College students today have tremendous freedom to choose the courses they will take. With such freedom, however, students face a pressing dilemma: How can they choose well? Which courses convey the core of an authentic liberal arts education, transmitting our civilizational inheritance, and which courses are merely passing fads? From the smorgasbord of electives available, how can students achieve a coherent understanding of their world and their...
Truly a must-read for every graduating senior before they head off to college, this Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) book is foundational if a student wants to actually get an education during their tenure in "higher education." Henrie begins by asking why students actually go to college in the first place - for purpose will determine process; meaning that what each student hopes to achieve while in college will dictate...
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How great it would be if today's Colleges and Universities would take the advice of this book and introduce (or reintroduce) a required core curriculum in Western Civilization! This book provides some healthy advice to help students plan such a program independently. Contrary to the previous reviewer's complaint, I find no arrogance or condescension in the author's tone. My guess is that the reviewer simply was not mature...
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I purchased this book in the middle of my freshman year of college and I have tried to select my courses based on Mr. Henrie's recommendations. Overall, I have found this book to be useful for its stated purpose, but there are some shortcomings present. For example, on p.48 Mr. Henrie advises students that "if you must choose between the Old and New Testaments, opt for the New." This is not remarkable in its own right, but...
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At the recommendation of a professor with whom I was mentoring a group of first-year students, I read this book as a senior beginning my last semester at a liberal arts college where I'd had a great deal of freedom in choosing my gen. ed./ core curriculum. I only wish I'd read it my freshman year, when I was beginning my pursuit of a liberal education that ended up being very haphazard with the guidance of an advisor who...
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This (very) short book is a remarkable find. Most universities today have completely abandoned their traditional core curricula or replaced the core with nebulous "distribution" requirements. This book is a blueprint for college students to use their ELECTIVES to assemble a core curriculum of their own. But it is also much more. Each of the write-ups of the eight recommended courses is really a short Socratic meditation, raising...
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