Good Core classes on East Coast

columbia2007
Wed, 26 Jul 2006 01:30:09 +0000

Indeed. A complete curriculum was hardly a glimmer in the eyes of some in 1919, but the course did embrace (or begin to embrace) many of the ideas behind a Core Curriculum even in its first incarnation. Even more important was the addition of “General Honors” by John Erskine, whose educational philosophy predated Hutchins’ by many years.

The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center - The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center - The University of Chicago Library;
This Chicago history introduces such concepts, including the “Great Books” as emerging first, with clarity and the force of practical implementation, from Columbia:

“The idea of the Great Books was not born in Chicago. Adler and Hutchins drew their inspiration from an experimental program to teach the classics developed by Adler’s Columbia University mentor John Erskine…”

From the chapter “General Honors comes to Chicago”:

“Set up almost exactly as it had been at Columbia, General Honors was offered as a two-year course for entering freshmen in the fall of 1931…”

In any case, I merely stated that such a synthesis was first practically realized, in terms of undergraduate education at a US college, at Columbia. Quite a few individuals contributed to the concept, as the above referenced history indicates. Columbia is where they were merely first crystallized into an actual program.