General Education and the Problems of Life

Abstract

IN AN article, Fundamental Purposes of Higher which appeared in the JOURNAL several years ago, we stated that the content of general education must be focused upon the opportunities, demands, and exigencies of daily living, and that the methods of instruction used must be calculated to develop in the learner those abilities-knowledge of facts, understandings of principles, skills of thinking, purposes, interests, appreciations, attitudes, and ideals-which are necessary to prepare him for these needs of life.' This twofold aspect of the purpose of general education has recently received increased emphasis in such documents as A Design for General Education, distributed by the American Council on Education; the Report of the Committee on the Restatement of the Nature and Aims of Liberal Education, appointed by the Association of American Colleges; and the report entitled General Education at the University of Minnesota. The purpose of this article is to note the implications which some of the more problematic situations commonly met in the present-day world have for general education, and to examine the bearings which knowledge of facts, understanding of con-