Tuesday, October 7, 2025
How General Is Our General Education
In 1787, James Madison suggested that a national university be included in the Constitution, an idea that was reinforced in George Washington’s first State Of The Union address in 1790. The connection between education and good citizenship can be traced to Plato, who believed that education was not just about the ‘professions’ but was meant to put “into the soul, knowledge that isn’t in it”. These ideas became woven into the early 19th-century curriculum and can be seen in the 1818 Rockfish Gap Report, which postulated that the role of higher education was to develop “reasoning faculties of our youth, enlarge their minds, cultivate their morals and instill into them the precepts of virtue and order… and generally to form them to habits of reflection.”
Towards the second half of the 19th century, the role of education in the development of good citizenship began to decline gradually. Electives replaced the classical curriculum, as Ron Daniels notes in his book, What universities owe democracy. We are at a point in time when the importance of a general education curriculum in developing the skills of reflection, critical thinking, and constructive dialogue cannot be overemphasized.
As you know, we are considering changes to our general education curriculum (GEC) at IU Indianapolis. Today, IU Indy offers over 250 courses that are part of the GEC, with students required to take 10. Not only is the choice overwhelming, but it is also unclear if all 250 courses are about the cultivation of ‘habits of reflection’. Many are about general skills needed in specific professions.
If a GEC course can be created by every school and in every major, including the professional schools, can that really constitute general education? If a GEC course attracts students from only one major and school, is it general education? Does our GEC educate citizens to be good stewards of our democracy?
As former U.S. Supreme Court Justice, the late Sandra Day O’Connor noted, “The practice of democracy is not passed down through the gene pool." Let’s not assume that it does.
We have a window of opportunity - failing to act is inexcusable.
Go Jags!
Latha Ramchand
Chancellor
