Wednesday, May 22, 1996
Volume 16, Issue x

What is a College Education?

There's good news and bad news. The good news is that it is possible, yes possible, to get a college education at Dartmouth. The bad news is that the institutional Dartmouth will not tell you how to go about it.

The Classical Education: An Interview with Professor William Scott

Professor Scott: There are certain authors that do not turn students on; it is the truth. Homer happens to be one of them. If a student isn't turned on by Homer, I'm not really much for requiring that student to read Homer — if he can find some author that does turn him on. It could be a very Homer-like author — Joyce for example.

Western Culture in the Ivy League

Although the schools of the Ivy League are bonded by athletics and name recognition, they vary greatly in the way they deal with the Western Canon. On one end of the spectrum is Columbia. Its Core Curriculum program is extensive and mandatory for all students (TDR 5/1/96, 5/15/96). At the other end is Brown. At Brown, students are not required to take any specific courses.

Core Classes at Dartmouth

This course guide is not intended to be a comprehensive list of the good courses at Dartmouth. It is not even intended to be a guide to all of the good classes in the humanities. Instead, it attempts to provide a listing of classes for students who wish to have a strong base in the Western tradition.

More on Black Discontents

There comes to hand a Yankelovich poll, conducted at the behest of New Yorker magazine, that indicates widespread discontent and discouragement among American blacks throughout society.

Sound Body, Sound Mind

Dartmouth has a proud and venerable tradition of fostering excellence in academics and athletics, producing men (and more recently women) with sharp minds and healthy bodies. Beyond the Freshmen Week swim test, Dartmouth requires the successful completion of three terms of college recognized physical activity to graduate. In 1996, it is becoming increasingly rare to find a College with such a requirement.

The American Mentalité: Book Shorts by Longinus

Russell Kirk's The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Santayana appeared in 1953, a most suspicious moment for this book. The U.S. war at war with Communist China in Korea. The Soviet Union was menacing.