by Richard Keiser
Toward the end of last term Barbara Spadaro suggested that I write up a brief history of an A level content course which I developed in 1988 89, and I was happy to oblige her. (At times like this, it really does feel like I've never been gone from Community College of Philadelphia !) The course's purpose was twofold: (a) to give A-level students a greater choice of courses, and (b) to bring a humanities component, designed to broaden students' cultural literacy, into some of the A level clusters.
As for the first rationale, enrollment in A level is mandatory for students with low placement scores, and those students suffer from the stigma of this placement. At the same time, A level offers virtually no choice for students, who normally must take writing, reading, speech and math if they want a full-time schedule. Moreover, many students pass speech who do not pass the writing or reading courses; this, in turn, can have serious economic consequences. Financial aid will not pay for students to repeat a course they have already passed, yet some forms of financial aid require full time attendance.
The second reason for the course was to enrich the students' cultural background. Those of us who teach in CAP have seen for years that a major barrier to students' writing or reading well is the lack of relevant background information; the fourth course in a given cluster can not only enhance the students' knowledge about the world but can also form the basis of reading and/or writing assignments.
Given that the proposed course was interdisciplinary in nature, the most appropriate designation of it would have been Humanities 094 (or some other 090 number), but at the time, the absence of any department called Humanities seemed to weigh against using that name. (I am pleased that this reservation was later overcome for Hum 101 and 102.) Since the idea of a new A-level content course originated with a discussion between Fay Beauchamp and me, and since I was an English VL that year, the course was launched as English 094. For reasons explained below, the English designation was later changed to History.
The actual content presented some special challenges. For one thing, the course needed to avoid duplication of material presented later in B level, such as History 095 or Social Science 095. Also, an A level course which has cultural literacy in mind should include such fundamentals as world geography, major periods of western history on the time line and major political/religious/cultural figures on the world stage. It is fair to assume that the most basic facts about world history and culture will be entirely new to the students.
But the greatest problem for such a course is that developmental students, especially those in A level, do not have experience with situations that call upon them to think abstractly. Teaching concepts which these students can then apply in new academic situations is a daunting task. How, then, did this course address the challenge? It focused on one major theme for any given semester, not necessarily the same theme every time. Two examples of such a theme would be the characteristics of the major world religions or the evolution of the city. There is a greater chance of such students' retaining material which offers examples over and over again of the same general phenomenon. Even with one theme, such a course can offer a rich diversity of content because the series of well chosen examples would come from varied cultures and eras, and they could embrace many disciplines— literature, history, geography, political science and philosophy.
Since course proposals normally contain just one syllabus, I used a sample theme for presentation: the nature and history of racial conflict. Racial conflict is a subject which all our students have some familiarity with regardless of their ethnicity or their level of academic preparation. However, they rarely appreciate the full complexity of, or the background of, racial conflict in this country—let alone elsewhere. America's past and present ethnic tension can serve as a bridge to other cultures. Since most material would be non American, this syllabus would fit in well with the concept that A level English courses use themes or readings related to world culture while American themes are reserved for B level. Still another very practical advantage of this theme is the large number of appropriate sources for it.
And what constitutes "appropriate sources"? The materials which students are most likely to assimilate are ones which appeal to the emotions as well as to the intellect; if at all possible, they should not be dry. And despite the low reading level of A level students, sources must not be simple or childish but ought to contain "meaty" substantive ideas.
The advantage of using primary sources is that students can become critically engaged with them, drawing some conclusions of their own about the issues raised; this can happen even at A level, where there is a great deal of instructor intervention in the reading process. But regardless of the theme used, or the set of sources chosen, the course should include some basic geography and historical chronology through the use of maps and time lines.
At any rate, what became of my proposed course? In fall 1988 the course, then English 094, was approved by the English Department but was stopped at the Deans' level. Afterwards, the rest was History, so to speak: The History/Philosophy Department embraced the unwanted stepchild, rechristened it History 094 (with my strong support) and tried again. Again, no approval at higher levels was forthcoming, so the whole idea was shelved.
However, working on the course was highly stimulating, and many ideas generated by the proposal were applicable for use in my 097/089 links; teaching those skills in isolation from some rich content is unthinkable to me. As it happened, there was a five year hiatus before I taught A level again (owing to a little career detour), but I'm pleased to be back in the ranks here implementing some of the proposal's ideas. Anyone who is interested in the sample syllabus from the course is welcome to a copy.
Thinking of the future, most issues connected with the course are as pertinent today as they ever were. One matter which we are wrestling with (and which came up in the December, 1995 forum with Ron Williams on Developmental Education) is to what extent students are helped or hurt by using their financial aid on cultural enrichment courses in CAP when they might need the aid later on. I have nostatistics handy, but I strongly suspect it is less costly to provide developmental students with a strong general education background early in their college life than to pass them on and have them struggle (and repeat) content courses in later years And the non economic, educational arguments for an early rather than a later cultural grounding are even stronger. Another continuing issue, one raised in Fall, 1995 by Tom Ott, is the need for a programmatic approach in A level, including a new fourth course in those clusters. Yet Tom feels averse to introducing history there because of the lack of student enthusiasm for enrolling in B level's History 095. In my admittedly biased opinion, an interdisciplinary humanities course would be highly appropriate, and, if well taught, could break down much student phobia about studying cultural matters.
In short, a Humanities 094 course is still needed.