Common Reading Programs: Political Fluff for Freshmen

James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | July 1, 2019 | Chris West

[reaganaut1]

Many colleges assign “common readings” to incoming students as an intellectual experience outside the classroom to set the bar for the academic rigor that professors expect of students. This tradition is most students’ first taste of the university.

This well-meaning tradition, however, has become highly politicized and the quality of reading has significantly decreased over the years. Works like The Iliad and Catcher in the Rye have disappeared, replaced by books written by comedians from The New York Times best seller list.

The classics have been traded out for the ephemeral.

This change is emblematic of the university. Incoming students are no longer prepared for rigorous, intellectually challenging material. Instead, they read “timely” political books that are only relevant during the current news cycle.

North Carolina colleges, public and private, have followed national trends. Eight of the 16 University of North Carolina schools have a common reading program, and seven of the 29 private schools. No North Carolina school, public or private, chose a book published before 2010. Within the UNC system, six of the eight assigned readings have been published since 2012. That recency bias matters because the books are often left-leaning and these programs signal what political ideas campus administrators want students to hold.

Half of the assigned readings at UNC schools and many at the state’s private institutions focus on the hot political topics of race and refugees. These readings do not prepare students for life as college freshmen; instead, they prime students for embracing a progressive conception of social justice.

Students at UNC-Charlotte will read Spare Parts: Four Undocumented Teenagers, One Ugly Robot, and the Battle for the American Dream, “a story about education, immigration, race, Americanness” and “a feel-good tale” that “will spark discussions of systemic inequalities and cultural diversity,” according to the university.

[Steve_Seattle]

"North Carolina colleges, public and private, have followed national trends. Eight of the 16 University of North Carolina schools have a common reading program, and seven of the 29 private schools. No North Carolina school, public or private, chose a book published before 2010."

Probably Ta-Nahesi Coates and similar drivel. It sounds like today's students are majoring in themselves.

A couple of years ago there was a kerfuffle at Seattle University, my alma-mater, in which a dean was forced to resign over her handling of student protests concerning the curriculum. They demanded that books written by "dead white men" be removed from the curriculum and replaced by stuff that was "relevant to their concerns," the contemporary stuff that the author of this article is talking about: stuff written by people who reflect the students' own values and concerns, and do not challenge them in any way.

These students seem to think that they already know everything, that all questions have been answered, so all they want is to have their own beliefs reflected back at them. Anything contrary to that generates rage.

[A_perfect_lady]

so all they want is to have their own beliefs reflected back at them.

Perfect summary.

[Damifino]

I know I always rave about the education quality @ Hillsdale; so why stop now?

All students regardless of major ore required to take "Great books 1 and 2 (English 104 and 105). Here's the reading list:

English 104
Homer: The Odyssey, The Iliad
Aeschylus: Oresteia
Sophocles: Oedipus the King, Antigone
Euripedes: Medea
Plato: The Apology of Socrates, Phaedo
Aristotle: Poetics
Virgil: The Aeneid
Old Testament: Genesis, Job, Psalms
New Testament: Matthew, Luke
St. Augustine: Confessions
St. Benedict: Rule
Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales
Dante: The Divine Comedy

English 105
Anon.: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Anon.: Everyman
Shakespeare: Hamlet, Othello
Castiglione: The Book of the Courtier
Swift: “A Modest Proposal”
Pope: The Rape of the Lock; An Essay on Man
Blake: selected poetry
Wordsworth: selected poetry
Coleridge: selected poetry
Shelley: selected poetry
Keats: selected poetry
Yeats: selected poetry
James Joyce: “The Dead”
Eliot: “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” The Waste Land, Four Quartets
Beckett: Endgame
Virginia Woolf: “A Room of One’s Own”
Emerson: selected essays
Hawthorne, selected short stories and The Scarlet Letter
Melville: “Bartleby” and Moby Dick
Thoreau: Walden
Whitman: selected poetry
Dickinson: selected lyrics
Frost: selected poetry
Faulkner: selected fiction
O’Connor: selected short stories

At Hillsdale, these are a 100-level courses!

[aspasia]

Can you afford it?

[mad_as_he$$]

Meh. To much wordy pointless dribble. Add Atlas Shrugged, 1984 and any Victor Davis Hansen book. More relevant than Shakespeare in today’s world. I already know your answer, save yourself some keyboarding.

[Maine Mariner]

I would add at some point Churchill’s “History of the English Speaking Peoples.”

[Damifino]

Can you afford it?

Yes, and so can everyone else. A version of Hillsdale's Great Books is available to the public online for free!

My son graduated Hillsdale in May. An Econ and Psych Major starting Medical School later this month. Married a Hillsdale grad just this Saturday.

[Damifino]

To(o) much wordy pointless dribble...

Meh... I can help you sound out the big words to help you through it.....

[mad_as_he$$]

Thanks for your personal insulting answer. Excellent indicator of your level of debating skills.

[aspasia]

Ah, that way. You can also try the list from St. John's.

[Damifino]

Wow, St John’s reading list is amazing as well!