In 2013 the Vermont legislature enacted Act 77 mandating that students in grades 7-12 develop personalized learning plans (PLPs) to guide them toward high school graduation using proficiency based requirements. In a qualitative self-study the authors document the implementation of a personal learning framework integrating PLPs into a humanities…

As part of its ongoing programs in digital scholarship and the cyberinfrastructure to support teaching, learning and research, the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) in cooperation with the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) held a symposium on September 15, 2008 in which a group of some 30 leading scholars was invited to…

Warns that the worst danger in emphasizing a body of knowledge is that it encourages the superficial form of knowledge currently popular in the game "Trivial Pursuit." Analyzes the game's questions covered in the category on literature. Lists recommendations for humanities professors trying to prepare for the future. (SED)

This paper records three plenary sessions held at the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) National Education Conference, August 27-29, 1993. The conference built on what was learned in the first year of the project and reported in ACLS Occasional Paper 20. Sessions allowed participants to talk with colleagues who had been project…

Considers the role of scholars and teachers of speech communication in the humanistic enterprise. (Speech delivered before the Southern Speech Communication Association Convention, Hot Springs, AR, April 8, 1982). (PD)

Intellectual refinement and spiritual evaluation have been the traditional goals of the humanities and should remain so. If these aims are given up, then the noble endeavors in the humanities such as sustained reflection, intensive research, careful scholarship, inspired teaching, deep learning, and serious discussion will all become discredited…

The humanities are not emphasized in two-year colleges, although junior/community colleges enroll over 30% of all students in post-secondary education. The Center for the Study of Community Colleges is engaged in a multi-phased research project designed to provide information for the National Endowment for the Humanities, which wishes to…

Through humanities instruction, students can begin to understand their own culture by examining other cultures. From this examination, students may perceive that some values other than, or even contrary to, their own accepted ones offer meaning, purpose, validity, utility, and beauty. A review of the search for meaning through the humanities…

Claims Alan Bloom's "Closing of the American Mind" and E.D. Hirsch's "Cultural Literacy" lead readers to believe that young Americans are extraordinarily stupid and that in their ignorance we can read the decline and fall of the American way of life. Presents support which resists rather than foments such panic. (NH)

This article provides some practical information on use of poetry to teach such subject areas as history, literature, philosophy, social studies, minority and foreign studies, and the social sciences. Reference is made to the Watershed Foundation, which has a large collection of poetry on cassette tapes that feature the original authors reading…

The Eight Year Study (EYS) and the Humanities Curriculum Project (HCP) are compared and contrasted on the basis of five hypotheses. First, EYS and HCP were similar in confounding conventional notions of success and failure. Second, both were manifestations of progressive education. Third, both arose in climates of unease over perceived breakdowns…

The industrial model has penetrated every avenue of American existence; even education is compartmentalized in the United States for the purposes of management and immediate efficiency. One initial step that has been taken toward creative and constructive change in education is the institution of cross-disciplinary humanities courses. English…

The current data on the incidence and predilections of adult students fall into "good news" and "bad news" categories for educators in the humanities. The good news begins with the sheer numbers of potential adult students. In 1975, about 17 million adults were engaged in continuing education, and this figure has probably increased dramatically…

If children entering school today are to avoid a 12- to 20-year apprenticeship in alienation dominated by the mere manipulation of words and numbers, education must foster an appreciation for the roles the humanities play in helping mankind rise above the earthly and achieve a reflective overview of society. Such an appreciation can be obtained…

Typically, students justify their pursuit of a college education as being necessary for a well-paying job, rather than as a tool for themselves as individuals. Often college curricula are responsible for turning students away from knowledge for its own sake. But should an education be merely useful? The description of the Alphas in Aldous Huxley's…