I hold the following degrees:
AS Aviation Maintenance Technology - Embry Riddle Aeronautical University.
BS Aerospace Engineering - Texas A& M University.
BS Aviation Maintenance Management - Embry Riddle Aeronautical University.
AS Aviation Business Administration - Embry Riddle Aeronautical University.
MBA - Texas Christian University (TCU – NSB).
MBA(Aviation Management) - Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, DBC online.

Though I agree 100% with MTI. I will add the following:

Not during the acquisition of any of these degrees, did I feel that I was ever being educated in any direction related to being a better citizen in a free democratic society.Not that I noticed, anyway. And trust me. I took a boat load of base-curriculum courses.

There were a few that I thought were interesting. Human Sexuality at A&M, for one, comes to mind. Some of the older history and English courses were interesting as well. But I can not recall any, even Sociology, that I feel were intended to help me be a better citizen. Not saying they weren’t. Just that I didn’t feel that at the time.

One thing I do know, that I will pass on to those still in school. Save these non-prerequisite courses for the end of your senior year. Pile them into a Tuesday/Thursday only class schedule. Enjoy the hell out of the 4-day weekends with a day off in between easy class days.
Because when you finish school…. Your whole world changes…. And not necessarily for the better. (At first, anyway.)

__________________
1980 300D - Veggie Burner !

Yes, I get hippie stink on me!

__________________
1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

I don't think any teacher of any specific class intends to do anything other than convey the content of that class, so I don't think that anyone would notice this. But why do we require young people to take this broad array of courses? In other words, why take them if your interest is in aviation unless it makes you a better person in some way not directly related to your profession?

Do you know Greg Feith? I think he went to Embry Riddle and was an investigator for the NTSB for a long time.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Having never dones the research, I think I recall some of teh argument concerning citizenship. It's from the late 19th century, IIRC.

The core curricula are supposed to provide educated people, with a common understanding of western thought and culture, the tools of science, and mathematics. If every educated citizen has this common framework then their commonality overwhelms whatever differences they may have in state or regional origin, ethnicity, etc. Therefore, they will have a common vision of life in a liberal democratic republic. In a word, citizenship.

I've seen that argument as late as the 20th century. Sidney Hook was making it in the 1960's.

Seems to be roughly, that instead of finding group unity in religion, skin color, food, or ?? we find it in what we read and talk about.

If that's the rationale, then I'm not convinced it works since college educated people in the UK don't see less unified than college educated people in the US. But, the UK is a geographically smaller country so things may be psychologically different there.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Is there a unified core curriculum through the US? ..if so what is it?

__________________
-Marty

1986 300E 220,000 miles+ transmission impossible
(Now waiting under a bridge in order to become one)

Reading your M103 duty cycle:
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/831799-post13.html
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/831807-post14.html

There isn't. There is a council committed to achieving such a thing. Colorado has a statewide 'core' of some kind, requiring all students in state colleges and universities to take a certain specified number of credits in the areas of Communication, Natural Sciences, Math, Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities. The specific courses vary from university to university but there is a lot of commonality.
This core was driven by right wing political interests fto some degree, aiming to achieve what Bot described.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Not personally, but I met him at an ERAU function a few years back. I think he went to the Daytona Beach campus well after I was done there in ’83. Seems to have done well with the NTSB. Does a lot of lecture work as well, I believe.

Is he a friend of yours?

__________________
1980 300D - Veggie Burner !

I continue to fail to see the relevance to citizenship in particular, or by addition of some element not commonly available elsewhere.

I can understand the inclusion of core studies as part of a process intended to produce more versatile graduates, and in that I would imagine it is successful. Perhaps a better educated person would be a better citizen as well as a better professional, and man about town.

__________________
-Marty

1986 300E 220,000 miles+ transmission impossible
(Now waiting under a bridge in order to become one)

Reading your M103 duty cycle:
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/831799-post13.html
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/831807-post14.html

We used to be neighbors back in the late 80's and early 90's. He was the Homeowner's Association president of the condo's I managed. Nice guy. I think he's retired from the NTSB now.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

I think the argument goes as follows: Democracy requires a wide range of critical, analytical citizens when compared to monarchies or aristocracies which can get by with a highly educated elite clustered at the top and obedient subjects below. A core curriculum gives college graduates this ability which is supplementary to the specific critical analytical skills necessary for their chosen professional field. Without a broad range of knowledge and critical thinking skills, democracy can degenerate into mass rule based on immediate selfish interests, the kind of thing that Plato despised.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

The whole "vote yourself money from the treasury" idea =)

-John

__________________
2009 Kia Sedona
2009 Honda Odyssey EX-L
12006 Jetta Pumpe Duse
(insert Mercedes here)

Husband, Father, sometimes friend =)

Exactly, and this is where the conflict between democracy and capitalism arises. Capitalism presumes the superiority of the satisfaction of desire thru the marketplace as an economic system. Democracy as self-rule does not.
This goes to the conflict between education as the obtaining of a 'marketable skill' to advance one's interest in the labor market and education as the essential function of a complete human being which transcends the view that a person is equal to their marketable labor.

My interest in the question is related to my recent experiences in Turkey where I was contemplating the question of whether Turkey can become a 'modern democracy'. They have no 'liberal arts' college curriculum, the curriculum being specialized in the sciences and engineering (marketable labor). This leaves a large portion of the critical and analytical thinking skills residing in an authoritarian religious system (Islam). I'm wondering whether the transition to a 'modern democracy' in Turkey might be advanced by the kind of college curriculum that is typically seen in the US. Hence my question as to whether the US curriculum is actually doing its job.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

In 2002 "The national college graduation rate was 25.9 percent."
College grads are 10-20% more likely to vote than less educated citizens ( http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/vote.html )
So balanced governors are a 1/3 minority to the selfish mass.

Is this the right venue to improve citizenship?

__________________
-Marty

1986 300E 220,000 miles+ transmission impossible
(Now waiting under a bridge in order to become one)

Reading your M103 duty cycle:
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/831799-post13.html
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/831807-post14.html

I think that education is one factor. Shared laws through a written constitution is another. The framers promoted a one-god theism as another necessary attribute.

Also, much of this cultural concept of liberal democracy is derived of course from England. That the UK is currently in turmoil while concomitantly undergoing a huge assault on the previously accepted cultural paradigm argues in support of, not in opposition to, the shared-education argument.

B

B