January 2004

The Curriculum Project

by John Lobell

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

I am proposing that a group of interested people gather to discuss what would be an ideal curriculum for an art/design/architecture school (such as Pratt). This effort that I am tentatively calling "The Curriculum Project." would be a totally unofficial effort. Any attempt to implement any of the outcomes of the effort would be totally separate from our process.

We might meet every once a month or so over the next couple of semesters, but our main medium of exchange would be an Internet forum (such as the Academic Forum Jennie Lee set up for the Senate).

We would eventually produce some sort of report that we might want to publish, and around which we might want to organize a conference.

I would structure our discussions, and you might want to write up reposts on various parts of the effort. I would compile a final report.

I am asking you the following questions:

• Would you like to participate in this effort?

• Who else would you recommend to participate?

• What meeting times (days/hours) are good for you?

• Would you prefer to meet at Pratt in Brooklyn or someplace in Manhattan?

• Do you have any preliminary feedback on the material below?

INTRODUCTION

I am inviting a group of interested Pratt people to engage in discussions about what would be the ideal education for the undergraduate art/design/architecture students at Pratt.

The idea is to assume that we are starting from scratch, with no limitation in terms of existing programs, courses, or educational concepts.

My motivation to do this grows out of the fact that we have totally lost an overview of what education at Pratt is all about. (I think we are not exceptional in this, I think this loss of overview is widespread today.

Therefore, while we would include details of what a fashion, photography, or architecture student should know/be able to do regarding the specific techniques of their field, I am suggesting that our main focus be on what should constitute an educated person in general and an educated artist/designer/architect.

While it is seldom possible to create a new approach to education, or even a new curriculum at a school due to entrenched interests, there have been rare moments when it has been accomplished. Suppose we assume that for some unspecified reason we had an opportunity at Pratt to create a new approach to education. What would we do?

OFFICIAL SANCTION

THIS PROJECT HAS NO SANCTION, OFFICIAL OR OTHERWISE, FROM ANY ENTITY AT PRATT. NONE IS SOUGHT.

WHY DO THIS

Because we share a passionate interest in education.

WHAT WILL BE DONE WITH THE OUTCOME?

The idea is not get a new curriculum implemented at Pratt. Such an intension would, I believe, severely undermine our ability to think freely. Should some other body want to seek to implement parts of our work, that would be an effort separate from ours.

At some point we might want to publish some of our results, or have a conference to present them.

STRUCTURING THE DISCUSSIONS

GENERAL QUESTIONS

• What constitutes an educated person today?

• Are these criteria different than in previous times/cultures?

• What constitutes an educated artist/designer/educator?

• What are the roles of being able to write, of having read certain books, of being familiar with certain cultural periods?

CATEGORIES

It seems to me that we would ask questions in a structurally hierarchical order: What should be included in the education of all Pratt students, then in areas, then in departments:

• All Undergraduate Pratt Students

• Fine arts

• Departments

• Design

• Departments

• Architecture

CRITERIA

It seems to me that we could divide education into three Criteria. Within any of the Categories listed above, we might ask:

What should a student know about?
What should a student be able to do?
And finally a more diffuse question: What should be a student's modes of thought.

By this last criteria, 3, I mean the following:

• What do we mean by an educated person?

• What is a "self," how is our notion of a self different now than in the past, and what is the role of education in its development?

• What are a person's responsibilities to self/society/culture?

• What are the responsibilities of an artist/designer/architect to self/society/culture?

• Should a notion of "the spiritual" enter into this discussion?

• What is the relationship of an artist/designer/architect to their work?

• And then finally, what is the role of an undergraduate education contribute in all of the above?

PRECONCEPTIONS TO BE CAREFUL OF

Education comes only in courses/classes

Faculty are the only source of education

Education takes place only in school

CRITERIA TO WHICH WE SHOULD ADHERE

While we should not be overly concerned about "budgets," we should think within realistic contexts. For example, we might want to avoid saying that all students should have unlimited one-on-one time with faculty.

EXAMPLES

Below are two very preliminary examples of the kinds of things we might address:

MATHEMATICS

For an architecture student, in mathematics, we might say they should:

Know about:

Number theory, algebra, trigonometry, calculus, plane and non-Euclidian geometry, topology, fractals, binary math, the nature of a proof

Be able to do:

Elementary algebra, plane geometry, elementary trig

Modes of thought

Understand rigorous logical thought and the nature of proof. Have positions with regard to math and determinism in the nature of reality.

SCIENCE

For an architecture student, in science, we might say they should:

Know about:

Classical physics, chemistry including valences, biology, anatomy, ecology, atomic theory, sub atomic particle theory, cosmology, quantum theory, string theory

Be able to do:

Statics, elementary dynamics, elementary ecology

Modes of thought:

Understand the nature of scientific thought and theories of how the sciences develop/progress. Have a position with regard to the role of science in the human condition.

NEXT STEPS

I will meet with others who may be interested to figure out how to structure the Internet part of the discussion. Let me know if you have any thoughts or would like to participate in that discussion.

SOME OF MY THOUGHTS ABOUT EDUCATION

I have been looking at publications of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. What a bunch of jargon. I would like to avoid stuff like:

"Greater Expectations is AAC&U's multi-year initiative to articulate the aims of a twenty-first century liberal education and identify comprehensive, innovative models that improve learning for all undergraduate students. Greater Expectations will help develop learner-centered campus programs in liberal education, and will link the best practices in higher education and secondary school reform."

My preferences go more towards Nietzsche. (pardon the repetition)

Of three metamorphoses of the spirit I tell you: how the spirit becomes a camel; and the camel, a lion; and the lion, finally, a child.

There is much that is difficult for the spirit, the strong reverent spirit that would bear much: but the difficult and the most difficult are what its strength demands.

What is difficult? asks the spirit that would bear much, and kneels down like a camel wanting to be well loaded. ...

All these difficult things the spirit that would bear much takes upon itself; like the camel that, burdened, speeds into he desert. Here he seeks out his last master: he wants to fight him and his last god; for ultimate victory he want to fight with the great dragon.

Who is the great dragon whom the spirit will no longer call lord and god? "Thou shalt" is the name of the great dragon. But the spirit of the lion says, "I will."

To create new values--that even the lion cannot do... But...what can a child do that even the lion could not do? The child is innocence and forgetting, a new beginning, a game, a self-propelled wheel, a first movement, a sacred "Yes" is indeed: the spirit now wills his own will, and he who had been lost to the world now conquers his own world.

- From Thus Spoke Zarathustra , Friedrich Nietzsche, trans: Walter Kaufmann

Thus Nietzsche describes the education of the creative person. First they take on the burden of their tradition and learn the skills of their discipline and the materials of their culture. Then they challenge the traditions of their culture and then, coming from their own center, with the creative innocence of a child, ("a wheel rolling out of its own center" would be a better translation), they create the new.