Webloggin » Multi-culti Becomes Official at Harvard

Everyone But U.S.

After 30 years, Harvard has revamped its curriculum. Or, at least, it says it’s revamping its curriculum. As you’ll see below, the powers that be at Harvard have simply made official an ethos that has become normative at Harvard — namely, the celebration of everything not American:

Harvard University announced on Wednesday its biggest curriculum overhaul in three decades, putting new emphasis on sensitive religious and cultural issues, the sciences and overcoming U.S. “parochialism.”

The curriculum at the oldest U.S. university has been criticized as focusing too narrowly on academic topics instead of real-life issues, or for being antagonistic to organized religion. Revisions have been in the works for three years.

One of the eight new required subject areas — “societies of the world” — aims to help students overcome U.S. “parochialism” by “acquainting them with the values, customs and institutions that differ from their own,” said a 34-page Harvard report on the changes.

***

The changes to the general-education requirements, imposed on students outside their major, still address religious beliefs and practices. Study of those issues, however, would be folded into a broader subject of “culture and belief.”

The “culture and belief” requirement will “introduce students to ideas, art and religion in the context of the social, political, religious, economic and cross-cultural conditions” that shape them, Harvard said. [Emphasis mine.]

Harvard is dressing up this change by saying it’s reversing its anti-religion trend, something conservatives have long contended is at odds with its founders’ intent. Nevertheless, when you read deeper into the article, you discover that Harvard is not, in fact, revisiting its religious roots, but is simply using religion as yet another avenue for multiculturalism.

[Continue Reading and Discuss With Bookworm]