Great Books programs in Canada are university/college programs inspired by the
Great Books
A classic is a book accepted as being exemplary or particularly noteworthy. What makes a book "classic" is a concern that has occurred to various authors ranging from Italo Calvino to Mark Twain and the related questions of "Why Read the Cl ...
movement begun in the United States in the 1920s. The aim of such programs is to return to the Western
Liberal Arts
Liberal arts education () is a traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''skill, art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the fine arts. ''Liberal arts education'' can refe ...
tradition in education. Those who mount such programs consider them to be corrective of what they perceive to be an extreme disciplinary specialisation common within the academy.
The essential component of such programs is a high degree of engagement with the
Western canon
The Western canon is the embodiment of High culture, high-culture literature, music, philosophy, and works of art that are highly cherished across the Western culture, Western world, such works having achieved the status of classics.
Recent ...
of whole primary texts deemed to be essential for a student's education. The canon includes books such as ''
Plato's Republic'' and ''
Dante's Divine Comedy''. Great Books programs often focus exclusively on Western culture. Their employment of primary texts dictates an interdisciplinary approach, as most of the Great Books do not fall neatly under the scope of a single contemporary academic discipline.
Great Books programs often include designated discussion groups as well as lectures, and have small class sizes. Students in these programs usually receive an abnormally high degree of attention from their professors, as part of the overall aim of fostering a community of learning.
First-year Great Books programs
British Columbia
The
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...
in Vancouver has offered the Arts One course since 1967. It is a team-taught, interdisciplinary course for first-year students that consists of a once weekly lecture, twice weekly seminar of 20 students, and once weekly tutorials of four students doing peer evaluation of each other's essays. Students read approximately a book a week, of which many would be considered "great books," within and beyond the Western tradition.
New Brunswick
St. Thomas University in Fredericton runs an interdisciplinary Great Books program exclusively for first-year students called The Aquinas Program.
Nova Scotia
St. Francis Xavier University
St. Francis Xavier University is a public undergraduate liberal arts university located in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is a member of the Maple League, a group of primarily undergraduate universities in Eastern Canada.
History
St. Fran ...
offers a first-year Great-Books curriculum called the Humanities Colloquium. The
University of King's College
The University of King's College is a public university, public Liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia.Roper, Henry. "Aspects of the History of a Loyalist College: King's College, Windsor, and ...
in Halifax began its Great Books program in 1972 and is titled the first-year Foundation Year Program. Students spend their entire first year reading key primary texts from the Ancient Near East to the Contemporary World.
Ontario
McMaster University
McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood, Ontario, Ainslie Wood and Westdale, Ontario, Westd ...
's
Arts and Science Program has three mandatory, core courses in the spirit of Great Books:
* Western Civilization, roughly covering from the
Enûma Eliš and
Book of Genesis
The Book of Genesis (from Greek language, Greek ; ; ) is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its incipit, first word, (In the beginning (phrase), 'In the beginning'). Genesis purpor ...
to Renaissance thinkers
* Modern Western Civilization, roughly covering from
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas ( ; ; – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest, the foremost Scholasticism, Scholastic thinker, as well as one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the W ...
to contemporary thinkers like
Stanley Fish
Stanley Eugene Fish (born April 19, 1938) is an American literary theorist, legal scholar, author and public intellectual. He is the Floersheimer Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Yeshiva University's Benjamin N. Cardozo School of La ...
* Literature, roughly covering from Homeric epics to
Christa Wolf
Christa Wolf (; Ihlenfeld; 18 March 1929 – 1 December 2011) was a German novelist and essayist. She is considered one of the most important writers to emerge from the former East Germany.[Cassandra
Cassandra or Kassandra (; , , sometimes referred to as Alexandra; ) in Greek mythology was a Trojan priestess dedicated to the god Apollo and fated by him to utter true prophecy, prophecies but never to be believed. In modern usage her name is e ...]
King's University College, a
university college
In a number of countries, a university college is a college institution that provides tertiary education but does not have full or independent university status. A university college is often part of a larger university. The precise usage varies f ...
affiliated with
Western University has a first-year Great Books program called Foundations in The New Liberal Arts.
Quebec
Laval University
Laval means ''The Valley'' in old French and is the name of:
People
* House of Laval, a French noble family originating from the town of Laval, Mayenne
* Laval (surname)
Places Belgium
* Laval, a village in the municipality of Sainte-Ode, Luxe ...
in Quebec City offers, in French, a one-year program in Great Books. The program is called "Certificat sur les oeuvres marquantes de la culture occidentale."
Full-degree Great Books programs
British Columbia
Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo has offered a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major and minor in Liberal Studies since 1991. The Liberal Studies courses are interdisciplinary, seminar-based and team-taught; they deal primarily but not exclusively with the Western tradition, focus on the development of critical skills and include hands-on art and science.
New Brunswick
St. Thomas University in Fredericton has a Great Books program that allows one to complete a major in the field.
Ontario
Carleton University
Carleton University is an English-language public university, public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to se ...
's
The College of the Humanities in Ottawa offers a 4-year honours Great Books program degree called the Bachelor of Humanities, focusing on Philosophy, Literature, Religion, History, and Political Theory, with required courses in the History of Art and the History of Music. Its main focus is on Western Culture, but it has a significant Eastern component. Students regularly do a combined honours degree in Humanities and a more specialised discipline. The College of the Humanities also offers a combined honours in Humanities and Biology, designed for students heading to medical school. With the School of Journalism at Carleton, they also offer a joint Journalism and Humanities degree.
Quebec
Concordia University
Concordia University () is a Public university, public English-language research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College (Montreal), Loyola College and Sir George Williams Universit ...
has a Liberal Arts College in Montreal which offers a 3-year bachelor's degree in the Great Books.
Further reading
* Emberley, Peter C. and Newell, W.R., ''Bankrupt Education: The Decline of Liberal Education in Canada''. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, May 1994.
* Kay, Barbara, "Higher education's best-kept secret." ''National Post'' (Canada). Wednesday, November 19, 2008.
See also
*
Liberal Arts College
A liberal arts college or liberal arts institution of higher education is a college with an emphasis on Undergraduate education, undergraduate study in the Liberal arts education, liberal arts of humanities and science. Such colleges aim to impart ...
*
Humanities
Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...
*
Western canon
The Western canon is the embodiment of High culture, high-culture literature, music, philosophy, and works of art that are highly cherished across the Western culture, Western world, such works having achieved the status of classics.
Recent ...
References
External links
John Searle, "The Storm Over the University," ''The New York Review of Books'', December 6, 1990
{{DEFAULTSORT:Great Books programs In Canada
Education in Canada