"As if celebrating beauty were something to be ashamed of"

The Great Courses’ uninhibited enthusiasm is so alien to contemporary academic discourse that several professors who have recorded for the firm became defensive when I asked them about their course descriptions, emphatically denying any part in writing the copy—as if celebrating beauty were something to be ashamed of.

I take a piece like this (from City Journal) with a grain of salt, of course. The study of art and literature is always evolving, and newer approaches such as theory can be made interesting and relevant, as long as the lecturer is interested in doing so. Not all professors are. Some are teaching to whatever audience already 'gets' what they are doing, with the rest of the class passively along for the ride.

The audience [of the Great Courses DVDs] —mostly older professionals with successful careers—sees the liberal arts as a life-changing experience, observes Louis Markos, an English professor at Houston Baptist University who has recorded courses on C. S. Lewis and on literary criticism for the company. “They are hungry for this material.”

This resonated with me. When I introduced my Latin students to the development of the alphabet I was forced to remember where I first learned about Phoenician writing systems, and the answer surprised me: in my grandparents' living room. They had shelves of Time-Life books about literature, art and history, which I read when I was bored as a little kid. My grandfather was an undiagnosed dyslexic who had some difficulty finishing college, whose father had a sixth grade education. His home office had shelves of Shakespeare and rigorous nonfiction books. My grandmother recently told me about their trip to Greece with two other couples, and how my grandfather studied Greek history and mythology so he could serve as their tour guide. I wish I could find an undergraduate half that enthusiastic sometimes.

So City Journal may go a little far in advocating a college curriculum modeled on these recorded lecture series, but their point about daring to revel in the beauty of the Western aesthetic tradition is well taken. Pin It