Next fall, City College will expand its Great Books Curriculum, offering philosophy classes as well as a special departmental award.
“We are hoping that as students become familiar with the Great Books, they’ll realize that these books speak to us, that they’re not that difficult and in fact they can improve their college success overall,” said English Instructor Celeste Barber, coordinator for the Great Books Curriculum.
The curriculum includes classics by authors such as Homer, Shakespeare, Aristotle, and Charles Dickens.
Barber said classical literature was taken out of colleges in the 1960s and 70s, during the civil rights movement the women’s movement were in full swing.
She added that the diversifying of the canon was necessary, but the past shouldn’t be forgotten.
“To be truly multi-cultural we have to include everybody, including the works of western civilization that formed a foundation for us as a human race.”
City College implemented the Great Books Curriculum in 2004. At first, only sophomore literature used the curriculum. Over the next two years, English 111 and Political Science 102 were added. Now Philosophy will join the list.
Students who take four courses of the Great Books Curriculum will receive a special English department award. Faculty are also trying to have the award posted on the transcripts of those students who take the courses when they graduate.
City College is one out of five community colleges in the United States that received $173,000 in grant money to help develop the Great Books Curriculum.
On March 31, City College faculty attended a meeting at Wilbur Wright College of Chicago to discuss the success of the program.
Studies done at Wilber Wright College show that students who have participated in the Great Books Curriculum have a higher GPA, completion rate, and transfer rate than those who don’t.
Barber said that classical works of literature have not only been pulled out of community colleges, but out of universities as well.
“There are, in fact, courses at four year institutions where one will take a class in Shakespeare and never read a single play, they’ll read about someone’s commentary about Shakespeare instead.” Barber said that she wanted to let the students know that these Great Books classes are not just for English majors, but that they would be an asset to anyone that enrolls in them.
“Literature from the past teaches us things about today.”
-Brittney Dabney is a
Journalism 101 student.