Needed—A Good Basic Communication Course

Abstract

It is tragically interesting that throughout the first twelve years of formal education in our society, the typical school curriculum does not contain a single course of study in idea handling and communication. In most college curricula, the art and techniques are confusingly taught and de-emphasized, largely because of specialization and professional parochialism. The net result is that our present system of personal development has produced a generation and a half of nonthinkers and noncopers.

This paper argues that a proper synthesis of the skills of perception, inquiry, problem solving, and communication can be taught as such in a single course of study, preferably in high school or even before, but most certainly at least in college. The author describes a semester-length “idea-handling and communication core” course designed to supplant several traditional high-school and college courses, or for adult education.