February 09, 2005
My Dream Curriculum
Perhaps someday there will be levels of higher education funding like we had in the 1960's, and educational reform--especially of undergraduate education--will be on the national agenda again. Departments will be secure enough not to worry about turf wars, and the supply and demand of Ph.D's will be closer to a market-clearing equilibrium.
In this new world, dear Blogora readers, how would you construct your ideal rhetoric curriculum? We would still have Communication and English departments, I imagine, but how would you construct a program in or between these departments?
My idea: construct a free-standing program (sort of like Iowa) in which faculty have homes in other departments. There would be no "major," but rather a unified core curriculum consisting of the following:
1. A full-year freshman course integrating public speaking, debate, writing, computer graphic design, and logic.
2. A set of sophomore-level courses involving in-depth practice of the skills described in 1 (one might concentrate on debate, for example, or webpage design).
3. A Plato-to-Nato history of rhetoric course, designed to fulfill the function of "Western Civilization" courses, either at junior or senior levels, but integrating both rhetorical theory and rhetorical practice (one would read de Oratore AND Cicero's speeches, Augustine's de doctrina Christiana AND his Confessions or sermons).
4. An American Public Address course, including major orations, campaigns, and Supreme Court decisions.
5. A "capstone" course in the major--for example, a policy rhetoric course for social science majors, a rhetoric of science course for engineers or natural scientists, and so on. The emphasis would be on the public implications of the chosen major, and on writing and speaking for both professional and lay audiences.
Any thoughts?
Categories: Teaching Rhetoric
Posted by jim at 10:45 PM | Comments (0)
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