I. Goals and Objectives:
Goals
1. The Great Books students will expand their socratic study of great books to a study of great works and a study of Culture.
2. The students will develop a deeper sense of collegiality and of Seaver College as a learning community.
3. The students will develop a deeper sense of Culture and consider T.S. Eliot’s thesis that for western Culture “it is against a background of Christianity that all our thought has significance.”

Objectives
1. Students will study competing definitions of “culture” ; give a definition of “culture” and the rationale for their definition.
2. Students will summarize T.S. Eliot’s thesis about Christianity and Culture and consider whether the term’s cultural experiences tend to support or refute that thesis.
3. Students will improve their ability at engaging in socratic dialogue as evidenced by the ability to ask better, more far reaching questions.
4. Each student will write a final paper that responds to Elliot Eisner’s ideas about “expressive outcomes.”

Relationship to the Christian Mission
      Pepperdine University “does not profess to be a church or a religious body, but recognizes its role as an educational institution, albeit one with a distinctive and unique heritage and mission.” This course focuses on the relationship of Christianity and Culture. T.S. Eliot argues that “if Christianity goes, the whole of our culture goes.” Eliot also says that “we should recognize our relationship and mutual dependence upon each other.” Although this is an inquiry based class, there is strong reason to believe that Christian and non-Christian students alike will gain respect for the formative influence of Christianity. Because of the collegial emphasis of the class, a major course goal is to have our students gain a greater appreciation of “our relationship and mutual dependence.” While the emphasis here is on the educational, the approach is responsive to the distinctive and unique mission of a Christian university that encourages the open inquiry of Christians and non-Christians alike.

II. Course experiences:
      While definitions of culture will include those of anthropologists and sociologists, which include such areas of study as social organization; religion; political structures; economic organization; as well as Art; the emphasis will be upon the Arts, especially the Fine Arts. Typically the format for the course will be a short “preparation” for a particular cultural experience, the experience itself, and then discussion groups about that experience. The following are representative of the types of experiences that we would emphasize:
1. A visit to the L.A. County Art Museum.
2. A visit to the Weisman Museum.
3. The viewing of a “foreign” film with implications for Great Books.
4. Attendance at a Dance recital at Smothers.
5. Attendance at the Musical Performance at Smothers.
6. A lecture on a Great Books author by a distinguished visiting lecturer.
7. The one act plays produced by our Theatre Department.
8. Short lectures by Great Books discussants, students, and graduates.

      Sonia Sorrell has indicated a willingness to explore the relationship of painting and socratic dialogue with us; Michael Zakian to use the interrogative for exhibits at the Weisman; Michael Gose the to discuss the great ideas behind selected films; one of our graduates, to engage us in dialogue about Dance performances; one of our adjunct music teachers, Music performances; the Great Books Chair to use Great Books Chair funding to bring in noted scholars; and Jerry Henderson, to facilitate our experience of plays produced by our Drama department. After the introductions, there will be the experience itself, and then discussions in groups of about twelve, led by students who have completed Great Books I-IV, and who are enrolled in Great Books V.
      This approach is based on a general, cross disciplinary approach to the study of culture, emphasizes the Arts in the study of cultural artifacts, and relies upon the skills of socratic dialogue being developed among the students in the Great Books program. This approach is also interdisciplinary in that the readings are from a variety of academic perspectives.

The reading list will include a variety of definitions of culture as well as:
Eliot, T.S., Notes Towards the Definition of Culture.
Hirsch, E.D., Dictionary of Cultural Literacy.
Simonson, Rick, Multi-Cultural Literacy.
Snow, C.P., Two Cultures.

Evaluation:
      Students, obviously, must attend the course activities and discuss the significance of these activities, and there will be consistent observation about the students’ willingness and ability to ask good questions. However, the summative evaluation of the one unit, credit/no credit course will be based on a final paper. The paper responds to Elliot Eisner’s ideas about “expressive outcomes.” (Eisner is world famous for his work in Art Education, Educational Criticism, and is a past president of the American Educational Research Association.) Eisner says, “(Another” type of educational aim is what I have called...expressive objectives. Because I now see that the term objective implies a preformulated goal, something out of reach but to be attained, I think it desirable to change the term to expressive outcomes. Out comes are essentially what one ends up with, intended or not, after some form of engagement. Expressive outcomes are the consequences of curriculum activities that are intentionally planned to provide a fertile field for personal purposing and experience.” We anticipate that our readings and experiences in Art will provide such a fertile field for personal purposing and experience, and that an appropriate way for students to present their learning is in writing an “expression” of their “outcomes.” While there may be a range of qualitative outcomes expressed by our students, and while we would be reluctant to assign letter grades to those expressions, we do feel comfortable in thinking that students who show that they have engaged seriously in this exploration of culture will be worthy of one unit of credit.