The Honors Core Curriculum

"I don't know how good a teacher I am, but I do know that I am a

better teacher than I would have been if I hadn't been inspired by so

many terrific Honors students (and Honors colleagues)

through the decades."

- Dr. Wayne Dickson

The Honors Core courses offer a distinctive and challenging learning environment in which the student is asked to take an active role in the educational process. In particular, these seminars are designed to be interdisciplinary, team-taught, discussion-intensive and to have restricted enrollments, so that students might actively confront primary works. During these discussions, students are asked to analyze, critique, and react to the primary authors’ viewpoint, as well as to fellow students and the discussion leaders interpretations.

In the junior year, if not before, students participate in two significant experiences. One is a study abroad experience, which can be obtained in any of a variety of ways, depending on the students major and other circumstances. The other is a service learning experience, in which students will go out into the community to address its needs, either through an existing social service program or through a specially designed project.

In the senior year, students will participate in a senior colloquium, the theme of which will vary from year to year. Students will explore a range of responses to contemporary conflicts, practices, and policies, bringing to bear the skills and knowledge they have obtained both through the Honors Program and through their respective major(s) and minor(s).

The Honors curriculum calls on both students and faculty members to conceive of themselves as members of an interdisciplinary community committed to integrated ways of thinking and learning.

The Honors curriculum emphasizes teaching and learning that draws upon the full richness of human knowledge in the humanities, the creative arts, and the natural and social sciences.

The Honors curriculum is structured so that each course builds upon the experience students acquire in previous honors course work. These sequential courses focus on a series of questions that every well-educated person is obliged to consider: How have we come to understand who we are, as individuals and as a society? What are our moral responsibilities in our local communities and in the world? How might an understanding of human knowledge across the disciplines help us think more clearly and incisively about the most challenging and contested issues of our time?

The Honors curriculum is structured so that each group of entering students in the program stays together throughout the sequence of courses. This fosters a continuous dialogue over the whole of the college experience.

First Year: Two Semester Sequence

HONORS 1: Foundations of Understanding and Knowledge I (5 credit hours)

The first of a two-semester sequence designed to set the historical foundations of human knowledge and understanding. The seminar will undertake a critical comparative study of knowledge “now and then.” Approaches to knowledge and understanding beginning with the ancients and continuing until the 17th Century will be contrasted, compared, and evaluated in the light of contemporary models of knowledge. Texts from across disciplines (the natural sciences, the humanities, the fine arts, and the social sciences) will be used to present ideas that have had significant impact on the development of knowledge. The course includes a laboratory component in which issues in earth, life and physical science, along with issues in psychology, sociology and commerce will be integrated into discussions of philosophy, religion, politics, literature and art. The course is team-taught by three professors, representing three different academic disciplines.

HONORS 2: Foundations of Understanding and Knowledge II (5 credit hours)

The second of a two-semester sequence designed to set the historical foundations of human knowledge and understanding. The course description is the same as Hon 1 except that this course begins with the 17th Century and the rise of modern science and continues to the present and beyond, taking into consideration future prospects for knowledge and understanding. The focus of the course is on the development of knowledge and understanding in science, technology, art, economics and politics. As in the first semester, this course features a natural and social science laboratory component and is team taught by three professors, representing three different academic disciplines. Pre-requisite: Hon 1.

Second Year: Two Semester Sequence

HONORS 3: Self and Society (5 credit hours)

A seminar examining dominant images of self and society. Students and faculty consider the impact of institutions, practices, and traditions on the formation of collective and individual identity and examine the impact of cultural heritage, ideology, and social categories on experience, perspective, and values. The course is team taught by either two or three professors, each from a different academic discipline. Pre-requisite: Hon 2.

HONORS 4: Justice and Ethics in Global Perspective (5 credit hours)

A seminar considering cross-cultural perspectives on justice and ethics and focusing on how different historical, political, and cultural traditions give rise to divergent ideas about freedom, rights, responsibilities, individualism, and community. The course is team taught by either two or three professors, each from a different academic discipline. Pre-requisite: Hon 3.

Third Year: Two academic experiences

HONORS 5: Study Abroad Experience

Students may choose from a variety of short-term and long-term study abroad experiences to increase cross-cultural understanding, and when possible, enrich modern language proficiency. Stetson semester abroad programs are automatically accepted as meeting this requirement. Shorter term programs and non-Stetson sponsored programs must be approved on an individual basis by the Honors Program Executive Committee. In the semester following the successful completion of a study abroad program, students will present a public report on their experience at a campus Honors Program Forum. [Note that this course can be concurrent with, before, or after other Hon courses, as scheduling permits]

HONORS 6: Service Learning Experience (3 credit hours and pass/fail grade)

With the support of the University’s Community Service Office and in consultation with the instructor of this class, students will develop service projects that address local community needs. Prior to going into the field, students will spend a portion of the first part of the semester in classroom preparation for these experiences. At least ten weeks will be spent in the service project, during which the students will work in the project a minimum of 5 hours per week. Near the end of the semester, the students will return to the classroom for a discussion of their projects and will present a public report on their experience at a campus Honors Program Forum. [Note that this course can be concurrent with, before, or after other Hon courses, as scheduling permits]

Fourth Year: Two colloquia

Honors 7 and 8: Senior Colloquium (2 credit hours each semester, pass/fail)

In the senior year, students participate in a senior colloquium emphasizing contemporary problems. This colloquium will involve attending public lectures, reading pertinent texts, meeting to discuss these texts before the public lecture, and gathering after the lecture for further discussion and analysis. When possible, the speaker will attend the post-lecture colloquium to offer a bookfeast-style roundtable discussion. [Students are expected to take Hon 7 and Hon 8 sequentially and consecutively during the last two semesters of their fourth year. However, under special circumstances and with the approval of the Honors Executive Council, exceptions may be granted.]