Hoya Student, Points To Weak Theology At Georgetown, Go Get'em Tiger

GU Liberal Education Needs a Liberal Dose of Change
With its Jesuit history, Georgetown has a strong tradition of providing its students with a liberal education and preparing them for a life of intellectual inquiry and moral understanding, but unfortunately, these goals are not completely reflected by the current core curriculum. Students and faculty at Georgetown should welcome the provost's recent announcement of the formation of a committee to review the university's curriculum. In light of the provost's announcement, I have a few suggestions about where the core curriculum needs improvement that I hope the committee will consider. The theology requirements, for example, should be more specific. The two semesters of theology that every Georgetown student is required to take truly sets our university apart from other elite institutions. As Cardinal Newman noted in "The Idea of a University," a university must teach theology so that it can live up to its mission of seeking the truth. When a university disregards theology, it risks ignoring the spiritual side of human nature. Additionally, theology is necessary for understanding the relationship between academic subjects and a transcendent order of things. Georgetown's recognition of theology's importance reveals its commitment to providing a truly liberal education and gives the university a unique perspective in academia. But Georgetown can improve its treatment of theology by requiring at least one course in Catholic theology specifically. Georgetown was born from the Catholic and Jesuit intellectual tradition, and this tradition remains at the heart of the university. Many students, however, graduate from Georgetown without any exposure to the religious dimension of a Catholic education.

As a Catholic institution, Georgetown has a responsibility to educate both Catholic and non-Catholic students in Church doctrine and morals. A requirement of one semester of Catholic theology would meet the bare minimum of Georgetown's obligations to share its faith. It might also spark more interest from the Georgetown community in the intellectual tradition of the Church, the Jesuits and Georgetown. The philosophy requirement could be improved with a stronger commitment to the classics. Fr. James Schall, S.J., often says that a person who has not read Plato cannot consider himself educated.

The existing two-semester philosophy requirement would be greatly enhanced by a requirement of some type of study of the Greek and Roman classics. Not only are these works intrinsically beneficial to students, but reading them also helps students see the development of Western philosophy in the correct perspective. It used to be the norm for students of a liberal education to be well-versed in the discipline of logic. The provost should consider mandating a classics and a logic course for all students, as this is such an important component of scholarship in any academic discipline. Furthermore, the university changed the history requirement only a few years ago, but I think these changes were ill-conceived. Although my sentiment goes against current attitudes about multiculturalism, the core curriculum should require students to fulfill the history core with European history courses. I hasten to add that my position does not flow from any disrespect toward other regions histories. As a history major, I have benefited enormously from professors and courses focused on aspects outside my region of study. However, we cannot truly understand ourselves, our culture or our values without understanding our past. Western civilization is grounded in the history of Europe, and understanding of modernity becomes a huge muddle when a student lacks an understanding of European history. And that brings me to the current humanities and writing requirement, which is far too broad; a very large number of courses that do not satisfy the other core requirements could conceivably be used for fulfillment of the humanities and writing credits. The provost needs to reintroduce English literature into the core.

No university worth the name has any business conferring a degree upon a student
who has not read the seminal works of the canon. All Georgetown students should
be pushed to spend time studying Shakespeare, Milton, Austen and Dickens.

If the students do not have a grasp of the literary past of the English-speaking world, they become, as Mark Steyn recently described it, a "culture unable to refer to anything beyond itself." The purpose of a core curriculum is to give each student for the rest of his life a body of knowledge necessary for participation and leadership in that society. Students do not come to a university equipped to define that body; therefore, it is the university’s responsibility to take a stand and offer its guidance. Georgetown prides itself in giving its students diverse course offerings and an international perspective in all areas of study. These are certainly positive attributes that I would not want to disturb. Nevertheless, aside from being a politically involved university,

Georgetown is also a religious institution, and I cannot escape the conclusion
that many Georgetown students are strangers to foundational elements of a
Catholic and liberal education. That is why the time has come to reinforce the
traditional core curriculum, not impair it further.

Georgetown can remain a prestigious research university while still maintaining a liberal education for its students. The two are not mutually exclusive. We must remember that the highest priority of the Georgetown administration should be the types of students its education produces. I would hope that Georgetown continues to value the virtues that a liberal education challenges students to find. I commend the provost for recognizing the need to reform our core curriculum, and I hope that future changes will preserve the quality of liberal education at Georgetown.
Stephen Kenny is a senior in the College. He can be reached at kenny@thehoya.com. AGAINST THE WIND appears every other Tuesday.