STANFORD DOCUMENTS
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE STANFORD
UNIVERSITY FACULTY SENATE
An observer of the educational scene at Stanford during
the last fourteen years, I am taking the liberty of offering some com–
ments on the proposed reforms in the course on Western culture.
Among my professional concerns has been a prolonged concern with
the philosophy of education and with the philosophy of the cur–
riculum. I noted with interest the reintroduction of the course in
Western culture in 1980 and have followed closely the discussions of
the various reform proposals for it. Such discussions about the
courses on Western culture - their content, their organization, and
the most effective methods of teaching them - have been held on
many other campuses. Two things, however, are distinctive about
the discussion at Stanford.
The first is the almost complete absence of reference to a con–
siderable literature by highly qualified scholars on the genuine prob–
lems that are involved in exploring perfectly legitimate differences
about methods of approach, content, Western or universal (world)
orientation. For example, a few years ago a national conference was
convened at Michigan State University on the subject: "What Amer–
icans Should Know: Western Civilization or World History?" The
published proceedings were edited with an introduction by Professor
Josef W. Konvitz.
There is hardly a single topic of educational interest broached
in the discussion at Stanford during the last two years which is not
considered in depth in those proceedings - including questions of
periodization, chronological coverage, and the extent to which the
cultures and histories of other areas of the world should be in–
tegrated into the required course. For all the differences among par–
ticipants, the discussions were conducted on a distinguished intellec–
tual level. The bibliographical references call attention to other
Editor's Note: "An Open Letter . .. " first appeared in Stanford University's
Cam–
pus Report,
January 20, 1988. "Educational Disaster . .. " first appeared in the
April 1988 issue of
Measure,
the newsletter of University Centers for Rational Alter–
natives .
The Stanford Daily
is the student newspaper of Stanford University.
