Below is a General Education Curriculum Proposal, conceived but not yet taught by Caroline Webb in 2006. It follows on from doing some teaching at the College of Marin with adults in 2003 and 2004 when I taught courses in contemporary cosmology - or what we might call the story of the universe as we now understand that story through the sciences and what it can mean for our identity and role as human beings.

FACING THE 21st CENTURY

A Multidisciplinary Integral Approach to Forming Sustainable Civilization

Never before has it been so important that people look ahead to the future with sufficient information and inspiration. The decades of the first half of the 21st century form a decisive moment in the history of humanity and of planet Earth. We may no longer assume that our way of life is secure and that the model of industrial growth developed in the 19th and 20th centuries can continue without significant change. The constraints of energy supplies, global climate change, ecological decline and our own imaginations, form formidable challenges. No profession, corporation or institution can avoid addressing these challenges. To navigate successfully as a global civilization, however, requires a conscious encounter with the challenges.

The foundational idea of this curriculum is that the explication of what is uniquely new about our present time requires a modern cosmological perspective, uniting disparate disciplines and ways of knowing in a comprehensively integral vision.

Facing the 21st Century is a course of integrated studies encompassing Cultural History, Science, and Philosophy aiming to foster the education of a population ready to embrace and create far-reaching changes in the social, economic and technological order, such that our global civilization may evolve into a fully sustainable form.

This course introduces students in both the sciences and the arts to a curriculum that presents the full context of human existence at the beginning of the 21st century. By presenting the cosmological perspective of an evolutionary universe, based on modern science, this course provides a stimulating foundation for creative thought in relation to our many developmental challenges, chief of which is climate change.

As scientists worldwide are finding, there are trends currently in process of great importance for human development. The trends include global warming, mass extinction of species, widespread devastation of eco-systems and an energy crisis. No economy and no standard of living will be unaffected. Of no less importance are spiritual questions of the meaning and value of life, as well as questions of equity and justice. Our situation requires an appropriately informed and educated response, alongside an upwelling of traditional human qualities of invention, creativity, community and teamwork.

Given the integrated nature of the challenges, it is essential that a multidisciplinary approach be taken, in which the humanities and the sciences are brought together in a fruitful relationship that can accomplish three main goals:

* The cultivation of an adequate cognitive understanding of our situation

* The encouragement of a spirit of creativity to be applied in all human activities and fields of knowledge

* The recognition of human responsibility for cultivating a viable future for all of life.

This proposal for a 16-session course is structured for the American university and college semester timeframe but it could be adapted to become either a one- year course or a course for one term in UK universities and colleges. It has been devised with undergraduate students in mind but it could also become a course of studies for senior students at secondary schools.

16 Sessions – Designed for classroom or for Internet-based learning

Module 1: Sessions 1 – 5 will explore cosmologies and worldviews

Module 2: Sessions 6 - 10 will explore the scientific account of the evolutionary Universe and life on Earth

Module 3: Sessions 11 – 16 will explore the key issues confronting us in the 21st century

THREE MODULES

1. Module One: Cosmologies and Worldviews

This module presents an introduction to world cosmologies brought to us through social/cultural anthropology, through cultural history and through comparative religion studies. This component will introduce the idea of ‘worldviews’ – the cultural lenses through which humans have always formed guidelines for managing our affairs and our relationship with nature and the cosmos.

2. Module Two: Discovering the Evolutionary Universe

This module presents the narrative of modern science that provides us with an account of the evolution of the universe from its birth, estimated to be 13.7 billion years ago through to today.

Living in a time-developmental evolutionary universe is the major discovery of the last century. It has large implications for human identity, creativity and our capacities for forming a sustainable world. This component introduces students to the realities of ‘deep time’ and the integral nature of life’s development on Earth. Only with an adequate grasp of the interpenetration of the organic with the inorganic and an informed understanding of the layering of nature that lies behind our own existence, will we be able to adequately address the issues of sustainability.

Nature works in holistic, systemic ways and we will succeed as a species to the extent that we mirror and replicate that fundamental reality. Students will gain knowledge of holistic and systemic ways of thinking and at the same time gain a critically needed time-contextual perspective, by learning the main stages of the evolution of the universe and Earth.

The scientifically based narrative of our origins and evolution has the capacity to inspire wonder and respect, as well as inform, something which is of great importance and relevance for the third component of the curriculum.

3. Module Three: Creating Sustainable Civilization in the 21st Century

This module turns students to look towards the future and explore the central themes that will dominate our lives in the coming decades. The aim will be to generate an energetic spirit of creative thought, firmly rooted in the evolutionary perspective and its implications, which will serve students in their chosen fields of specialized study, whatever they may be. The emphasis will be on encouraging individuals to recognize their own creative role in forming the future.

In this section of the curriculum, students will engage with fundamental questions of human development in a world that is awakening to the recognition that if the ‘natural economy’ faces collapse, then so too will human economies. With one session devoted to an overview of the key problems and challenges, the remaining sessions will focus upon examining a sample of the many ideas and initiatives now taking place that aim to address the problems. Students’ collaborative research in different topic areas will enable a wide range of new initiatives and ideas to be shared between the whole group, generating a sense of empowerment to affect the future and personally participate in creating a sustainable civilization.