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The Elective System Or Prescribed Curriculum: the Controversy in American Higher Education

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The Elective System Or Prescribed Curriculum: the Controversy in American Higher Education DOCUMENT RESUME ED 471 740 HE 035 573 AUTHOR Denham, Thomas J. TITLE The Elective System or Prescribed Curriculum: The Controversy in American Higher Education. PUB DATE 2002-08-00 NOTE 17p. PUB TYPE Reports Descriptive (141) EDRS PRICE EDRS Price MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Curriculum Development; *Educational History; Educational Trends; *Elective Courses; *Higher Education; *Required Courses IDENTIFIERS *United States ABSTRACT This paper traces the development of curriculum in higher education in the United States. A classical education based on the seven liberal arts was the basis of the curriculum for the early colonial colleges. In its earliest days, the curriculum was relevant to the preparation of students for the professions of the period. Over time, the curriculum evolved and was adapted to correspond to trends in U.S. society, but the colleges did not change the curriculum without intense debate and grave reservations. The tension between a prescribed course of study and the elective principle has cycled through the history of U.S. higher education. The elective system was both a creative and destructive educational development in the post-Civil War era. Eventually, the curriculum changed to a parallel course of study: the traditional classical education and the more modern, practical program. By the end of the 19th century, the U.S. curriculum had evolved into a flexible and diverse wealth of courses well beyond the scope of the colonial curriculum. This evolution moved the university into the mainstream of U.S. life. The debate over prescribed curriculum versus electives continues to generate lively discussion today. (Contains 12 references.)(SLD) THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM OR PRESCRIBED CURRICULUM: THE CONTROVERSY IN AMERICAN HIGHER EDUCATION Emergence of Higher Education in America Thomas J. Denham PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS U. DEPARTMENT Siena College Ofhce of Educational OF EDUCATION BEEN GRANTED BY EDUCATIONAL Research and improvement RESOURCES INFORMAT/ON his documentCENTER (ERIC) has been reproduced received fromthe as .Dental) originating it. person or organization 0 Minor changes have been improve reproduction made to quality TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) Points of viewor opinions stated 1 document donot necessarily in this official OERI not represent or policy. Kenneth E. Varcoe, Ph.D. Massachusetts Cluster A course paper presented to Programs for Higher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education Nova Southeastern University August, 2002 2 BEST COPY AVAILABLE 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION 2 CURRICULUM IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD: 1636-1789 2 EMPIRICISM AND ENLIGHTENMENT 3 THE NATION EMERGES AND THE CURRICULUM CHANGES: 1789-1865 3 THE IMPACT OF THE YALE REPORT 4 RECONSTRUCTION AND INDUSTRIALIZATION: 1865-1900 5 Eliot and the Allies of the Elective System 5 Mc Cosh and the Advocates of the Ancient Curriculum 6 The Elective Debate Beyond the Ivy League 8 Impact of the Elective Principle 8 ELECTIVES IN THE 20th CENTURY 9 The General Education Movement 10 The Great Books Initiative 10 The Second General Education Movement 11 The Open Curriculum of the late 1960s and 1970s 11 Multiculturalism 12 CURRENT STATE OF THE CONTROVERSY 12 THE FUTURE 13 SUMMARY 14 REFERENCES 15 3 2 INTRODUCTION A classical education based on the seven liberal arts (grammar, rhetoric, logic, astronomy, arithmetic, geometry, and music), formed the basis of the curriculum for the early colonial colleges. From its earliest days, the curriculum was relevant in the preparation of students for professions of the period. Over time, the curriculum eventually evolved and adapted to the larger corresponding trends in American society. However, the colleges did not change the curriculum without intense debate or grave reservations. CURRICULUM IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD: 1636-1789 Gwynne-Thomas (1981) reports that at Harvard, the prescribed curriculum consisted of Bible studies and Bible languages (Latin, Greek, and Hebrew), together with logic, ethics, philosophy, astronomy, and geometry (pp. 147-149). Princeton's curriculum was based on the models of Harvard and Yale (Cowley and Williams, 1991, p. 83). In addition to a classical education, the colonial college was consumed with instilling in its students the notion of proper conduct, character development, and civic virtue (Rudolph, 1962, pp. 30-31). Imported from Europe, the curricula of the colonial colleges were creatures of both the Reformation and the Renaissance. They valued both the sectarian and the humanistic ideals of classical scholarship with the goal of creating learned clergymen, as well as gentlemen and scholars. What few books there were encompassed Latin, the language of the Reformation, and Greek and ancient Greece, the rediscovery of the Renaissance. Latin was the language of the law, church, medicine and Aristotle. Greek was the language of the new humanism of Renaissance learning that brought Homer and Hesiod, Greek lyrics and idylls into the experience of an educated man (Rudolph, pp. 23-25). In the colonial curriculum, Latin and Greek served as living languages and tools for the teacher and student to explore Aristotle's three philosophies (natural, moral, and mental) and the liberal arts of the medieval curriculum. These subjects formed the basic course of study at the colonial colleges. Latin, Greek, Hebrew, logic, and rhetoric were studied in the first year. The following year, Greek and Hebrew were continued with an introduction to natural philosophy, that later evolved into physics. In the junior sophister year, mental and moral philosophy were taught, which evolved into today's economics, ethics, political science, and sociology. The senior sophister year was a review in Latin, Greek, logic, and natural philosophy; mathematics was also begun (Rudolph, 1962, pp. 23-26). This program of study of classical learning was 4 .3 assumed to be the recipe for success in the various learned professions of law, medicine, or theology.It was a body of knowledge that was to be absorbed and memorized, not criticized or questioned (Lucas, 1994, p. 109). EMPIRICISM AND ENLIGHTENMENT Harvard was a flagship in terms of a curriculum that responded to changes in society. Its course of study, originally designed to produce clergymen and statesmen, was diluted by a trend toward empiricism, a scientific point of view that questioned old truths and established new ones. By 1659 in the field of astronomy, the Ptolemaic system was out and the Copernican system was in. In the late seventeenth century, under the direction of Charles Morton, natural philosophy turned Newtonian-oriented (Rudolph, 1962, pp. 23-26). On the eve of the American Revolution, Newtonian empiricism and inductive reasoning were challenging the teachings of the church and deductive reasoning respectively; more attention was being paid to mathematics and natural science in America (Rudolph, pp. 29-30). The legacy of the American Revolution to the American College was a widely held belief that the colleges were now serving a new responsibility to the new nation: the preparation of young men for citizenship in a republic that must prove itself. The Enlightenment and the Revolution shifted the curriculum from medieval model to an emphasis on natural law and the realm of science (Rudolph, 1962, pp. 40-41). Benjamin Rush, a Philadelphia physician and education advocate, warned that the ancient languages could stand in the way of the development of the country. He said, "To spend four or five years in learning two dead languages, is to turn our backs on a gold mine, in order to amuse ourselves catching butterflies" (Rudolph, p. 43). THE NATION EMERGES AND THE CURRICULUM CHANGES: 17891865 During this era, the trend was toward a more fragmented, varied, vocational and specialized curriculum, and the conflict between advocates of classical studies and advocates of practical studies continued. As college enrollments grew and universities rapidly expanded westward, the intellectual community learned to allow religion and different thought patterns to coexist. The rise of the scientific method of inquiry made its inroads in the newly formed technical colleges with the introduction of new studies in engineering, agriculture, mechanics, and manufacturing. For example, West Point's curriculum was centered on mathematics, chemistry, and engineering (Cohen, 1998, pp. 74-75). As a result, the groundwork for specialized programs and the elective system was being laid (Cremin, 1977, p. 54). 5 4 THE IMPACT OF THE YALE REPORT Greek and Latin were still being taught in most institutions during the first half of the nineteenth century, but the teaching of modern foreign languages expanded (Cohen, 1998, p. 75). Under the leadership of President Jeremiah Day, the Yale Report of 1828 was developed. This landmark report took the position that students should be required to study a variety of traditional topics so that all the areas of the mind (reasoning, accuracy in expression, etc.) would be exercised. The report became the most widely read and influential statement of educational philosophy of the era, in favor of the status quo of the ancient curriculum. Essentially, it was a defense for traditional classical education, making way for new courses of instruction and discounting religion as the centerpiece of the curriculum (Lucas, 1994, p. 132). The Yale Report helped justify other institution's decisions about curriculum development and confirmed
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