Alive at the Core: Exemplary Approaches to General Education in the Humanities(The Jossey-Bass higher & adult education series)

"The humanities core is back from the dead. Indeed, it is vibrant at increasing numbers of institutions that take seriously--and not just as a cliche--what it means to prepare students for 'living in the twenty-first century.' Those who are forward-thinking will find thoughtful assessments of the most successful programs today."--Jeffrey Wallin, president, The American Academy for Liberal Education "Liberal education assures the well-being of society by providing both historical perspective and the mental agility required to navigate change. This heartening book shows a range of ways by which leading colleges and universities are meeting this critical challenge."--Susan Ford Wiltshire, professor and chair, Classical Studies, Vanderbilt University This book joins the critical debate on humanities education and asks what higher education must do to encourage greater breadth of knowledge, improved critical thinking skills, and lifelong competence in students. Alive at the Core explores the importance of general education in the humanities, lays the foundation for meaningful learning, and offers different approaches to changing the core curriculum into a tool for lifelong learning. Drawing from thirteen colleges and universities, each chapter examines a creative humanities program--detailing strategies used to develop cross-disciplinary models of learning. The authors describe how each program began, how it changed, how students connected their knowledge to the world outside the classroom, how computer-based educational technology was integrated, and how faculty members were recruited and became motivated to teach in the program.

Table of Contents:
Preface: From Rhetoric to Reality (M. Nelson). Alive at the Core: Programs and Issues (M. Nelson). The Humanities in the Core Curriculum at Columbia College (J. Mirollo). Freedom and Wholeness at St. John's College (M. Flaumenhaft). The Search Course at Rhodes College (M. Nelson). The Core Curriculum at Eckerd College (L. Chapin). The Humanities Program at Davidson College (B. Shaw). The Experimental College at Berkeley (K. Trow). The Heritage Program at Millsaps College (W. Sallis). The Humanities Program at the University of North Carolina at Asheville (M. Downes). The Foundation Year Programme at King's College (P. Heller). The Intellectual Heritage Program at Temple University (S. Zelnick. Tradition and Criticism in Western Culture at the University of the South (W. Patterson). Western Intellectual Traditions at Handrix College (J. Churchill). The Area One Program at Stanford University (H. Elam & Cheri Ross). Conclusion: What Now Shall We Teach? (R. Shattuck).

About the Author :
MICHAEL NELSON is professor of political science at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. Author of several books on politics, he is the creator and editor of the Interpreting American Politics series for Johns Hopkins University Press and a former editor of the Washington Monthly. More than forty of his articles have been anthologized in works of political science, history, and English composition.

Review :
"Alive at the Core is a title that says it all: the humanities core is back from the dead. Indeed, it is vibrant at increasing numbers of institutions that take seriously--and not just as a cliche--what it means to prepare students for 'living in the twenty-first century.' Those who are forward-thinking will find thoughtful assessments of the most successful programs today." --Jeffrey Wallin, president, The American Academy for Liberal Education "Liberal education assures the well-being of society by providing both historical perspective and the mental agility required to navigate change. This heartening book shows a range of ways by which leading colleges and universities are meeting this critical challenge." --Susan Ford Wiltshire, professor and chair, Classical Studies, Vanderbilt University "Nelson has put together a challenging, compelling, forthright, and, at times, moving collection that explores the core curriculum, humanities programs, and foundation programs at colleges and universities that remain dedicated to offering students a comprehensive grounding in a serious course of reading. Various rationales are explored; histories of programs assayed; future prospects considered. Alive at the Core means not so much to reassure as to challenge and to remind us of what is vital, alive, and well as institutions of higher learning rise to meet the challenges of providing excellence in general education." --Jean Bethke Elshtain, The Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics, The University of Chicago