College: What it Was, Is, and Should Be
by Andrew Delbanco
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The strengths and failures of the American college, and why liberal education still mattersAs the commercialization of American higher education accelerates, more and more students are coming to college with the narrow aim of obtaining a preprofessional credential. The traditional four-year college experience—an exploratory time for students to discover their passions and test ideas and values with the help of teachers and peers—is in danger of becoming a thing of the past.In College, show more prominent cultural critic Andrew Delbanco offers a trenchant defense of such an education, and warns that it is becoming a privilege reserved for the relatively rich. In describing what a true college education should be, he demonstrates why making it available to as many young people as possible remains central to America's democratic promise.In a brisk and vivid historical narrative, Delbanco explains how the idea of college arose in the colonial period from the Puritan idea of the gathered church, how it struggled to survive in the nineteenth century in the shadow of the new research universities, and how, in the twentieth century, it slowly opened its doors to women, minorities, and students from low-income families. He describes the unique strengths of America’s colleges in our era of globalization and, while recognizing the growing centrality of science, technology, and vocational subjects in the curriculum, he mounts a vigorous defense of a broadly humanistic education for all. Acknowledging the serious financial, intellectual, and ethical challenges that all colleges face today, Delbanco considers what is at stake in the urgent effort to protect these venerable institutions for future generations. show lessTags
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A re-centering of the discussion of college and the college experience as seen through the eyes of a cultural historian that is not at all elitist, and an examiniation of 'college' as a distinctly American institution. The author suggests that the importance of the four-year liberal arts education has been lost in the rush to train students for careers. The spiritual center of this book argues that college teaches one to enjoy life.
In this small book, this Columbia University professor provides a wide-ranging look at the development of higher education in America, beginning with its origins up to the present day.
College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be (New in Paperback) by Andrew Delbanco and five other books reviewed by Rick Ostrander in 3-4/13 B&C, "Learning to Surf--a college provost encounters the digital revolution" had LCA teachers read this article/review
[Delbanco] reminds us that the Puritan founders of colonial colleges believed that learning was more about awakening and transformation than about the transfer of information.
(In accompanying article) As Delbanco insists, we need the "mind and mind" relationship between students and teachers, whether in the precepts (discussion groups) like those utilized at Princeton for lectures, or in intentioanal digital chat rooms or assignments, like those utilized by Harvard physics professor Eric show more Mazur.
That democratizing of who can pass judgment is digital thinking [Cathy Davidson]. show less
[Delbanco] reminds us that the Puritan founders of colonial colleges believed that learning was more about awakening and transformation than about the transfer of information.
(In accompanying article) As Delbanco insists, we need the "mind and mind" relationship between students and teachers, whether in the precepts (discussion groups) like those utilized at Princeton for lectures, or in intentioanal digital chat rooms or assignments, like those utilized by Harvard physics professor Eric show more Mazur.
That democratizing of who can pass judgment is digital thinking [Cathy Davidson]. show less
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18+ Works 1,854 Members
Andrew Delbanco is the Mendelson Family Chair of American Studies and the Julian Clarence Levi Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University. His books include Melville: His World and Work (Vintage), which won the Lionel Trilling Award and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in biography. He received the 2011 National show more Humanities Medal for his writing, which spans from the literature of Melville and Emerson to contemporary issues in higher education. show less
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