Letters

To the Editor:

Chuck Stetson’s “Restoring a More Productive College Curriculum” in the Winter 2013 issue (vol. 26, no. 4) is the first uplifting response to the intellectual collapse of American colleges and universities I have seen in a long time, welcome though the usual tonic critiques in Academic Questions have been. Mr. Stetson and his organizations merit high praise for their efforts to improve the academic climate, and the two suggested modifications that follow should be seen as contributions to that end.

First, I suggest that “core area” 8—Beauty in Art, Music, and Culture—be altered to read simply “Art, Music, and Culture” (pp. 448, 451). What is valuable to the human spirit about art, music, and culture cannot be comprised in the word beauty, which implies a focus too narrow and misleading. It is true that beauty may