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scholarly writings on questions concerning world history and world
culture courses. The discussion at Stanford seems to have ignored a
considerable amount of relevant literature on the central themes in
dispute.
The second distinctive thing about the discussion at Stanford is
the deplorable level of discourse and the denunciatory tones of abuse
which have marked the exchange of different points of view. The
course in Western culture at Stanford has been attacked as racist,
sexist, and imperialistic. One critic of the course declared that
Western culture as it stands is "not just racist education, it is the
education of racists." More distressing even than this violation of the
courtesies of civilized discourse is that it brought no appropriate
response from the humanistic scholars who have taught in and
designed the program, protesting the degradation of the intellectual
level of the discussion.
Proposals were made to reform the alleged bias in the course on
Western culture by the injection of material from non-Western
culture, Third World countries, and from spokesmen for feminist
and the various oppressed minorities . They elicited some relevant
technical objections to their feasibility and desirability -limited
time, inadequate personnel, and their relative significance for the
perennial problems of reflective life central to the course. These ob–
jections were fiercely denounced as a mask for the expression of
racism, and as a more subtle manifestation of the spirit of intol–
erance and violence evident in the outrages of Howard Beach and
elsewhere. The pages of
The Stanford Daily
contain the most in–
temperate and irresponsible charges of racism against those who
defended retaining the course on Western culture with some modifi–
cation on various educational grounds. Among the grounds was that
the overwhelming number of students who had completed the course
over the years regarded it as very satisfactory. Some declared it to be
the high point of their educational experience.
The extent to which the discussion of the course on Western
culture became politicalized is evidenced in the shouting protest
march of last January on the Stanford Senate led by the Rev. Jesse
Jackson demanding the abolition of the course. Whatever his con–
tributions to American life and culture, the Rev. Jackson is not
known for his contributions to curricular reform on the collegiate
level. That the members of the Senate and Academic Council of
Stanford should be in need of instruction from the Rev. Jackson on
the essentials of liberal education is preposterous. One can very well
