Rise and Fall of Western Civ

Jessica Wilner

The Rise and Fall of the Western Civilization Course

By Gilbert Allardyce

History, at one time, was simply thrown at students of higher education. These students would begin instruction from ‘level two’ of history, without the preparation of an introductory ‘level one’ of history. This is where the course of Western Civilization comes into play.

Western Civilization, as a course, was not just thrown together and considered perfect. It started out with bits and pieces from the history curriculum. Gradually the puzzle was completed as universities all over America took on the course. It was one of the first introductory courses, and it quickly gained popularity among students.

At Harvard, the course started out as “History 1,” which mostly covered European history (pg. 702) since many high school students opted out of taking that particular area of history before attending university. Columbia used a more modern approach, which did not seem to include much history at all (pg. 705). Both of these forms of Western Civilization developed into a course with a sociology perspective to it. This course was to provide students to be intelligent people of the world. University of Chicago was the school that added the concept of critical thinking to the curriculum of Western Civilization.

A reason to incorporate and require general education courses, such as Western Civilization, or even Contemporary Civilization as at Columbia, is so every student starts at the same point in their college career. Each student would be in the same position with the same knowledge, leading into the rest of his or her time at university (pg. 708).

In my opinion, general education courses are very important to include in a college education. However, I feel this only applies when the course is something that will be used within the major of each individual student. If the course covers something each student will use, then I feel it is a good one to incorporate early in college. This is a very difficult thing to figure out, though. Which courses are important enough to everyone? Western Humanities was, at one point, extremely important. During and surrounding a war, learning about history, and critically thinking about what has happened, is very important. Using literature as a basis for this is simply a great way to draw students in. This course could still be incorporated in many careers. I plan to be an elementary teacher. This course could really come in handy for me. The tough question is, could it for everyone?