Cleveland State University - Scene Yearbook (Cleveland, OH)

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Finally there is the Basic Arts Program, and though in terms of attendance the special and short courses are far more popular, the Basic Arts, Dean Borden ' s brainchild, is the prize pack- age of the School of General Studies. When the program was first announced in the summer of 1948, some 167 Clevelanders from college grad- uates to adults who had never finished high school, said that they wanted to sign up. During the spring semester almost 100 persons were enrolled in the Basic Arts, even though Dean Barden points out that the program is still in the experimental stages. ■ smsBEs MAN A ' ?- HIMSELF ORETATION 9«f Z

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Page 118 text:

The Basic Arts, according to Dean Barden, are understanding, listening, reading, talking observ- ing, writing, doing and making. Six seminars- Natural Science, Philosophy, History and Social Studies, Writing, Visual Arts and Music— make up the program. The methods by which man has accumulated knowledge rather than knowledge itself is emphasized in these seminars. Students are not confronted with masses of facts. Dean Barden maintains that the theory behind this is that if a person knows the methods employed in any intellectual field, he is prepared to figure the rest out for himself. ,