Serving the needs of our Young Adults

By Carl H. Christensen

Questions about the Curriculum

Certainly I understand that the colleges' administrations develop the curriculum, not the board of SOCCCD. However, when the administrations allow what appears to be a disservice to the students in not broadening their educational curriculum then maybe as a board member one could ask the administration on behalf of the students to explain why they are being denied the opportunity of taking a course or courses that seemingly would promote student involvement in becoming contributing human beings to their society and country.

A case in point is that in the Saddleback College schedule for the fall of 2008 there is only one section offered of American history that deals exclusively with the post World War II era. In contrast, there are 32 sections of American history that deal exclusively or primarily with American history prior to World War II.

When I asked an administrator why only one section of U.S. History Since World War II was being offered at Saddleback College, he replied that there had not been a sufficient lapse of time for scholars to analyze the recent past. Thus, issues such as communism, McCarthyism, and factors which tended to promote conformity in the fifties are for the most part not examined and discussed in the classroom. Neither are the factors involved in the youth rebellion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Civil Rights Movement, the Women's Liberation Movement, and the assassination of prominent leaders in the sixties being discussed in SOCCCD classrooms. Nor has the resignation of a president, the domino theory leading to the Vietnam War, the causes of stagflation, and the presumed solution to the energy crisis of the seventies been covered in the classroom. Further, the so called "morning of America" mentioned with the election of a conservative president under whom the Cold War continued with a frightening escalation of the nuclear arms race is not being covered. It is not brought out that the Cold War had continued with the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan resulting eventually in generating the Taliban and Al Qaeda and causing Ronald Reagan to react with his Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars) which to some extent may have contributed to the breakup of the Soviet Union. All of the above is common knowledge to the parents and grandparents of our young adults, but it all remains a great mystery to our young adults through no fault of their own. They have had no real classroom exposure to these societal changing events.

I wonder if there are other areas of the curriculum which do not meet the needs or desires of our young adults.