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college week: Examining higher ed.

Reform School, Contd.How to reinvent higher education.


Updated Thursday, Nov. 17, 2005, at 6:46 AM ET

Click here to read more from Slate's "College Week."

What should students be studying in college? No one seems to agree anymore. Harvard University is in the midst of a heated debate about its general education requirements, while the Association of American Colleges and Universities has launched a campaign to promote "a liberal education." Slate has taken the occasion to ask an array of prominent academics to tackle the question at the heart of the debate: What should undergraduates leave college knowing? Stanley N. Katz provides an overview of the liberal arts debate here. And here are the links to the responses of the 11 academics:

Alan Wolfe: "When Ideas Kill"
Mark Lilla: "Un-American Activities"
K. Anthony Appiah: "Learn Statistics! Go Abroad"
Andrew Delbanco: "In Praise of Great Books"
Alison Gopnik: "Let Them Solve Problems"
Steven Pinker: "The Matrix, Revisited"
Michael Bérubé: "Disabilities Studies"
Anthony Grafton: "Wrestling with Greco-Roman Ideas"
S. Georgia Nugent: "Morality-Based Learning"
W. Robert Connor: "Give Majors an Overhaul"
Astrida Orle Tantillo: "What Professors Don't Tell You"

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