Integration of Humanities and Social Studies

Abstract

HoW can the humanities and the social studies be integrated in a college curriculum? Throughout the United States, administrators and teachers, interested in advancing the cause of general education, are working out varied solutions to this problem.' Taken together, these educational adventures constitute a significant trend in higher education. No two of these efforts are alike, for each has an individuality and originality of its own, depending upon the need of the particular institution or the scholastic background of the staff directing the project. The movement for integration has, however, been in progress long enough to permit the observation of certain trends concerning the extent to which integration has been carried out, the levels of the curriculum to which this policy has been applied, the methods of presentation, the reading materials employed, and the administration of such courses. In this study the humanities are considered as including literature, art, and music; and the social studies as embracing history, economics, government, sociology, anthropology, psychology, and geography; religion and philosophy are regarded as belonging to both groups. There is considerable variation in the extent to which integration is carried out. Some institutions limit their efforts to bringing related subjects either into a separate humanities or into a distinct social-studies sequence, making no effort to combine these two groups into a single unit. Other institutions merge the humanities and the social studies into a single sequence. One institution fuses humanities and social studies with the physical sciences. An illustration of integration within the humanities and within the social studies is to be found at Columbia University. The first year of the humanities sequence is a great books course covering a number of figures in world literature, from Homer to Goethe. In the second year a semester in the history and appreciation of music is followed by a semester in fine arts. As far back as I9I9, Columbia University began its contemporary civilization course, which was probably the pioneer effort at integration within the social studies. The first year of this course also treats 'This article presents some of the results of a study undertaken by the author as chairman of a committee on curricular integration for the New York Municipal Colleges. For this study, syllabuses and outlines in the humanities and social studies were analyzed, and additional information was obtained through correspondence.