What Are We Talking About?

GENERAL EDUCATION! Common learnings! Basic education! Core curriculum! These are terms much in the educational literature today. Their wide discussion reflects a deep concern with a currriculum problem which is of first importance and which is far from satisfactorily solved. The essence of this problem can be indicated by a question: What educational experiences should all individuals have in common? The focus of concern is with the non-vocational and non-specialized aspects of living. What is required to assure intelligent and responsible citizenship? What is necessary to enable the individual to establish and maintain sound personal relationships? In dealing with this matter certain general points may be held in mind with advantage. First, terminology is greatly confused, as is so often the case in educational discussions. Core curriculum is used by some to refer to the required courses in the high-school program of studies, by others to mean a course in which two subjects are correlated or integrated, and by still others to indicate a series of experiences organized around social and personal problems and concerns without regard to subject. General education is used by some to refer to the non-specialized courses on the college level, by others to indicate particular courses in the high school, and by still others to mean all phases of the curriculum which are not vocational or professional in character. Intelligent discussion requires constant recourse to definition of terms. Second, this problem has very important historical antecedents. On the collegiate level the long-standing objective of liberal education provides important relationships. It might be said that the traditional approach to liberal education undertook to determine what non-specialized education the intellectually elite should have in common. This tradition has exerted a great-and, in the writer's judgment, detrimental-influence on efforts to provide a suitable general education for all the people. On the school level, the tradition of literacy and memory of historical facts about our national life as the essential elements in education for effective citizenship greatly influences current considerations of common educational needs. Third, the issue has frequently been confused by the assumption that uniformity of learning is what is desired. This moves in the direction of fixed standards and conformity. Such a trend is in conflict both with the democratic ideal of individual development and with the nature and extent of individual differences. Rather,