Goodbye Western Civ?

According to a recent study by the National Association of Scholars, the traditional survey course in Western Civilization is vanishing from the general education curriculum at American colleges and universities.  The study is based on the seventy-five “top” colleges and universities as ranked by U.S. News & World Report in 2009.  Here is a summary of the report:

1. Western Civilization survey courses have virtually disappeared from general education requirements.
 
2. Even for history majors, Western Civilization surveys are rarely required.
 
3. American history survey requirements for history majors are rare.
 
4. Surveys of American history are not included in general education requirements.
 
5. World history is on the rise

The NAS laments this loss of Western Civ:

Clearly, many of those who will eventually assume positions of opinion leadership in our society as teachers in our schools, or as participants in public life, are no longer learning about their civilization’s great story, its triumphs, its vicissitudes, and its singular role in transforming the human condition. What is the future of a civilization whose heirs have largely become blinded to its history? And what can we do to revive the study of Western Civilization?
 
The widespread emphasis on “multiculturalism” is an inadequate answer. That’s because, in practice, multiculturalism leaves students ill-equipped to understand the context of their own lives or the world around them. Western Civilization is so interconnected with and influential in the rest of the world that students who are left with scant knowledge of it can achieve at best only a superficial understanding of the larger picture.
 
Reviving the Western Civilization survey in the form that served earlier generations probably is neither feasible nor desirable. Historical scholarship, including knowledge of the West’s interactions with other civilizations and cultures, has progressed. An up-to-date survey would have to take account of this new scholarship.
 
But a historical overview of the Western ascent toward freedom, scientific and technology mastery, and world power, is no less essential to the current generation than it was to those past. 

Recommendations include: 

• Establishing a presidential committee to “examine the current place of Western Civilization” in the curriculum
• The American Historical Association and Organization of American Historians should devote time and energy to exploring this issue.
• State legislatures should hold hearings on the place of Western Civ and American history in colleges and universities.
• Undergraduate general requirements should restore the Western Civ requirement.
• The Western Civ course needs to be reinvented to synthesize new scholarship in the area of globalization and the “claims of ‘world history’.”
• Western Civ courses should be a prerequisite for upper-level courses in other liberal arts fields.
• History majors should be required to take a two-semester survey in Western Civ.
• Students should not place out of Western Civ unless they score a 5 on the AP European history exam.
• Graduate students in history programs should all have “demonstrated competence in Western Civilizations regardless of their specializations.”
• History departments should require all faculty members to teach Western Civ.

While some of these recommendation seem a bit over-the-top and overly conservative, I agree, in principal, with many of them and would argue for keeping Western Civ and/or American history in the general education curriculum for many of the reasons espoused in this report.  I do agree that either the “traditional” Western Civ needs to deal more fully with the West’s interaction with the rest of the world or have students learn about non-western history and culture through another required course.

Here at Messiah College, I think we have navigated this well.  All general educations students must take either a Western Civilization or American History survey course.  They also have the option of taking another Western Civ or American history course to fulfill a social science requirement.  All students are required to take a course in “non-western studies,” a requirement that can be fulfilled by taking our “World Civilization” survey course.

Our history majors are required to take, at the survey level, one semester of Western Civ, one semester of World Civ, and two semesters of American history survey.

I recommend the NAS report to professors, department chairs, and administrators. (Also take a look at the Inside Higher Ed report on it).  While it is very unlikely that any college or university will adopt all the recommendations in the report, it does make for a good discussion piece.

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