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The experimental Directed Studies program was adopted after World War II as an honors undergraduate track. The program was conservative and reactionary in its attempt to revive the tradition of teaching a classical curriculum and its accompanying "community of intellectual experience".[1] A 1951 article in Time magazine brought the program national prominence as "Yale's boldest attempt to make education whole"—a leading effort to revitalize the practice of teaching "universal knowledge" by uniting studies in history, literature, and science through philosophy.[2] Only open to a few freshmen,[3] it began as a four-year program before dropping to a single-year course with an optional second year. The program had continual funding issues and was at one point rescued by a grant from Paul Mellon. It evolved into a single-year program with three yearlong seminars in literature, philosophy, and political philosophy.[4]

In 1995, Yale expanded enrollment from 85 students to 125 as part of a gesture to affirm the importance of Western civilization studies in the college amid pressure from alumni.[5]

[6][7] Western canon

Directed Studies served as a model for the common curriculum shared between first-year students at Yale-NUS College, Yale's partnership with the National University of Singapore. The faculty of the college, which opened in 2013, expanded the great books program to include Asian literature, scientific inquiry, and quantitative reasoning. The required, common nature of the courses was expected to foster community.[8]

mentions

  • [9]
  • Directed Studies is a Great Books curriculum at Yale. As of 2008, the program was limited to 125 students a year. Journalist Charles Lane praised Yale for offering the program as an alternative to nihilism in the humanities.[10]
  • optional program (compared to Columbia), solely Western texts[11]
  • if needed, NUS's first-year required curriculum\[12]

Program alumni include art historian Kermit S. Champa,[13] rhetoric scholar Richard A. Lanham,[14] former Duke University President Richard H. Brodhead,[15] Frederick Crews, David Frum, and T. K. Seung. Instructors associated with the program include Charles Hill,[cn] Anthony Kronman,[16] Donald Kagan,[17] and historian Thomas Corwin Mendenhall,[18]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Redfield 2015, pp. 46–47.
  2. ^ Redfield 2015, p. 46.
  3. ^ Chase, Alston (1993). "The Rise and Fall of General Education: 1945–1980". Academic Questions. 6 (2): 21. doi:10.1007/BF02683255. ISSN 0895-4852. S2CID 144388334. EBSCOhost 9701240365.
  4. ^ Redfield 2015, p. 210.
  5. ^ Rabinovitz, Jonathan (September 13, 1995). "Yale to Expand Teaching of Western Civilization". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on December 22, 2017. Retrieved July 1, 2017.
  6. ^ Fine, Benjamin (April 29, 1948). "Directed Studies a Success at Yale". The New York Times. ProQuest 108219005. Archived from the original on September 6, 2021. Retrieved November 22, 2014 – via ProQuest. Closed access icon (Subscription required.)
  7. ^ Fine, Benjamin (May 2, 1948). "Yale Program May Determine Merits of Elective System as Opposed to Prescribed Courses". The New York Times. ProQuest 108207707. Archived from the original on September 6, 2021. Retrieved November 22, 2014 – via ProQuest. Closed access icon (Subscription required.)
  8. ^ Rosenberg, John S. (June 8, 2017). "An Educated Core". Harvard Magazine. Archived from the original on July 8, 2017. Retrieved July 1, 2017.
  9. ^ Fine, Benjamin (July 13, 1952). "Tutorial System Will Be Greatly Expanded Under a New Plan Adopted by Yale". The New York Times. ProQuest 112250140. Archived from the original on September 6, 2021. Retrieved November 22, 2014 – via ProQuest. Closed access icon (Subscription required.)
  10. ^ Lane, Charles (May 3, 2008). "The Art of Folly at Yale". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on April 23, 2017. Retrieved June 30, 2017.
  11. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on June 1, 2018. Retrieved June 30, 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  12. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on September 6, 2021. Retrieved June 30, 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  13. ^ Panero, James (September 2004). "Kermit Swiler Champa, 1939-2004". New Criterion. 23 (1): 78. ISSN 0734-0222. EBSCOhost 14373046. He ... chose Yale and its Directed Studies program, where he was awarded a scholarship and work-study.
  14. ^ Baker, William (1995). "Rev. of The Electronic Word: Democracy, Technology, and the Arts by Richard A. Lanham". Style. 29 (1): 161. ISSN 0039-4238. EBSCOhost 9512191875. Lanham entered the Directed Studies Program at Yale as a Ford-Foundation scholar.
  15. ^ Cohan, William D. (2014). The Price of Silence: The Duke Lacrosse Scandal, the Power of the Elite, and the Corruption of Our Great Universities. Simon and Schuster. As a Yale freshman, Brodhead was accepted into the highly selective 'Directed Studies' program...
  16. ^ Delbanco, Andrew (September 22, 2008). "A Higher Education". Commonweal. 135 (16): 10–13. ISSN 0010-3330. Archived from the original on August 4, 2020. Retrieved July 1, 2017.
  17. ^ https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-854018311.html[permanent dead link]
  18. ^ Brelis, Matthew (July 21, 1998). "Thomas Corwin Mendenhall, 88". The Boston Globe. ProQuest 405234080. While at Yale, he helped establish the Directed Studies Program, a program of general education.
  19. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on November 18, 2018. Retrieved June 30, 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  20. ^ Mouheb, Roberta Buckingham (February 2012). Yale Under God. ISBN 9781619968844. Archived from the original on September 6, 2021. Retrieved July 26, 2016.


Works cited[edit]

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

Category:Great Books Category:Yale University