Ivy League Miseducation

Cornell undergraduates must take courses in ten subject areas as part of their general education curriculum. This “distribution requirement” or “ways of knowing” approach offers no coherent articulation of what an educated American should actually know. Indeed, most general education requirements across the Ivies are so general—some arts here, some sciences there—that the available options are too activist, narrow, question-begging, or self-indulgent to count as providing the fundamentals of a serious college education. In fact, many options are both tendentious and ludicrous. This characteristic excerpt from Slacking: A Guide to Ivy League Miseducation of Cornell University’s curriculum examines three of its required subject areas.