HumanitiesNATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES • VOLUME 10 • NUMBER 5 • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1989 American Education: The Search for a Core of Learning Editor's Note Education in America The start of an academic year seems an appropriate time for an appraisal of American education. Endowment Chairman Lynne V. Cheney opens the discourse in a conversation with Frederick Rudolph, professor of history emeritus from Williams College and principal author of the Association of American Colleges report, Integrity in the College Curriculum. "I think what happens," offers Rudolph, "is that members of the faculty want to do their own thing and the students want to take what they care about, and that leads to a shopping enterprise rather than a directed curricular enterprise." A symbol of the intellectual and artistic glory of fifth-century Greece, the Parthenon (448- The thread is picked up by Ethyle R. Wolfe of Brooklyn College, who de­ 432 B.C.) was dedicated to Athena, for whom scribes her own institution's journey, in a time of financial crisis and faculty the city-state of Athens was named. cutbacks, to arrive at a coherent curriculum for undergraduates. Wolfe, who (Library of Congress) rose from professor of classics to provost and vice president of academic af­ fairs during a forty-year career at the school, was honored this past June Humanities with an honorary doctorate voted by the Brooklyn College faculty. A bimonthly review published by the National Endowment for the Humanities Moving westward, we look at two educational situations that could set precedents. In Texas, the legislature has asked public colleges and univer­ Chairman: Lynne V. Cheney sities to develop a core curriculum, and the effort is under way to determine Director, Communications Policy: what those courses should include. In California, the state is focusing on the Marguerite Hoxie Sullivan primary and secondary levels and increasing the hours devoted to history Editor: Mary Lou Beatty and social science. California's current concern is the creation of new text­ Assistant Editor: James S. Turner Production Editor: Scott Sanborn books to link the learning process from kindergarten through grade 12. And Production Assistant: Susan Querry we visit a reading program in Kentucky where an adult literacy program is Editorial Assistant: Kristen Hall writing its own texts. Research Assistant: Ellen Marsh This fall marks the start of a year of independent study for one group, the Marketing Director: Joy Evans first teacher-scholars supported by NEH and a fund established by DeWitt Wallace, founder of Reader's Digest. In what is intended to enrich their teach­ Editorial Board: Marjorie Berlincourt, Harold Cannon, ing on their return to the classroom, the fifty-three teachers, from the fifty Richard Ekman, George F. Farr, Jr., states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, Donald Gibson, Guinevere Griest, will pursue subjects ranging from William Wordsworth and English Roman­ Thomas Kingston, Kenneth Kolson, ticism to philosophy and children's literature. Jerry Martin And finally, if we include the Americanization of citizens under the rubric of education, it is only appropriate to take note of Jane Addams's Hull- Design: Hausmann Graphic Design, Inc. House, which celebrates its centennial this month. Now a museum on the The opinions and conclusions expressed in campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago, Hull-House for more than Humanities are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect Endowment policy. Material five decades ministered to the city's immigrant population and set patterns appearing in this publication, except for that in modern urban sociology and public health. We look at Jane Addams her­ already copyrighted, may be freely repro­ self, the privileged daughter of a state senator, who broke from her class tra­ duced. Please notify the editor in advance so that appropriate credit can be given. The dition to found a settlement house that dealt with the often difficult transi­ Chairman of the Endowment has determined tion from an old world to a new one. that the publication of this periodical is neces­ sary in the transaction of the public business required by law of this agency. Use of funds — Mary Lou Beatty for printing this periodical has been approved by the director of the Office of Management and Budget through September 1992. Send requests for subscriptions and other commu­ nications to the editor, Humanities, National Endowment for the Humanities, 1100 Penn­ sylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20506. Telephone 202/786-0435. Annual sub­ scription rate: $9. (USPS 521-090) ISSN 0018-7526. SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1989 Contents The World of Thought A Conversation with . NEH Chairman Lynne V. Cheney 4 discusses the quality of American education with Williams College professor emeritus Frederick Rudolph. Issues in Humanities Education A Case Study in Brooklyn by Ethyle R. Wolfe. How a common 8 core of learning was developed to serve a diverse student population in New York. "Core" in Texas. Texas colleges and universities attempt to carry 12 out a legislative mandate. The California Framework by Ellen Ficklen. Rewriting the text­ 13 books for a new way of elementary and secondary teaching. Collecting Thoughts by James S. Turner. The first NEH/Reader's 27 Digest Teacher-Scholars embark on sabbaticals. Other Features How the Other Half Lived by James S. Turner. A series of public 15 programs celebrates the centennial of Jane Addams's Hull-House settlement in Chicago. The Jane Addams Papers by Susan Querry. Documenting the 19 public activities and private thoughts of the social reformer. Behind the Scenes: Navajo Textiles by Marguerite H. Sullivan. 21 The Museum of Northern Arizona traces and documents the unknowns in its collection. The Mask as Metaphor by Ellen Marsh. Pre-Columbian symbols 23 mingle with those of Christianity in the folk festivals of Mexico. Learning to Read, Reading to Learn by Carole Anne Parish. 31 Adult literacy students in Kentucky help write their own texts. 35 Noteworthy 36 An Appreciation: Jefferson Lecturer Sidney Hook. 37 Calendar r The Humanities Guide A Chair for the Professor by Harold Cannon, 39. Recent NEH Grants by Discipline, 40. Deadlines, 46. HUMANITIES 3 A Conversation with... Chairman Lynne V. Cheney and historian Frederick Rudolph merican higher education was Cheney: The report was rather the topic when Endowment strong-minded and eloquent about A Chairman Lynne V. Cheney the students being in charge of the talked recently with Frederick Rudolph, curriculum, about the way that turns Mark Hopkins Professor of History higher education into a marketplace. Emeritus at Williams College in Wil- Rudolph: We allow them to shop, liamstown, Massachusetts. His works and what they demand, they get. include Curriculum: A History of the That's part of the problem. There's American Undergraduate Course of very little definition from the top of Study Since 1636, and The American what there ought to be. I think what College and University: A History. happens is that members of the fac­ ulty want to do their own thing and Lynne V. Cheney: I've read your the students want to take what they books with great interest, and with care about, and that leads to a shop­ some discouragement as well. At ping enterprise rather than a di­ one point you seemed to indicate rected curricular enterprise. that the college curriculum has un­ Cheney: It sounds to me that even as dergone a long process of disintegra­ a historian, you've got a preference. tion and that people who have tried to halt that process from time to time Rudolph: I do. I think that when I haven't had much effect. Is that look at a college catalogue these accurate? subjects as English literature, Ameri­ days, as much as I sympathize with can literature, biology, botany. Be­ Frederick Rudolph: If you look at members of the faculty who would fore those subjects were matters of the nineteenth century, you see that like to teach some very small thing very much interest and importance people who made dramatic curricu­ that they really know about, my im­ in the curricula, the students were lar statements and even set out defi­ pression nonetheless is that there's pursuing them. The difference be­ nitions of their own campuses were too much choice and not enough di­ tween now and then is that then the not copied. Think of the efforts of rection of the institutions, of the stu­ students were bringing the human­ people like Jefferson to send higher dents, of the selection of courses. ities into the curriculum. Now education in a particular direction. they're telling whether they'll take Cheney: I'm sure you've read the Virginia did it for a while; Amherst them or not, or which ones, if any. statistics that more than 90 percent did the same thing. On the other of the institutions in the country are Cheney: Interesting. hand, there's no question that there's involved in curricular reform of Rudolph: I have a little difficulty un­ been a lot of change, but it's been some kind or another. I was inter­ derstanding today's students, partly gradual. My discovery, at least as far ested to read that and compare it because I haven't been teaching as the nineteenth century was con­ with a survey that we did not long since 1982, but partly because the in­ cerned, was that it was the students ago which showed that even though stitutions themselves are so orga­ who made the changes by creating there does seem to be a consensus nized, maybe even over-organized organizations that would offer intel­ that students don't know enough from the point of view of learning, lectual food for their appetites.