Author speaks out for reform
West stresses need for ethnic history in general education
By John Digrado
Daily Bruin Staff
Advocating more ethnic requirements in undergraduate education,
distinguished author and education reform advocate Cornel West
lectured to a nearly full Schoenberg Auditorium Thursday
afternoon.
West’s speech was one in a series of eight public discussions
surrounding UCLA’s general education (GE) reform program.
The author of the popular book on race relations titled "Race
Matters," West spoke on the importance of maintaining a sense of
history throughout the general-education curriculum. He noted that
current American education and society tends to sever the past from
the present.
"We need to create a sophisticated sense of history and the
tradition of struggle," West said. "This is the kind of curriculum,
the kind of general education needed to produce the kind of
population we need in the last decade of this ghastly century."
West commented on the need to teach students about racial issues
in the name of creating a "modern" society.
"There is no way we will make it into the 21st century with any
sense of (intellectual) health if we do not equip ourselves with
the ability to deal with racial injustice," West said. "America is
the escape from history … but as soon as you raise the issue of
race, you are wrestling with evil. As soon as you talk about race,
you let history come rushing in."
Art, so largely ignored in many aspects of the current general
education curriculum, was also on West’s list of suggestions.
"We should call into question the order and fuse the comic with
the tragic … we should pressure and sustain any sense of agency
and resiliency" in the curriculum, West said. "The university ought
to be training grounds for citizenship."
To members of the audience, West’s philosophy represented a
remarkable break from many of those in educational reform.
"He gets beyond a narrow vision on what ought to be worked
toward," said Lawrence Eaton, a second year graduate student in the
social welfare department. "That’s where the inspiration (for
reform) comes from."
Others agreed with the idea that race issues are central to
successfully revamping general education requirements.
"He’s not focusing on African Americans (specifically)," said
Reatha Powery, who attended the speech. West addressed "specific
problems that affect African Americans and society, working
together as a nation rather than as individual entities."
The public discussions with members of the educational community
are designed to help the general education reform committee and
campus community redefine the undergraduate curriculum.
"GE as it stands is a mess," said Jamil Jaffer, a second-year
political science and economics student and a member of the reform
committee. "From a student’s point of view, GE is not serving the
purposes it was intended for. (The program) has lost sight of its
goals," he added.
Committee members have found that the current structure of the
GE program has no clear philosophy because of the broad range of
classes offered to fill the requirements.
Currently, general education requirements have students take a
variety of classes in physical, life and social sciences, plus the
humanities.
"There are a lot of different issues involving ethnic and gender
studies (in the GE program)," Jaffer said. "We are making major
changes, and we want to involve important people" in the
process.
SCOTT O/Daily Bruin
Noted author of "Race Matters," Cornel West lectured on race
relations and ethnicity’s role in education to a nearly full
Schoenberg Auditorium Thursday afternoon.
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