WITHIN THE FAMILY
The Evolving Core
By Alex Sachare '71

Alex Sachare '71

The Core Curriculum continues to be the core of a College education, as it has been for more than 80 years. It provides a framework for countless conversations, in and out of classrooms, and is a reference point wherever and whenever alumni of the College cross paths — to a point.

That point is that my Core is not your Core, nor your father’s or grandfather’s. The Core constantly is evolving, with new courses and changes to existing courses. And that’s a good thing, because whatever does not change, or at least consider changing, all too quickly becomes obsolete and irrelevant.

When I entered Columbia 35 years ago, we took CC and Lit Hum together during our freshman year. (Yes, we were freshmen then, not first-years; we even were given beanies — remember them?) Now, students are preregistered for Lit Hum before they set foot on Morningside Heights and generally take CC as sophomores, which seems like a better way to do it. Another change is that the big, red, hard-bound CC textbooks we used are collector’s items now, with students reading complete (albeit fewer) texts instead of excerpts. The readings in both courses have changed somewhat, as well, and change from section to section as teachers introduce works they consider noteworthy.

Since then, the most significant change to the Core Curriculum has been the addition of a two-semester Major Cultures requirement that “explores the globally influential and historically rooted cultures and civilizations of Asia, Africa and Latin America,” in the words of the College Bulletin.

More changes are coming. A general science course is being developed to replace part of the three-semester science requirement. A new writing course is being tested and is expected to succeed Logic and Rhetoric, a Core staple for the past 15 years and itself the successor to the Freshman Composition class many older alumni remember. And plans continue for a team-taught, senior-level, interdisciplinary, intercultural course similar to the Colloquia many older alumni fondly remember; it may be tested as soon as this spring.

In this issue, we also present two longer articles that should be of interest to Core fans: our cover story on Kenneth Koch, who taught Lit Hum as well as poetry for more than 40 years, and a remembrance by Charles Van Doren of Mortimer Adler ’83, one of the most forceful advocates of the “Great Books” concept.