Have Colleges Gotten General Education All Wrong?

June 27, 2026 - 04:26

The former director of Columbia University's famed Core Curriculum has a provocative argument: colleges have been getting general education wrong for decades. Instead of a rigid list of required courses in philosophy, literature, and science, he proposes a model that is not only more engaging but also uniquely suited to the age of artificial intelligence.

According to this educator, the standard approach treats general education as a checklist to be completed, often leaving students bored and disconnected. The real goal, he argues, should be to teach students how to think, not what to think. His proposed alternative focuses on "big questions" that cut across disciplines - questions about truth, justice, and meaning that cannot be answered by a search engine or an AI chatbot.

This method is intentionally "AI-resistant." While a machine can summarize Plato or recite the periodic table, it struggles with the messy, human process of debate, interpretation, and personal reflection. The new model would replace survey courses with smaller, discussion-based seminars where students actively wrestle with primary texts and complex problems.

The argument comes at a time when many universities are cutting core requirements in favor of more vocational training. Proponents of the new approach say this is a mistake. They believe that a truly transformative general education - one that forces students to confront ambiguity and defend their ideas - is the best preparation for an unpredictable future. The goal is not to fill a bucket, but to light a fire.