Reviews
"At last, some good news about education! This collection brings together essays by professors at small liberal arts colleges, voices largely unheard in the debates raging about higher education. It ranges widely through disciplines and across colleges, taking us into classrooms where we see the creative, inventive kinds of teaching that go on when classes are kept small and professors can interact with students. This book is a welcome corrective to claims that higher education is 'broken' and in need of a high-tech fix, a quiet reminder that 'innovation' goes on as a matter of course at colleges where teaching is top priority and is kept to human scale." -- Gayle Greene, Scripps College "McWilliams and Seery have achieved something remarkable: they have found a new and interesting way to present the case for the liberal arts model in American education. More than that, they have managed to show the value of, as well as present the argument for, the model. At its best, the book recreates something of the experience of a liberal arts education in microcosm. This is a wonderful, provocative, engaging, and moving book. It is unlikely to be surpassed." -- Simon Stow, author of Republic of Readers? The Literary Turn in Political Thought and Analysis
Table of Content
Acknowledgments Introduction Susan McWilliams and John E. Seery, Pomona College Part One: The Classroom What''s Love Got to Do with It? Shakespeare: A Liberal Art Martha Andresen, Pomona College In Defense of Small: Some Personal Reflections on Teaching Chemistry at a Primarily Undergraduate Institution Dasan M. Thamattoor, Colby College An Invitation to Get Lost : The Right Kind of Place for Liberal Learning Nicholas Buccola, Linfield College From Observation to Engagement to Collaboration: The Liberal Arts Journey Jerusha B. Detweiler-Bedell, Lewis & Clark College Magic in the Classroom Arthur T. Benjamin, Harvey Mudd College Part Two: The Career Learning to Live a Life of Learnable Moments Justin Crowe, Williams College (What Is Meant to Be) Straight Talk on Intellectual, Cultural, and Moral Formation Jason Peters, Augustana College Robert Frost, Symbolical Teacher Robert H. Bell, Williams College The "Job Definition" of a Faculty Member at a Liberal Arts Institution Elizabeth J. Jensen, Hamilton College How Liberal Arts Colleges Have Shaped My Life Akila Weerapana, Wellesley College Part Three: The Curriculum Liberal Education as Respecting Who We Are Peter Augustine Lawler, Berry College Humanizing the Subject: Toward a Curriculum for Liberal Education in the Twenty-First Century Jeffrey Freyman, Transylvania University Singing a New History: Pathways to Learning in a Liberal Arts Setting Steven S. Volk, Oberlin College Living Art Ruthann Godollei, Macalester College Social Entrepreneurship and the Liberal Arts Jonathan Isham, Middlebury College Beyond Cs Getting Degrees: Teaching the Liberal Arts and Sciences at a Comprehensive University Jeffrey A. Becker, University of the Pacific Part Four: The Community Unlearning Helplessness: The Liberal Arts and the Future of Education Adam Kotskom, Shimer College Liberal Arts Colleges: The Mother of (Re)Invention Jay Barth, Hendrix College The Best Kind of College: Spelman College Donna Akiba Sullivan Harper, Spelman College Athletics in the Liberal Arts Jennifer Shea Lane, Wesleyan University Going Elsewhere, Coming Home Yolanda P. Cruz, Oberlin College On Not Lamenting Our Virginity Jane F. Crosthwaite, Mount Holyoke College Part Five: The College Departures K. E. Brashier, Reed College What Matters Most? Liberal Arts Colleges in Perilous Times John K. Roth, Claremont McKenna College Importing the American Liberal Arts College? Kristine Mitchell and Cotten Seiler, Dickinson College Nationalism and the Liberal Arts Will Barndt, Pitzer College The Liberal Arts and the Pursuit of Wisdom Timothy Baker Shutt, Kenyon College About the Editors Index
