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Oglethorpe initiated its "core curriculum," in the
academic year 1944-45, making it one of the first core
programs in the United States. In his explanatory brochure
about the program,
Oglethorpe President Philip Weltner presented a new liberal
arts curriculum with the twin aims of equipping students to
“make a life and make a living.” Each student would devote
one half of his or her college course work to the common
intellectual experience of the core, while the student would
devote the other half to his or her major area of study. In
outlining his new plan and his philosophy of education,
President Weltner anticipated some of the ideas featured in
General Education in a Free Society, Harvard University’s
1945 statement stressing an emphasis on liberal arts and a
core curriculum.
The idea of a core curriculum was at that time so
revolutionary in higher education that news of the
Oglethorpe Plan appeared in The New York Times in the spring
of 1945. Dr. Weltner told The Times: "We are trying to
develop keen...appreciation and understanding. Instead of
dividing our courses into separate schools, we are giving
the students a good liberal and general education which can
become the basis of hundreds of vocations."
Dr. Weltner’s core curriculum for the Oglethorpe students
of the 1940s reflected the concerns of the war era: the core
consisted of a series of courses under the headings
"Citizenship" and “Human Understanding." As the concerns of
the war era receded and the postwar information explosion
ensued, the Oglethorpe core underwent extensive revision in
the 1960s, with its required courses coming to resemble much
more closely traditional courses in the disciplines.
Gradually this core came to focus on those courses
representing competencies that a well-educated generalist
ought to have upon graduating from college.
With the support of a major grant from the National
Endowment for the Humanities, the Oglethorpe core curriculum
underwent substantial revision in the early 1990s to reflect
a new idea about core curriculum and its purpose. Rather
than an attempt to define what every student should know or
a list of basic competencies every student should have, the
new Oglethorpe core aimed at providing a common learning
experience for all students. Since the early 1990s the core
curriculum has undergone further scrutiny and refinement.
Beginning in 1998, Oglethorpe implemented a sequence of new
interdisciplinary year-long courses. These sequences, which
extend over all four years of a student’s collegiate career,
feature the reading of a number of primary texts common to
all sections of the courses and frequent writing
assignments. Each course in the sequence builds upon the
body of knowledge studied in the previous course. Courses in
the fine arts and in mathematics complement these sequences.
The program explicitly invites students to integrate their
core learning and to consider knowledge gained from study in
the core as they approach study in their majors. In
developing this curriculum, the faculty has renewed its
commitment to the spirit of Dr. Weltner’s original core: "We
must never for an instant forget that education to be true
to itself must be a progressive experience for the learner,
in which interest gives rise to inquiry, inquiry is pursued
to mastery, and mastery here occasions new interests there."
As every student’s second major, the core continues to
urge students to pursue links among the various areas of
study and to appreciate the value of intellectual inquiry. A
National Endowment for the Humanities Challenge Grant, which
Oglethorpe received in 1996, helped to create an endowment
for the core curriculum, guaranteeing that faculty have the
resources to keep the core vital and central to learning at
Oglethorpe. As faculty work together through frequent
conversation about the content and goals of their core
courses to provide an integrated approach to learning, one
is reminded of the pledge Dr. Weltner made over half a
century ago in outlining the core: "Oglethorpe University
insists that the object is not to pass a subject; the object
is to take and keep it."
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