ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book sketches the history of general education at Columbia, Harvard, and Chicago. It reformulates the questions that have been raised about the efficacy of general education and about the position of the college as a whole in the scheme of higher learning. The book deals with those changes in American society that challenge existing college preparation. It discusses the emergence of a new national polity and its effects on the way social problems are defined in this country, and the changes in various disciplines that have occurred as a result of the so-called "exponential growth" of knowledge. The book examines the changes in secondary education, particularly the role of advanced placement programs, and the new curriculum changes in physics, mathematics, biology, and American history.
