General Education: Image and Reality

Authors

Paul Bernstein, Rochester Institute of Technology

Abstract

What, then, are the conclusions to be drawn for the future of general education in an open society?

1) If general education is to help our students achieve greater wisdom, departments must react in a less threatened manner. However, in the current educational climate, the legitimate needs of general education programs are not likely to prevail over departmental territoriality in very many institutions.

2) General education offerings clearly need more administrative support in an era which has come to exalt professional development as the sine qua non to success. As the Levine and Weingert study implied, this should be in the form of encouragement and resources.

3) We should be clear on what general education is and what it is not. It offers in itself no specific practical results unless general wisdom constitutes a pragmatic goal.

4) And finally, let us fill fewer catalog pages with broad humanistic declarations unless we have the will and means to weave a more realistic tapestry.

Recommended Citation

Bernstein, Paul (1974) "General Education: Image and Reality," Perspectives (1969-1979): Vol. 6: No. 1, Article 3.
Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/perspectives/vol6/iss1/3