Humanist Tradition

The humanist tradition within curriculum studies emphasizes literature, foreign languages, reason, and the complete development of human excellence, or virtue. In the United States, a humanistic approach to curriculum dominated K–12 schooling, as well as higher education, well into the late 20th century. Humanities subjects such as Greek, Latin, philosophy, and theology served as the foundation for U.S. curriculum until the rise of the physical sciences and later the social sciences in the 1880s and 1890s.

Humanists raise eternal questions that have been discussed since the beginning of time: What is human nature? What is reason? What should I do? What is the purpose of Man? And why are we here? For answers to these questions, humanist scholars look to models of scholarship that have proven their worth over time, whether they be works of literature, philosophy, or theology. Humanists also search for defining principles and methods that hold together all fields of human inquiry. As F. C. S. Schiller (1907) puts it, humanists search for a method that is universally applicable to ethics, aesthetics, metaphisics, and theology as well as to a theory of knowledge. To humanists, older texts are almost always superior to new texts primarily because they have stood the test of time and as a result, remain relevant to each passing generation. Humanists stress that a good curriculum, one fit for human beings, must introduce students to classic works from philosophers, poets, and literary scholars such as Homer, Aristophanes, Plato, Aristotle, Saint Augustine, Virgil, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and C. S. Lewis. Because classic texts were written in various languages, humanists emphasize that, if these texts are to be understood, students should read them in their original languages. As a result, the humanist tradition encourages the study of numerous foreign languages, especially Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. In addition, humanists believe that the rigor required to learn a foreign language teaches students discipline, opens their minds to new and different cultures, and trains their God-given ability to reason. Humanist scholars, for example, Harvard University literature professor Irving Babbitt and British poet Matthew Arnold, promote virtues such as excellence and honor while often de-emphasizing equality and democracy.

Until the late 20th century, the justification for humanities subjects within the curriculum could be found in the psychological theory of formal discipline. Adherents to formal discipline believed that studying humanistic subjects like philosophy and Greek trained students' ability to reason. They also believed that this ability to reason transferred automatically to all areas of life. For example, humanists believed that the power of reason that students [Page 457]developed while conjugating Latin verbs automatically helped them when they were running a business or planning a vacation later in life. The new empirical science of psychology in the early 20th century, however, claimed to undercut the theory of formal discipline. These studies, produced by Edward L. Thorndike and Robert S. Woodworth, led to the dismantling of humanities-based curriculum in K–12 schools and in universities.

Another major blow to the humanist tradition within curriculum studies came with the secularization of private universities. During the early to mid-19th century, the religious mission of many private universities required that all students read and discuss texts that were central to the Christian faith. Once these universities secularized, few if any central texts were required reading of all students. As a result, the humanist tradition began to take a backseat to the physical sciences, the social sciences, and other professional fields such as business and engineering. The humanist tradition has not yet recovered from these two major developments more than a century ago.

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