The Great Books

Part of our liberal arts education involves the consumption and critique of The Great Books. If you do not know what those are, check out these links:

The Great Books - Access Foundation
Great Books Index
Junior Great Books
Saint John's Great Books List
Great Books Index

From the Wiki we have:

"Great Books refers to a curriculum and a book list that came about as the result of a discussion among American academics and educators, starting in the 1920s and 1930s and begun by Prof. John Erskine of Columbia University, about how to improve the higher education system by returning it to the western liberal arts tradition of broad cross-disciplinary learning."

How its done at Saint John's:
"The Great Books Program is a curriculum that makes use of this list of texts. The Program as implemented at St. John's College involves a four-year set course of studies consisting of four classes:

* Science— Natural science from Aristotle to Einstein
* Mathematics— from Euclid to Einstein
* Language— Translation of Greek and French texts and study of poetry
* Seminar--Twice-weekly two-hour discussion of a work of philosophy or literature

As much as possible, students rely on primary sources. They are encouraged to conduct classes themselves, with guidance from a tutor."
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