{"id":3456,"date":"2017-11-13T20:08:45","date_gmt":"2017-11-13T20:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/classicaldifference.com\/?p=3456"},"modified":"2018-11-26T08:58:02","modified_gmt":"2018-11-26T08:58:02","slug":"university-four-generations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicaldifference.com\/university-four-generations\/","title":{"rendered":"The Degeneration of the Modern University"},"content":{"rendered":"<pre>by Scott Yenor   |   Winter 2017<\/pre>\n<blockquote>\n<h4>Where has all the wisdom gone?<\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Quick Links:<\/strong> To watch Dr. Scott Yenor&#8217;s Fox News interview, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SHG4GJrJpfs\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SHG4GJrJpfs<\/a><\/p>\n<div style=\"border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 40px; background-color: #f6e3ce;\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-3457\" src=\"https:\/\/classicaldifference.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/TallOaksDE_IMG_1660-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/classicaldifference.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/TallOaksDE_IMG_1660-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/classicaldifference.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/TallOaksDE_IMG_1660-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/classicaldifference.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/TallOaksDE_IMG_1660.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><span style=\"font-size: 120%;\">If you are over 40 but not yet retired, you probably had a college education that was composed mostly in your major, with a small General Education requirement that you could choose from different areas. This is called a \u201cdistribution requirement.\u201d This distribution requirement is itself a corruption of what college once was.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Previous to the distribution requirement, General Education made up around half your courses. Nine courses were mandatory, and they involved the core of Western civilization in addition to coursework other areas of the humanities. If you go back in time more than 100 \u201cyears, nearly the entire bachelor\u2019s degree was comprised of required coursework. History, literature, and philosophy en joyed a special status in the curriculum at over three-quarters of the \u201celite\u201d top fifty institutions. Over time, the university became less and less willing to say what an educated person should know, so it focused on expanding the menu of electives.<\/p>\n<p>Years ago, the National Association of Scholars (NAS) published a striking report called &#8220;The Dissolution of General Education, 1914-1996.&#8221; The NAS surveyed graduation requirements at the country\u2019s top fifty universities, on the reasonable assumption that other universities take their cues from our elite institutions. The report showed that education in the 1980s paled in comparison with education in previous generations.<\/p>\n<p>Looking at the core curricula of a century earlier, I was, at the beginning of my academic career in 2000, filled with envy at the unity of purpose and vision. I was quite impressed with\u2014on paper at least\u2014how students would be prepared for self-government in a republic. One can see this in the speeches of presidents and senators of the time, since they presume a people exposed to great ideas and enduring questions.<\/p>\n<p>I had thought nothing could be worse than the general distribution approach. I was wrong. Today, even the General Education approach is watered down toward a \u201ccore of competency.\u201d The mild discipline of General Education is too irksome for universities across our country. Today, colleges are replacing the distribution requirement with \u201cuniversity learning outcomes\u201d\u2014clear statements of expected knowledge, skills, and attitudes that students are expected to ac- quire. Faculty are asked to justify their existence not in terms of subject matter, but in terms of these outcomes. By adopting the new approach emphasizing a core of competence, General Education courses give way to courses designed directly to teach skills, such as teamwork, critical inquiry, or civil engagement.<\/p>\n<p>Today, confidence in our colleges and universities is at an all-time low. Free speech is under assault throughout the university system. Conservatives and Christians hardly have a voice on our campuses. There is increasing skepticism that a college education is worth its risks, in both corruption and debt.<\/p>\n<p>[bctt tweet=&#8221;A university aimed at \u201ccompetencies\u201d will fail to achieve either competence or true education.&#8221; username=&#8221;classicalchrist&#8221;]\u00a0A university aimed at \u201ccompetencies\u201d will fail to achieve either competence or true education. A genuine university education presupposes that basic competencies are developed before students arrive. Classical Christian schools are among the few K\u201312 options that prepare students for true education. <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-208\" src=\"http:\/\/about.classicaldifference.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/ACCS_graphic_sm1.png\" alt=\"ACCS_graphic_sm1\" width=\"11\" height=\"11\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 80%;\">DR. SCOTT YENOR is a professor of political science at Boise State University and Chairman of the Board at The Ambrose School, Meridian, ID.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Scott Yenor | Winter 2017 Where has all the wisdom gone? Quick Links: To watch Dr. Scott Yenor&#8217;s Fox News interview, visit https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SHG4GJrJpfs If you are over 40 but not yet retired, you probably had a college education that was composed mostly in your major, with a small General Education requirement that you could [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[63,71,14,26,101,70,67],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Degeneration of the Modern University - The Classical Difference<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/classicaldifference.com\/university-four-generations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Degeneration of the Modern University - The Classical Difference\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Scott Yenor | Winter 2017 Where has all the wisdom gone? 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