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Home Front: Culture Wars
Harvard in biggest curriculum overhaul in 30 years
2007-02-08
Harvard is getting religion. Thanks, Prince Alwaleed!
Harvard University announced on Wednesday its biggest curriculum overhaul in three decades, putting new emphasis on sensitive religious and cultural issues, the sciences and overcoming U.S. "parochialism."
Evidently, the check cleared.
The curriculum at the oldest U.S. university has been criticized as focusing too narrowly on academic topics instead of real-life issues, or for being antagonistic to organized religion. Revisions have been in the works for three years. One of the eight new required subject areas -- "societies of the world" -- aims to help students overcome U.S. "parochialism" by "acquainting them with the values, customs and institutions that differ from their own," said a 34-page Harvard report on the changes.

Harvard has been criticized by some conservatives in recent decades as a liberal bastion unfriendly toward religion.
An earlier proposal would have made Harvard unique among its elite Ivy League peers by requiring undergraduates to study religion as a distinct subject, but that was dropped in December. The changes to the general-education requirements, imposed on students outside their major, still address religious beliefs and practices. Study of those issues, however, would be folded into a broader subject of "culture and belief." The "culture and belief" requirement will "introduce students to ideas, art and religion in the context of the social, political, religious, economic and cross-cultural conditions" that shape them, Harvard said.

The university's Faculty of Arts and Sciences is expected to vote on the report in March, but Harvard officials said it was expected to be implemented. The university is also expected to soon announce a new president to steer the changes.

Founded to train Puritan ministers 371 years ago, Harvard has been criticized by some conservatives in recent decades as a liberal bastion unfriendly toward religion.

A task force of six professors and two students which drafted the new curriculum said religion should be addressed, but only as one of several cultural influences.

"Harvard is a secular institution but religion is an important part of our students' lives," it said. It noted that 94 percent of Harvard's incoming students report that they discuss religion "frequently" or "occasionally," and 71 percent say that they attend religious services.

Under the changes, science wins greater prominence, including the study of the ethical issues surrounding embryonic stem cell research, which has raised hope for cures for ailments such as Alzheimer's disease while being opposed by others as an immoral destruction of human life.

Plagiarism -- which rocked Harvard last year when a novel by star undergraduate writer Kaavya Viswanathan was found to have copied passages from another work -- is also addressed.

The curriculum shake-up is the first major overhaul since Harvard formulated its current "core" course requirements in the 1970s. It had been advanced by former Harvard President Lawrence Summers, who resigned his post in June after a faculty revolt over his leadership style. Other new requirements include the study of empirical reasoning, ethical reasoning, the science of living systems, the science of the physical universe, and "aesthetic and interpretive understanding."
Posted by:Seafarious

#14  I concur. Minneapolis is fucked.
Posted by: Mike N.   2007-02-08 14:24  

#13  No Minneapolis is screwed. Keith Ellison is just he tip of the shitberg.
Posted by: Icerigger   2007-02-08 13:59  

#12  And I s'pose we can be grateful the continental culture doesn't allow for a Zimbabwe or Sudan.

Oh, I don't know about that, TW. There's always *hope* for Dearborn and Minneapolis, lol!
Posted by: BA   2007-02-08 13:45  

#11  In my experience, Americans are no more parochial than anyone else. It's just that our continent contains a great many cultures within only three countries, and the others divide the cultures of their continent into a great many individual countries. This blinders their perspective, making them think the differences are more meaningful. The American version of Greece, for instance, could be said to be New Orleans, and our version of France, California. (Yes, except for San Diego and such, Frank G, so don't get mad at me, 'k?). And I s'pose we can be grateful the continental culture doesn't allow for a Zimbabwe or Sudan.
Posted by: trailing wife   2007-02-08 13:38  

#10  I've a strong hunch as to which religion they've in mind.

p.s. IMO, Americans are parochial. That's why they're so successful.
Posted by: gromgoru   2007-02-08 13:26  

#9  Now they will concentrate on making their curriculum fully one of "sludge, waffle, and fads."
Posted by: Anonymoose   2007-02-08 13:22  

#8  The curriculum at the oldest U.S. university has been criticized as focusing too narrowly on academic topics

A curious criticism. I think the point of a top university is to be academic, and an academic Ivy leaque branding is what attracts top students. There's even less point to paying Harvard tuition if it's going to have the same standards as state schools.
Posted by: DoDo   2007-02-08 12:38  

#7  The trailing daughters read Rantburg and have lived abroad. (Trailing daughter #2 was actually born in Germany so her children must be born on American soil to inherit US citizenship, which may complicate her career goal of international management.) This overhaul doesn't sound profound enough to induce me to allow them to apply to Harvard -- they still don't meet my standards.
Posted by: trailing wife   2007-02-08 11:46  

#6  Why don't they have a course that teaches how to read the liberal media to find missing facts, and to ignore the spin adverbs and adjectives.
Are they afraid their students may become smarter rather than dumber ?
Posted by: wxjames   2007-02-08 09:35  

#5  One of the eight new required subject areas -- "societies of the world" -- aims to help students overcome U.S. "parochialism" by "acquainting them with the values, customs and institutions that differ from their own," said a 34-page Harvard report on the changes.

This is something new? Fifteen years ago we called it "non-Western Civilization" and it was required at a university not nearly as famous as Harvard. But, apparently, a hell of a lot better.
Posted by: Rob Crawford   2007-02-08 07:51  

#4  Oh, I know, AH9418, it's just a rhetorical question. I agree with you 100%. What infuriates me is that the word "parochial" suggests that the judgment that the US is superior to the aforementioned crapholes is an uninformed one. A judgment based on ignorance, rather than on very substantial study, travel, and experience. As if we would judge these places to not be crapholes if only we knew more, when knowing more is precisely what leads us to conclude that they are crapholes. Just as knowing more helps us understand how Islam is the blueprint for a death machine, surpassing even communism. I find people who do not reach these conclusions to be the ignorant, parochial ones.
Posted by: exJAG   2007-02-08 06:07  

#3  "I'd love to know how it's "parochial" to judge that living in the US is better than living in North Korea, Pakistan, or Somalia." -- but that is Harvard's definition of parochialism. Harvard's antagonism to organized religion is about to change, into advocacy for Islam. Its hostility towards other organized religions will, however, increase.
A poster on Jerry Pournelle's site said it well: Students "need to learn how to make accurate judgments. They should not be taught to be equally respectful of Aztecs and Greeks; they should focus on the best that has come before them, which will mean a light dose of Aztecs and a heavy one of Greeks. The primary purpose of their education should not be to let the little darlings express themselves, but to give them the tools and the intellectual discipline for expressing themselves as adults." At one time a "liberal education" meant to prepare free men and women to do their duty. Harvard has been running away from this goal for years, this overhaul is a giant leap in that misguided direction.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2007-02-08 05:35  

#2  "aims to help students overcome U.S. "parochialism" by "acquainting them with the values, customs and institutions that differ from their own.""

This has never been the problem. The problem is that it's forbidden to employ "empirical and ethical reasoning" to reach the conclusion that often these "differing values and customs" suck. I'd love to know how it's "parochial" to judge that living in the US is better than living in North Korea, Pakistan, or Somalia.
Posted by: exJAG   2007-02-08 03:52  

#1  Looks like someone high-up in the Univers missed both CNN's + Fox's specials on Osama's theats agz America.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2007-02-08 02:37  

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