Discussion of “Status of Surveying and Mapping in the United States: Final Report of the Task Committee on Status of Surveying and Mapping of the Surveying and Mapping Division”

1960 ◽  
Vol 86 (2) ◽  
pp. 37-38
Author(s):  
Robert C. Sheldon
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Final Report ◽  
Surveying And Mapping

On Understanding Everything: General Education, Liberal Education, and the Study of Religion

PMLA ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 126 (2) ◽  
pp. 460-466
Author(s):  
Amy Hollywood
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
General Education ◽  
Liberal Education ◽  
Preliminary Report ◽  
Task Force ◽  
Oral Communication ◽  
The United States ◽  
Final Report ◽  
Ethical Life ◽  
Reason And Faith

In October 2006, the Harvard University task force on general education issued a preliminary report describing and justifying a new program of general education for Harvard College. Contending that “[g]eneral education is the public face of liberal education,” the task force enumerated what a person liberally educated in the twenty-first-century United States should know—or, perhaps better, know how to think about in reasoned and nuanced ways (Preliminary Report 3). The report called for seven semester-long courses in “five broad areas of inquiry and experience”: Cultural Traditions and Cultural Change, The Ethical Life, The United States and the World, Reason and Faith, and Science and Technology. In addition, the task force suggested that students be required to take three semester-long courses that “develop critical skills”: writing and oral communication, foreign language, and analytic reasoning (6). Not surprisingly, “Reason and Faith” generated some of the most heated discussion—and it was the first suggested requirement dropped by the task force, replaced in December 2006 by a new category, “What It Means to Be a Human Being.” By the time of the final report, this too was gone, replaced by “Culture and Belief,” an area of inquiry that may include the study of religion but is broader in scope than what was initially proposed (Report of the Task Force 11–12).

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