They could shanghai time from researchers and postdocs to help fill up the tutor count (they take overhead from the grant money already, which gives a precedent). It would need a full-time team to review the tutors, especially if they try to vet the tutor's proposed general readings. If they imposed a set of readings I think I'd be apt to ignore it. It's a pass/fail course, of course.
Imagine that I came out of retirement for a while (deeply unlikely in the near term for health reasons) and participated in such a program.
Suppose I had a student for my proposed "General Studies" course in my office twice a week. A semester is 15 weeks, so that's 30 sessions. Yes, I doubled the number for this exercise, to make it easier.
I figure the students will come in several types:
- literate and relatively well read and grumpy about having to take the class
- literate and interested
- relatively illiterate and likely grumpy.
The second type sounds like a delight, and the first type one might be able to work with. I figure "tell me about the last book you read" will show me in less than two minutes which of the three types I have.
Unfortunately I cannot trust the student in the third category to read assignments outside the office, so for some of them I would have to rely on in-office readings (30 minutes). The illiterate (who nominally can read and write but rarely exercise the skills) can maybe do 20-40 pages an hour, which translates to only 10-20 pages in my office. If I ask, as I probably should, that they write down quick notes as they go about words or ideas they don't understand, that slows them down more.
What can I assign the third group?
I figure since this is the USA, part of the West, informed by Christendom, other cultures are important but have to be lower priority.
For reference, in the Bible on the desk the gospel of Mark is 21 pages—at the high end for a slow reader in half an hour. A short dialog by Plato is about 26 pages (in one edition). (A life of Buddha can be found in 100, and of Muhammad in double that—I'd have to find children's versions of those, and they're lower priority anyway.)
- Chapters of Morte D'Arthur are sometimes short, but those don't give much of the flavor.
- Lots of poems are short. I think I'd want those read aloud: one or two for each era.
- Thumbnail history of Europe—not sure where to find one—needs to have a map. Maybe a video instead of reading?
- Thumbnail history of the USA—probably a video. Careful, some are invidious and some not very clear.
- For the math-deprived: There are some good videos out there that could be useful. Animations help illustrate some concepts. It's not the same as learning and doing, but if it gives a feel…
- Music: I probably stand in need of a little background reinforcement here too. My music theory is … um, deficient, and history has a lot of gaps.
- Science: I'd be tempted to lecture, but there are some good videos out there too.
You may notice a tendency to rely on videos with the semi-literate.
Figuring a list for the type 2 students – curious and ready to read – seems like more fun. What would you pick to make sure your student had a rudimentary background of the important stuff?
(*) I know, Oxford uses the American plan these days. Probably cheaper.
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Adam Smith - Wealth of Nations, Plutarch's Lives, Heisenburg - Physics and Philosophy, Chesterton - Orthodoxy, The Journal of John Woolman, Burke - On the Sublime French Revolution... These are a few world-view books to source for educational gap filling.
And I learned a fair bit about ancient Rome simply from scholia on Plautus.
At one point in my life, I found myself living with a professor couple who filled up their spare bedrooms with waifs and strays as their several children went away to different universities elsewhere. While it was a group-tutorial at every evening meal, it was daily including weekends, rather than once or twice a week.
I was often happy that I was not the one being called out at the moment for things such as unexamined priors, but I took the correction to heart just as much as if I had been the one in the hot-seat.
Perhaps my quality-meter is mis-calibrated because I've had such a thing daily from someone who is a noted guest speaker on such things, but I question whether the average university professor is up to such a task.
As an aside, when I was tenure-track faculty in a communications department, it was a great source of amusement to my departmental colleagues in the group-chat about university reorganization that _I_ was the one to explain to folks from the more traditional departments why, for example, mathematics was being considered part of a school of 'liberal arts'.
When I move to a new place or start a new job, it is second nature to me to research the history of the thing, as my success in the mission seems related to the question of 'why is this here?" Same when I set my sights on a career in academia, so it was with surprise that I discovered that most faculty know nothing of the 7 subjects of the trivium and quadrivium.
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