<p>Many of us have used the core as a case in point, that Columbia cares about educating its undergrads, in a system that is both widely applicable and expensive to the university.</p>
<p>This is a convoluted article at times, but the message is consistent. </p>
<p>a few things stand out:</p>
<p>1)"It is embarrassing that Harvard believes a medley of irrelevancies will prepare students for “life beyond college,”"</p>
<p>2) "even more embarrassing that the financial crisis is used as an excuse to stop investigating the serious idea that Great Books have a place in undergraduate education."</p>
<p>"Gen Ed’s only hope for salvation lies in rationalizing the concept of required courses or fields of study by admitting that there exists a canon and that it is worth knowing."</p>
<p>3) the kid is a science major who has worked in finance.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The philosophy of liberal arts hardly originated in Columbia.</p></li>
<li><p>A Harvard student only wants pretense to learning, not the real stuff. He wants to complete his degree as easily and as smoothly such that he may move on to his career. This raison d’etre is at odds with the mantra “love of wisdom.”</p></li>
</ol>
<p>You can’t really say he’s marketing “your” philosophy. Sure, he could have got the inspiration from Columbia’s Core Curriculum, or he might just be throwing back to the idea of the Harvard Classics.</p>
<p>Isn’t this suggestion more similar to St. John’s College “Great Books” curriculum or UChicago’s similar program? Then again, it may have had roots in Columbia’s core. It’s really difficult to tell from just this article.</p>
<p>Honestly, I don’t think Harvard students are being cheated out of anything. If they want to take courses about Shakespeare or Sartre, they’re free to do so. The whole point is that they don’t have to. I have discovered that by the time I reached college, I knew the so-called western canon very well. I was, however, largely unfamiliar Middle Eastern and Asian literature. Another student may have been in exactly the opposite situation. Students have different needs and their choices of colleges and classes reflect those needs. Just my two cents.</p>
<p>The philosophy behind the core is pretty broad and hotly debated. When we argue for the core we are partially arguing that the core at U Chicago (for example) adds much value to their students and institution. So yes this is kid is not advocating for Columbia, but he argues for a core which fundamentally shares the same idea as Columbia’s.</p>
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<p>Firstly, you are in a small minority, most kids take easy classes to fulfill requirements. Either because they think it’ll be fun, or because their friends are taking it or because they want to waste less time on it or to boost gpa. This is not specifically at Harvard but the mentality for most everywhere.</p>
<p>Secondly the value of the core at Columbia at least, is not just in knowing the western canon but, in two semesters, seeing how each text [or even art work] was influenced by the ones before it and influences in the ones after it. Showing us where the reasons and thought process behind our laws, politics, economics, ethics, social interactions, showing us what ideas we’ve abandoned in favor of which we have today. Also everyone is educated this way so there is a common conscience on campus and everyone has a solid foundation when they decide to engage in a heated debate about any of the above.</p>
<p>While Columbia should be applauded for keeping the idea of a real, Western-oriented (but by no means exclusive) curriculum alive, it was hardly their idea. They merely had the fortune of luminaries like Jacques Barzun to stick around and insist even through the turbulent and destructive 1960s that the Core be maintained.</p>
<p>I wish my own university mandated a similar Core, but the next best thing was at least offering the courses so I could take them myself.</p>
<p>I think you are right karot. He’s been dismissed from Columbia because of his political stance on the Middle East (or something like that). I read that he’s still trying to return teaching at C.</p>
<p>^^The point of the article was that Harvard allows people to graduate each year who have not gone through a curriculum of great books. I’m sure H has a class like lit hum, but a tiny proportion of students would take it, you can’t beat two semesters of contemp civilization preceded by two sems of lit hum, required for everyone in the college.</p>