What Should We Be Teaching?

A debate is now going forward—sometimes raging, sometimes smoldering—over the kind of curriculum that should be offered to college students in literature and the humanities generally. For example, core humanities classes are sometimes offered to freshmen and sophomores as a survey of great texts, intended to made up for the deficiencies of our high schools, and indeed, of our culture. The current debate goes under the portentous name of “canon formation” —which in plain English means, how is the body of great works established? who decides? and in what ways can or should decisions be changed? Do traditional judgments about the classics still need to be respected? Should we train students to read a novel by Jane Austen o...