General Education and Interdisciplinary Studies in the Arts

Authors

Dennis J. Sporre, Pennsylvania State University

Abstract

The conservatory approach to education in the arts is commonplace. Even in land-grant institutions which purportedly espouse a liberal arts or general education (there are differences between the two) the tendency in arts instruction has been to shape the curriculum into more and more specificity, so that even at the undergraduate level the student is given an option to choose, within his major, rather narrow specializations. The resultant increase in specialty courses and their need for staffing constantly refires the age-old arguments relating to general and liberal education and how, within various matrixes, general students or non-majors can be accommodated. What I would like to do here is to suggest a practical possibility for course development in interdisciplinary general education in the arts. Prior to that, and by way of introduction, however, it is important to deal with some philosophical prerequisites concerning relationships among artists, artworks, aesthetics and non-artists.

Recommended Citation

Sporre, Dennis J. (1978) "General Education and Interdisciplinary Studies in the Arts," Perspectives (1969-1979): Vol. 9: No. 3, Article 5.
Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/perspectives/vol9/iss3/5