The best kind of college : an insiders' guide to America's small liberal arts colleges / edited by Susan McWilliams and John E. Seery.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

McWilliams, Susan Jane, 1977- editor.

Seery, John Evan, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Small colleges--United States.

Small colleges.

Education, Humanistic--United States.

Education, Humanistic.

Universities and colleges--United States--Guidebooks.

Universities and colleges.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (315 p.)

Place of Publication:

Albany, New York : State University of New York Press, [2015]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The fevered controversy over America's educational future isn't simply academic; those who have proposed sweeping reforms include government officials, politicians, foundation officers, think-tank researchers, journalists, media pundits, and university administrators. Drowned out in that noisy debate are the voices of those who actually teach the liberal arts exclusively to undergraduates in our nation's small liberal arts colleges, or SLACs. The Best Kind of College attempts to rectify that glaring oversight. As an insiders' "guide" to the liberal arts in its truest form the volume brings together thirty award-winning professors from across the country to convey in various ways some of the virtues, the electricity, and, overall, the importance of the small-seminar, face-to-face approach to education, as typically featured in SLACs. Before we in the United States abandon or compromise our commitment to the liberal arts—oddly enough, precisely at a time when our global competitors are discovering, emulating, and founding American-style SLACs and new liberal arts programs—we need a wake-up call, namely to the fact that the nation's SLACs provide a time-tested model of educational integrity and success.

Contents:

Contents; Acknowledgments; Introduction; What's the Big Deal about Small Liberal Arts Colleges?; Small Liberal Arts Colleges versus the "Competition"; The Money Issue; This Book; Notes; Part One: The Classroom; What's Love Got to Do with It? Shakespeare: A Liberal Art; A Story of Origins: Shakespeare on Stage; Shakespeare in the Classroom and Beyond; Postscript: Richard III Again-in the Graveyard and Beyond; Notes; In Defense of Small: Some Personal Reflections on Teaching Chemistry at a Primarily Undergraduate Institution; Notes

An Invitation to Get Lost: The Right Kind of Place for Liberal LearningIntroduction; An Invitation to Get Lost; The Lost Scenario as an Occasion for Liberal Learning; The Best Kind of College for Liberal Learning; Conclusion; Notes; From Observation to Engagement to Collaboration: The Liberal Arts Journey; Notes; Magic in the Classroom; Part Two: The Career; Learning to Live a Life of Learnable Moments; Notes; (What Is Meant to Be) Straight Talk on Intellectual, Cultural, and Moral Formation; Robert Frost, Symbolical Teacher; Notes

The "Job Definition" of a Faculty Member at a Liberal Arts InstitutionTeaching; A Walk Down Memory Lane; Scholarship; Service; Putting It All Together; Notes; How Liberal Arts Colleges Have Shaped My Life; Part Three: The Curriculum; Liberal Education as Respecting Who We Are; Education for Sophists; Defending the Humanities?; The Socratic Method and Its Limits; Respect for Texts; Berry College's Contribution to Our Educational Diversity; Note; Humanizing the Subject: Toward a Curriculum for Liberal Education in the Twenty-First Century; What Liberal Education Is Not

What Liberal Education IsA Concrete Example; Means and Ends of Liberal Education; Notes; Singing a New History: Pathways to Learning in a Liberal Arts Setting; Notes; Living Art; Social Entrepreneurship and the Liberal Arts; Notes; Beyond Cs Getting Degrees: Teaching the Liberal Arts and Sciences at a Comprehensive University; What Knowledge Should Students Learn?; Persuading Educational Consumers of the Need to Think; Helping Students Find a Purpose Worthy of Their Devotion; The Promise (and Hope) of a Liberal Arts Education; Notes; Part Four: The Community

Unlearning Helplessness: The Liberal Arts and the Future of EducationLiberal Arts Colleges: The Mothers of (Re)Invention; Note; The Best Kind of College: Spelman College; Athletics in the Liberal Arts; Going Elsewhere, Coming Home; On Not Lamenting Our Virginity; Notes; Part Five: The College; Departures; John F. Kennedy International Airport, January 8, 2012; Chicago O'Hare International Airport, January 21, 2012; San Francisco International Airport, February 12, 2012; Reed College Front Lawn, September 21, 2012; Conclusion: The Author's Backyard, June 28, 2013; Notes

What Matters Most? Liberal Arts Colleges in Perilous Times

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781438457734

1438457731