Converting the Barbarian: The Role of a Metropolitan University

Abstract

Universities today are expected to convert barbarians into educated persons who are ideally prepared for the world of work in the same amount of time that universities previously devoted to the teaching of the classics, rudimentary mathematics, and some rhetoric. Since metropolitan universities must also engage in some remediation because they accept in large numbers young men and women who are not ideally prepared for university work, they must consider curricula that take longer to complete than the current ones, if they are to attain all of the objectives. Otherwise, all that will be accomplished in curricular reform is to substitute one important course for an equally valuable one.