Editing Core Curriculum (Columbia College)

{{Short description|Academic program at Columbia University}}

[[Image:Contemporary Civilization Source Book Part One Section IX 1942.jpg|thumb|One section of the ''Contemporary Civilization Source Book'' in the early 1940s. There were two parts containing ten sections each. This copy shows it in use at [[Yale University]] in addition to Columbia.|287x287px]]The '''Core Curriculum''' was originally developed as the main curriculum used by [[Columbia College, Columbia University|Columbia College]] of [[Columbia University]] in 1919. Created in the wake of [[World War I]], it became the framework for many similar educational models throughout the [[United States]], and has played an influential role in the incorporation of the concept of [[Western culture|Western civilization]] into the American college curriculum.<ref name="sage">{{cite book |author1=Thomas J. Lasley, II |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b1UGM0CHOGAC&dq=Core+Curriculum+Columbia+College+model&pg=PA401 |title=Encyclopedia of Educational Reform and Dissent |author2=Thomas C. Hunt |author3=C. Daniel Raisch |publisher=[[SAGE Publications]] |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-4129-5664-2 |page=401}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Cross |first=Timothy P. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xebKAAAACAAJ |title=An Oasis of Order: The Core Curriculum at Columbia College |date=1995 |publisher=Columbia University, Columbia College |isbn=978-0-9649084-0-6 |language=en}}</ref> Today, customized versions of the Core Curriculum are also completed by students in the [[Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science|School of Engineering and Applied Science]] and the [[Columbia University School of General Studies|School of General Studies]], the other two undergraduate colleges of Columbia University.

Later in its history, especially in the 1990s, it became a heavily contested form of learning, seen by some as an appropriate foundation of a [[liberal arts]] education, and by others as a tool of promoting a [[Eurocentric]] or [[Anglocentric]] society by solely focusing on the works of "[[dead white men]]".<ref>{{cite book|title=Confucian tradition and global education|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UtMWITrKPhgC&dq=Columbia+college+core++dead+white&pg=PA28|author=William Theodore De Bary|year=2007|page=28|publisher=[[Columbia University Press]]|isbn=978-0-231-14120-8}}</ref> Largely driven by student protests, the Core in recent decades has been revised to add focus on non-Western cultures, as well as [[Postcolonial literature|postcolonial works]] to the literature and philosophy sequences. The most recent major addition to the Core was made in the 2000s with the addition of "Frontiers of Science", a scientific literacy course, to the curriculum.

==History==

=== Early curricula ===
[[File:Frederick A.P. Barnard cph.3a00878.jpg|thumb|President [[Frederick A. P. Barnard]] was one of the earliest proponents of the elective system in the 19th century.]]
Early instruction at Columbia College, from its founding in 1754 as King's College, almost entirely revolved around the study of the [[classics]], and entering students were expected to already be fluent in [[Ancient Greek]] and [[Latin]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Adler |first=Eric |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=svH6DwAAQBAJ |title=The Battle of the Classics: How a Nineteenth-Century Debate Can Save the Humanities Today |year=2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-751880-9 |language=en}}</ref> Through most of the 19th century, all students were prescribed a single course of studies, save for a period of time beginning in 1830, when the college introduced the "Literary and Scientific course" in addition to the standard curriculum, which was dubbed the "Full course". The former was open to the public with no expectations of attendance, and was discontinued in 1843.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last= |first= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cXo4AAAAMAAJ |title=Statutes of Columbia College |date=1843 |publisher=Robert Craighead |location=New York |language=en}}</ref>{{rp|8}} In the "Full course", as set out in the 1843 revision of the college's statutes, in addition to four years of the classics and [[German language|German]], freshmen were to study algebra, geometry, and English grammar and composition; sophomores, trigonometry and [[solid geometry]], [[levelling]], navigation, chemistry, physics, and rhetoric; juniors, "practical astronomy", chemistry, geology, the "principles of taste and criticism", logic, and English and modern European literature; seniors, [[Differential calculus|differential]] and [[Integral|integral calculus]], mechanics, philosophy and religion, and English composition.<ref name=":3" />{{rp|14–16}} The adoption of mandatory German was made that year, following a $20,000 bequest from Frederick Gebhard which established the university's German department,<ref name=":3" />{{rp|9}} though it was soon made optional in 1847.<ref>{{Cite book |last= |first= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RmYWAAAAIAAJ |title=Report of the Commissioner of Education for the Year 1900–1901 |date=1902 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |volume=1 |location=Washington |language=en}}</ref>{{rp|603}}

By the late-19th century, many American universities, including Harvard, had seen a trend towards more elective programs.<ref name="stand">{{cite book |author=Robert A. McCaughey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F39SJn66jF0C&dq=Columbia+college+%22general+education%22+core&pg=PA286 |title=Stand, Columbia: A History of Columbia University in the City of New York, 1754–2004 |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-231-13008-0 |page=286}}</ref> President [[Frederick A. P. Barnard]] was an early supporter of this movement—in 1872, Yale President [[Noah Porter]] criticized him as one of "the educational reformers who should know better" for his advocacy in favor of elective curricula and his support for [[Charles William Eliot]] of Harvard. During his tenure he managed to establish a system wherein roughly half of a student's courses would be electives, and the other half required by the faculty, though his stance would lose ground at the college over the following decades.<ref name="stand" /> However, this began to change starting in the 1880 with the introduction of the modern language requirement; Columbia dropped Ancient Greek as an entrance examination requirement in 1897, and Latin in 1916.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=History of the Core |url=https://www.college.columbia.edu/core/timeline |access-date=2022-03-16 |website=www.college.columbia.edu}}</ref> This gradual thaw, along with university's move to [[Morningside Heights]] just prior to [[World War I]], set the stage for a major change in curricular focus in the early 20th century.<ref name=":4" />

==="Contemporary Civilization"===
[[File:Columbia University 1 by Rangilo.JPG|thumb|Of the names listed on the [[Butler Library]] colonnade, only [[Demosthenes]] has not at some point in time been required reading in the Core Curriculum.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lan |first=Lin |date=January 20, 2016 |title=8 Things You May Not Know About Butler Library |url=https://thelowdown.alumni.columbia.edu/8_things_you_may_not_know_about_butler_library |access-date=2022-03-16 |website=The Low Down}}</ref>]]
In 1917, the [[United States Army]] commissioned the university to create a "war issues" course in order to educate the [[Student Army Training Corps]], and to explain the causes of WWI and the reasons for US involvement in the conflict.<ref name=":4">{{cite book|title=Henry James on culture: collected essays on politics and the American social scene|url=https://archive.org/details/henryjamesoncult0000jame|url-access=registration|quote=Columbia college core  world war james.|author1=Henry James |author2=Pierre A. Walker |page=xxii|publisher=[[University of Nebraska]] Press|year=1999|isbn=978-0-8032-2589-3}}</ref> Following the war, in 1919, this course was transformed into "Contemporary Civilization," the oldest course of the Core Curriculum, which faculty presented as a "peace issues" course intended to confront the realities of the post-war era.<ref name=":0" /> Writing about "Contemporary Civilization", Dean [[Herbert Hawkes]] stated that "its significance rested on the fundamental principle that in the long run man's accomplishment can rise no higher than his ideals, and that an understanding of the worth of the cause for which one is fighting is a powerful weapon in the hands of an intelligent man."<ref name=":0" />

In 1928, "Contemporary Civilization" was enlarged and split into two courses: "Introduction to Contemporary Civilization in the West" or "CC-A", focusing on Western history from 1200 to the present, and "Contemporary Problems in the United States" or "CC-B", which emphasized questions of modern politics and economics. In 1932, "CC-B" was revised in the face of the [[Great Depression]] to center the questions of economic security, institutions, and policies.<ref name=":0" /> The course was dropped altogether in 1968, while the "CC-A" syllabus was overhauled to focus on politics and revolution in response to the [[Columbia University protests of 1968|1968 student protests]], and evolved into the course it is today.<ref name=":1" />
=== The humanities sequence ===
[[File:Homer British Museum.jpg|thumb|The ''[[Iliad]]'', traditionally attributed to the Greek poet [[Homer]], is one of the few works that has never left the Core Curriculum.<ref name=":0" />]]
The "General Honors" course was instituted in 1920, formed around a list of "[[Great Books]]" created by professor [[John Erskine (educator)|John Erskine]], who would go on to create the core curriculum at the [[University of Chicago]].<ref name=":0" /> The course was discontinued in 1929, but was resurrected three years later as the "Colloquium in Important Books".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Brown |first=Alan Willard |date=July 1948 |title=The Columbia College Colloquium on Important Books |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27795222 |journal=[[Journal of General Education]] |edition=4 |volume=2 |issue=4 |pages=278–286 |jstor=27795222 }}</ref> The Great Books curriculum was officially incorporated into the Core in 1937 with the inauguration of the humanities sequence, which consisted of "Humanities A", a first-year survey of Western literature and philosophy from classical antiquity to the end of the 18th century, and "Humanities B", a sophomore elective that covered the visual arts and music.<ref name=":1" /> Structured after "Contemporary Civilization", "Humanities A" expected students to read one book per week, a workload that placed unique burdens on freshmen.<ref name=":0" /> "Humanities A" would eventually morph into the modern "Masterpieces of Western Literature" course, while "Humanities B" split into "Music Humanities" and "Art Humanities" in 1941. The list of books read in "Literature Humanities" would constantly shift over time; the first female author to be included in the curriculum was [[Jane Austen]] with the addition of ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'' to the syllabus in 1985, two years after Columbia College became coeducational,<ref name=":1" /> while the first Black author to be incorporated into "Literature Humanities" was [[Toni Morrison]], whose [[Song of Solomon (novel)|''Song of Solomon'']] was added in 2015.<ref>{{Cite web |date=Fall 2015 |title=Toni Morrison Joins Ranks of Lit Hum Authors |url=https://www.college.columbia.edu/cct/archive/fall15/around_the_quads_1 |access-date=2022-03-16 |website=Columbia College Today}}</ref>

===Changes to the Core===
In the later half of the 20th century, many US universities moved towards a more elective system. Some historians see the change as a response to social activism—the civil rights, feminist, and various other social movements saw the Core Curriculum as an inflexible way to promote the canon of "dead white males" and as a failure to acknowledge the essential contributions of other global cultures. Others interpret it as a concession to increasing calls for earlier specialization to prepare students for post-graduate scientific and professional studies.<ref name=sage/>

The Extended Core was created in 1990 following a report from professor [[Wm. Theodore de Bary]] in which he urged the university to expand the Core to include topics in non-Western cultures, in line with its original mission to facilitate discussion in contemporary issues. It consisted of a requirement that students take two courses in non-Western cultures from a list drawn up by the Committee on the Core Curriculum, and was soon renamed to "Major Cultures".<ref name=":0" /> Following a 2007 hunger strike which called for increased funding ethnic studies, a reform of the Core, and revisions to the university's [[Manhattanville, Manhattan|Manhattanville]] expansion plan, Major Cultures was replaced in 2008 with the Global Core.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Jones |first=Thai |date=2008-01-06 |title=Two, Three, Many Columbias |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/education/edlife/hunger.html |access-date=2022-08-19 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=September 3, 2008 |title=Core of the Matter: Updated Major Cultures fails to improve requirements |work=Columbia Daily Spectator |url=https://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/?a=d&d=cs20080903-01.2.24&srpos=1&e=-------en-20--1-byDA-txt-txIN-%22global+core%22------ |access-date=August 20, 2022}}</ref> The oldest course in the Global Core is the "Colloquium on Major Texts", more commonly known as "Asian Humanities", a course on Asian classics which was established in 1947 by de Bary as "Oriental Humanities".<ref>{{Cite web |title='Oriental Humanities' |url=https://www.college.columbia.edu/core/content/oriental-humanities |access-date=2022-08-19 |website=college.columbia.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=de Bary |first=Wm. Theodore |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KI8Y5TOIN7sC |title=Finding Wisdom in East Asian Classics |date=2011 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-15396-6 |language=en}}</ref>{{rp|13}}

The most recent addition to the Core is "Frontiers of Science", which includes a set of analytical approaches that apply to all disciplines of science. "Frontiers of Science" is taught as four three-week units: two from the physical sciences and two from the life sciences.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Frontiers of Science receives highest student course evaluation score since its founding |url=https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2019/01/22/frontiers-of-science-receives-highest-student-course-evaluation-score-since-its-founding/|access-date=2021-09-05|website=Columbia Daily Spectator}}</ref>

==Structure==

===Requirements===
All first-year students in Columbia College must take the year-long "Masterpieces of Western Literature" course (also known as "Literature Humanities" or "Lit Hum"), the semester-long "University Writing" ("UW"), and the semester-long "Frontiers of Science" ("FroSci"). All sophomores are required to take a year of "Contemporary Civilization" ("CC"). The other requirements, which can be completed any year, include a semester of "Masterpieces of Western Music" ("Music Humanities" or "Music Hum"); a semester of "Masterpieces of Western Art" ("Art Humanities" or "Art Hum"); two semesters of science; four semesters of a foreign language; two semesters of the Global Core; and two semesters of physical education. Students are also required to pass a swimming test before receiving their diplomas, a common feature among [[Ivy League]] colleges.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Requirements |url=https://www.college.columbia.edu/core/requirements |access-date=2022-08-19 |website=college.columbia.edu}}</ref>

Undergraduates in the [[Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science|School of Engineering and Applied Science]] take approximately half of Columbia College's Core requirements. They are required to take either "Literature Humanities", "Contemporary Civilization", or the Global Core; either "Art Humanities" or "Music Humanities"; and "University Writing"; in addition to two semesters of physical education. The "Technical Core" consists of the semester-long "The Art of Engineering", as well as requirements in calculus, chemistry, computer science, and physics.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Engineering Undergraduate Experience |url=https://undergrad.admissions.columbia.edu/academics/engineering/experience |access-date=2022-08-19 |website=undergrad.admissions.columbia.edu}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* Timothy P Cross. ''An Oasis of Order: The Core Curriculum at Columbia College,'' Columbia College, 1995, {{ISBN|978-0-9649084-0-6}}
* Roosevelt Montás. ''Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation'', Princeton University Press, 2021, {{ISBN|978-0-691-20039-2}}

==External links==
* {{official website}}

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[[Category:Columbia University]]
[[Category:Culture of Columbia University]]
[[Category:Curricula]]
[[Category:Specific University Curricula]]
[[Category:Great Books]]
[[Category:Undergraduate education in the United States]]