Rally 'round the Core

By James S. Panero | Wednesday, May 1, 1996

Come on people, join in: "Ho! Ho! Hee! Hee! Homer's Iliad is right for me!" "One! Two! Three! Three! I just read the Odyssey!" "P-L-A-T-O. Plato! Plato! Plaaaato!"

OK, let's face it. No matter which way you slice it, Plato's Republic just doesn't have liberal chic. It's too bad. The Republic is a thousand times more radical than any 'modern liberal' text. The Athenians even killed a nice old man named Socrates over it.

But the Republic doesn't inspire me to shout slogans through a bull-horn. For that matter, I can't think of any canonical text that would.

I was riffling through pictures of the recent Columbia protest. A group of students there coordinated a hunger strike and some sit-ins a few weeks ago. To rally for what? They weren't even sure. They had six leaders (from all different races) and none of them could decide on a single agenda. Columbia oppresses minorities, and that's all that mattered to them.

But through those photos, I could see real pain in their eyes. They were crying, holding hands, hugging each other. It must have been a moving experience. They felt like they were on the front lines, like they were doing the most important thing of their young lives. They were fighting for justice.

The young liberal: a most curious specimen. Born from the skull of Zeus? Suckled by a wolf as a child? No one knows. He is of a different species than the rest of us. I would feel like a complete idiot as a protester. I could never sit in the entranceway of our own Baker Library and block the door. I just couldn't see myself sleeping in a tent on the Green while I fasted for two weeks.

But there's something in a young liberal that removes all shame — and reasoning to boot. The protesters at Columbia had no grounds for their argument. Columbia's Core Curriculum is universally praised by intellectuals and academics as a model program. It includes works by women and by Africans (St. Augustine was from North Africa). And Columbia already has ethnic studies, even if it is within another department.

I don't think we'll ever see students protest for a core curriculum. Most students would rather watch TV reruns of 'Scoobie-Doo' and 'The Dukes of Hazard' than curl up with a copy of Paradise Lost. Most of the canonical texts are arduous to read at first, but they grow on you — at least that's what I've discovered. A little wiser, the Columbia protesters will probably look back in a few years and blush. It was fun, but foolish. I don't know anyone who's ashamed they've read Virgil's Aeneid.

Rally 'round the Core

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