised objections
to the current integrated
course approach. Tliey ar
gued that students might
benefit more if they took
the related courses sepa
rately, instead of study
ing a blend of disci
plines .
Dr. Allan Corabs, assis
tant professor of psycho
logy, agreed the humani
ties requirement e3q>oses
students to a wealth of
interconnected historical
developments. But, he in
sisted, it falls short of
explaining the thought
process behind each deve
lopment .
He called the result an
"Oh, wow!" experience.
While facts may initially
impress students, the
memory just "slips away
in six weeks." Combs
explained that without
"intensive instruction"
in specific disciplines,
students lack the frame
work to fit new facts in
to.
"General Education is
very different from dis
cipline training," coun
tered Professor of Eco
nomics Shirley Browning.
To require each UNCA
student to think like an
economist, biologist,
theologian, and artist
would, he insisted, re
sult in a "300-hour bach
elor of arts program, and
one graduate every
cade."
He added that an inte
grated humanities se
quence is "a very good
general education e:iq»eri-
ence."
But do students benefit
when faculty step outside
their fields of e3q>ertise
to teach humanities
courses? Can an economics
professor adequately ex
plore and inopart the cul
tural value of Charles
Dickens' "Hard Times"?
Combs mentioned that
some students had com-
tical Science Gene Rainey
defended the current
practice of bringing fac
ulty in from each of the
related disciplines to
teach the humanities se
quence.
"Integration," he
stressed, "is an atti
tude. If [an educator]
Staff photo by Sylvia Hawkins
CBATRMAN OF THE FACDUTY SENATE Aim Cbmer can rest Ms
gavel for a few veeks as the boUdays arrive and the
CS hearings oease.
plained to him about the
"slackness" of certain
himianities courses. Vol
unteering to teach a
class doesn't make an
educator an expert, he
said.
Dr. Anthony Cojrne, as
sistant professor of phi
losophy, pointed out that
the first three humani
ties courses have "high
specific content." More
over , classes move
through subject matter at
a fast clip.
You're in Greece on
Wednesday and Rome on
Friday," he said. It's
difficult for the "non-
-qpert" to teach such
specific information at
that pace while they're
still learning it themr
selves, he added.
But Professor of Poli-
takes the time to master
material and concepts be
yond his training, he can
lead students in think
ing; not as an individual
who knows it all, but as
an individual who's still
learning."
If the goal of a liber
al education is to show
students how to leam, a-
greed Comer, what better
exanq)le than to show fac
ulty out of their field
learning themselves.
Faculty members also
discussed two new courses
not included in the Task
Force proposal; a three-
credit Critical Thinking
cotirse and a three-credit
Ethics requirement.
If approved, the addi
tional six hours would
either increase the gen
eral education block from
47 to 53 hours, or siphon
time from existing or
proposed requirements.
Grams proposed the
three-credit Critical
Thinking course. It's imr
portant for students to
be able to understand the
strengths and weaknesses
in their own (and oth
ers ') arguments, she
said.
"The skills learned in
such a .course would en
hance students' abilities
in all other areas," ad
ded Browning.
Copibs pointed out that
the concept of "good
thinking" is nothing new,
while Coyne added that
it's "standard fare a—
cross the country."
Coyne also noted that
UNCA students do not get
enough exposure to philo
sophy as an "alternative
tiaethod" of learning and
understanding; and he
proposed a three-credit
Ethics course.
Grams seconded his pro
posal. She explained that
there's a "crying need"
for a course that teaches
students to examine how
their day-to-day deci
sions affect other peo
ple.
Downes added it's espe
cially important in these
unsettled times for stu
dents to see the connec
tion between morality and
rationality.
With the hearings out
of the way, the Faculty
Senate will now get down
to reviewing the argu
ments and shaping the fu
ture general education
curriculum at UNCA. Comer
predicted they will be
ready to vote in April.
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