Looking back over three centuries of American higher education, one can see both strengths and weaknesses in the changing attitudes toward teaching goals. In this article, the author discusses the Truman Commission's (President Harry Truman appointed the higher education commission in July 1946, and charged the commission members to examine "the functions of higher education in our democracy") positions on general education and teaching, and its view of community colleges. In addition, the author argues that two changes in the demographics of higher education, one numerical in terms of enrollments, the other in how the nation has viewed students of color, have continued to be important in the decades since the commission released its report. The report of the Secretary of Education's Commission (appointed in 2006 by Margaret Spellings) on the "Future of Higher Education" also addresses the issues of general education and teaching.