Knowledge in the Gettysburg Curriculum

Look at page 28 of the Gettysburg College Course Catalogue 2009-10. There under the heading "Academic Purposes of Gettysburg College" is an eloquent statement that must have been approved by the faculty many years ago (before I arrived at least) concerning the goals of a Gettysburg College education. We read:

In order to accomplish its liberating function, Gettysburg College believes that it owes its students a coherent curriculum that emphasizes the following elements:

... 2. Broad, diverse subject matter. The curriculum of the liberal arts college should acquaint students with the range and diversity of human customs, pursuits, ideas, values, and longings. This broad range of subject matter must be carefully planned to include emphasis on those landmarks of human achievement which have shaped the intellectual life of the present.

3. Rigorous introduction to the assumptions and methods of a representative variety of the academic disciplines in the sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities...

Now look at the section under "Gettysburg Curriculum" on page 29:

The development of an understanding of multiple frameworks of analysis and of proficiency in reading texts that span the breadth of human expression. The divisional requirements are designed to begin this process of development...

Through these courses, students encounter the perspectives and modes of inquiry and analysis that characterize academic disciplines, an encounter that continues in greater depth in the major field of study.

Fascinating. In some golden age many years ago, the faculty declared that it "owes its students" a curriculum that, by requiring courses across divisions, acquaints students with human customs, pursuits, ideas, etc., with an emphasis on the landmarks of human achievement. I think that means that they should know stuff, in addition to knowing how to know stuff. Then years later some more recent faculty adopted a curriculum that talks exclusively about knowing how to know stuff, without mentioning that students also need to actually know stuff. Students are expected now to "encounter the perspectives and modes of inquiry" of different academic disciplines; they are not expected to encounter customs, pursuits, ideas.

And when I suggest in a faculty meeting that one of our goals ought to be that students know stuff, I get giggles, quizzical looks, and hostility.