William Marvel: The Imitation College

Recent programs of studies at Kennett High School have reminded me of college catalogues from half a century ago, with academic subjects broken into disciplinary subcategories and fragments. Some of the job titles recently assigned to administrators at Kennett, such as the designation of assistant principals as "deans," also seem calculated to evoke collegiate imagery. This type of imitation appears to be an increasingly popular pretention in public secondary schools with image problems.

Kennett offers a history course known as Holocaust and Genocide, which has been popular on college campuses ever since the 1970s. Other history offerings in our social studies department — U.S. History, European History, Modern World History, for example — are fairly general. Holocaust and Genocide is the only course in that department grounded on so narrow a theme, and it sounds a bit parochial for high school consumption. A class scrutinizing the American Revolution or Civil War would be roughly comparable in scope, and perhaps more relevant to students of that age, but such focused historical topics strike me as overly detailed for the secondary level.