PDF pending restoration
ERIC Number: ED184399
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1976
Pages: 8
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
General Education or Vocational Education in College Programs: The Long View.
Parker, Franklin
The origins of general education are traced to the seven liberal arts in ancient Greece, showing the influence of Socrates, Plato, the Sophists, and others. Examined are the early conflict over the sources of knowledge and the uses to which it should be put. Relevance to the college curriculum is shown, and it is told how this was broadened to include technology and science with increasing democratization, industrialization, and technological advances after President Jackson's election in 1828. The influences are shown of the Morrill Act on land grant colleges and graduate schools, and other ideas from European higher education brought by influential scholars among the 9,000 Americans who studied abroad in the nineteenth century. Examined are general education innovations in the 1930's and the influential 1945 Harvard report, "General Education in a Free Society." Finally, the 1976 Harvard core curriculum plan is outlined and it is concluded that general education needs to have an essential place in undergraduate study. (Author/MSE)
Publication Type: Historical Materials; Opinion Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A