General Education Rationale and Requirements

We live in a complex, diverse, and rapidly changing world—one presenting us with delicate moral and social problems that demand careful analysis and creative solutions. This is an era of uncertainty, of promise, and of opportunity. We believe that the most appropriate formal preparation to meet the challenges of today, to fulfill career goals, to lead a rich and rewarding personal life, and to serve society as a responsible citizen, is a broad-based, flexible education in the liberal arts and sciences. Building on that belief, the College has carefully designed an academic program that not only prepares students for graduate school, the professions, and positions of leadership in all areas of society, but one that also equips them with skills needed to pursue a lifetime of learning. General Education is the part of the curriculum we require of all students regardless of their major field of study or their career goals. In broader terms, it is the heart of our liberal arts education, because it represents an academic experience so valuable that we believe it should be shared by all Centre graduates. Regardless of the specific discipline addressed, all general education courses have several characteristics in common. These include commitments to: a) exposing students to the fundamental issues and the common methods of inquiry used in the subject; b) placing the academic discipline and methodologies in context with issues of societal and personal choices; c) requiring students to communicate effectively both orally and in writing; d) having assignments and activities that foster students' ability to think creatively, logically, and analytically in order to address problems from a variety of perspectives with open and questioning minds; and e) instructing in ways that engage students as active participants in the learning process.

The College's commitments to liberal education in the arts and sciences aim to preserve the ideals of intellectual freedom and active exploration of the human condition, while also developing skills that are critical for global citizenship.  The general education curriculum develops students’ competence in the following areas: awareness of social context, written communication, oral communication, critical inquiry, and creative exploration. 

SOCIAL CONTEXT

The general education curriculum expands students’ awareness of the social and personal contexts that inform learning.  An emphasis on social context enables students a) to understand the connection between course material and the natural, physical, historical, cultural, economic, political, and ethical dimensions in which that knowledge and capacities were created, and b) to critically analyze and address complex social issues.

After completing the general education curriculum, successful students should be able to do the following:

• Demonstrate understanding of social, historical, and cultural influences
• Articulate how a specific discipline approaches a particular issue or artifact, and how that approach may differ from other disciplines 
• Apply specific methods to examine the various dimensions of a particular field of study, cultural artifact, or social reality
• Formulate possible responses to pressing social problems

WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

The general education curriculum develops students’ ability to express ideas in writing in a rhetorically effective manner. Written communication involves learning to work in multiple genres, styles, and writing technologies.

After completing the general education curriculum, successful students should be able to do the following:

• Produce accurate formal writing that accounts for contexts, purposes, audiences, and media
• Employ stance, genre, style, and organization appropriate to specific academic contexts
• Utilize flexible strategies for generating, proofreading, and revising texts
• Demonstrate basic information literacy skills 

ORAL COMMUNICATION

The general education curriculum develops students’ ability to express ideas in the form of a prepared, purposeful oral presentation or performance. Oral communication takes many different forms – including expository and persuasive speech, storytelling, and dramatic performance – and is designed to increase knowledge, foster understanding, or promote change in an audience’s attitudes, values, beliefs, behaviors, or emotional experience. 

After completing the general education curriculum, successful students should be able to do the following:

• Present a clear central message
• Utilize effective organization and supporting evidence
• Demonstrate an awareness of audience and context
• Employ language and delivery techniques appropriate to the situation and purpose

CRITICAL INQUIRY

The general education curriculum instills a habit of mind characterized by the transdisciplinary exploration of issues, ideas, artifacts, and events before accepting or formulating an opinion or conclusion.

After completing the general education curriculum, successful students should be able to do the following:

• Identify what is known and what is not known about a given problem
• Evaluate evidence, recognizing the responsibility to ask critical questions of the source material
• Examine alternative formulations or contradictory evidence
• Demonstrate critical reading skills
• Apply knowledge from one discipline to areas of study or experience outside that field

CREATIVE EXPLORATION

The general education curriculum engages students in a process of discovery that involves the use of calculated risks to identify and explore new or existing problems that may have unconventional solutions, the integration of information and skills across disciplines to address these problems, and the clear expression of the results of inquiry in a variety of formats.

After completing the general education curriculum, successful students should be able to do the following:

• Identify problems and develop strategies for addressing them
• Advance opinions and offer arguments informed by previous knowledge and experience
• Communicate ideas in an appropriate medium, including non-verbal and material realms
• Demonstrate a willingness to take intellectual risks and try new approaches in the face of ambiguity, challenge, or the potential for failure

The General Education requirements are in four areas:

1. Humanities
2. Society
3. Science
4. Fundamental Questions

1. Humanities (two courses)

A two-term core interdisciplinary sequence in the humanities, taught by faculty members from various academic disciplines, constitutes the requirement. The sequence introduces masterworks of literature and the fine arts within the context of particular times, places, and ideas that inform the masterwork. This sequence, beginning with ancient works, concentrates on developing the critical skills necessary to understand, appreciate, and judge works of literature, art, drama, philosophy, and music. These courses a) lead to an appreciation and understanding of key works in a variety of traditions; b) require students to engage in a close critical analysis of original work; c) sharpen and develop critical and interpretive skills, and provide the information and terminology necessary to make independent aesthetic judgments; and d) enhance the ability to read analytically and imaginatively, to look alertly and sympathetically at works of art, and to express thought with vigor and clarity in both oral and written form.

2. Society (two courses)

Individual human experience always takes place in the context of larger social forces. To think and act as responsible citizens, we must be able to understand these forces in terms of their historical development and their influence on contemporary life. Courses in this area are divided into two categories: those which stress analysis of social institutions and those which emphasize historical inquiry. To satisfy this requirement, students must take one course from each category. Typically courses satisfying the social analysis requirement a) stress the nature, function, and influence of organizations, institutions, or groups in society; b) illustrate disciplinary methods of inquiry necessary to formulate meaningful conclusions; and c) require students to identify significant social issues and analyze them from the standpoint of various theoretical and historical frameworks. Courses satisfying the historical analysis requirement will: a) introduce students to a coherent body of historical knowledge and the nature of historical inquiry; b) increase the student's knowledge and understanding of the complexity of human experience through the diversity of historical interpretation; and c) illustrate relationships between past events and contemporary ideas, institutions and processes.

3. Science (two courses)

Scientific inquiry has altered our view of the world and has brought about great benefits and enormous risks. The liberally educated person understands and appreciates science both as a body of knowledge and as a disciplined approach to comprehending our universe. These courses should enable the student to appreciate the potential of science, to recognize its limitations, to understand some of its technical applications, and to know how to develop informed opinions about its use. This requirement consists of two four-credit laboratory courses, one in life science and one in physical science, or a two-course natural science sequence that integrates the major areas of cosmological and biological evolution. Each of the natural science courses can be taken independently to satisfy either the physical (NSC 110) or life (NSC 120) science requirement. All general education science courses a) provide an introduction to the nature, methodology, historical development, and some fundamental concepts of both physical and life sciences; b) illustrate the interplay between experimentation and theory through direct laboratory experience emphasizing critical thought and the systematic observation and interpretation of data; c) demonstrate the relationships among the disciplines and fields of science; and d) include discussion of some of the social, political, and ethical implications of scientific achievements and research.

4. Fundamental Questions (two courses)

A persistent feature of our humanity is the ability and need to raise fundamental questions about the meaning of our existence, about the possibility and limits of human knowledge, about our common nature and destiny, and about what constitutes a good life. Becoming educated should include a mature understanding and a critical appraisal of values and beliefs which have shaped human culture. Courses satisfying this requirement will: a) introduce students to important figures, original texts, and major concepts and controversies in religious and philosophical traditions; and b) encourage students to examine their own values, practices, and beliefs and those of others.

First-Year Studies

During the CentreTerm all first-year students will take a First-Year Studies course designed to provide a small-group learning situation that will engage students and faculty in an intensive intellectual experience and to foster basic educational skills—how to read critically, think logically, and communicate effectively. First-Year Studies courses have no prerequisites. Students practice distinguishing evidence from opinion; discussion should reflect multiple viewpoints. Written and oral exercises emphasize imagination, creativity, reasoning, problem solving, integration, and judgment—all skills essential to critical thinking. Visits to museums or other sites, laboratory experiments, field study projects, interviewing, teaching, debating, inventing projects, may be part of a First-Year Studies course. Writing assignments need not follow the formal restrictions of conventional academic prose. The journal, the essay, the description, and the meditation are all useful models of writing, as long as they reveal a thoughtful and ambitious encounter with the material of the course. These courses enroll 15 or fewer students. While the seminar does not count toward a major, it may, through participation in discussion and research, provide a foretaste of upper-level work in the field of the instructor.