Abstract :
This paper examines the earliest period of American higher education, the period of the traditional college, when the humanities, and especially literature and language, reigned supreme as curricular subjects and when college students were obliged, since their curriculum was almost entirely prescribed, to focus on such subjects. I aim to show, first, how the traditional college was organized, second, what subjects formed the prescribed curriculum, third, which pedagogic methods were used and, fourth, how and why literature and language were taught. After this, I will review the social, cultural and intellectual aims of the traditional college and discuss the role played by the study of the humanities and, more specifically, by the study of literature and language. Finally, I will discuss the reasons for the decline of the traditional college system and the consequences this had for the academic study of the humanities and of literature and language
NaturalLanguageKeyword :
American higher education , traditional colleges , classical colleges , classics , classical rhetoric , English rhetoric , English departments , English literature , English major
