One of the more interesting educational efforts going on in the world today is taking place in Sulaimani, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. A number of dedicated educators have established a university, at the core of which is a very strong liberal arts program. The language of instruction is English and most of the faculty hail from North America and the U.K.
From what I can tell (having visited the institution some months ago), the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani is unique in Iraq, where higher education emphasizes rote learning, large lectures, and high-stakes testing. By contrast, at AUIS, classes are small and discussion-oriented. The students understand and appreciate the difference, as this press release about auditions for a production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth seems to indicate:
“I don’t even like poetry,” said Khende Asaad, an International Studies major from Erbil. “But when I hear Shakespeare, I feel like this big door is opening, and something terrible and wonderful is about to happen.”
A faculty member with whom I spoke on my visit compared his Iraqi students (not just Kurds, but Sunni and Shiite Arabs, Turkomen, and Azeris) to students he had taught in the Czech Republic after the collapse of communism. Post-totalitarian students, he said, are hungry for big ideas.
Let’s hope and pray that those aren’t the only circumstances under which genuine education is possible.
November 21st, 2010 | 8:40 pm
It would indeed be ironic, that some students, in Iraq, of all places, would be getting a better liberal arts education, than those in the United States. right now, in the US, we’re experiencing a low point, in the Humanities, where the marxists have turned the Humanities away from studying Shakespeare, Aristotle, and other traditional topics, to various fashionable topics, such as sexism, racism, etc. These problems (sexism, racism, etc.) exist, and should be fought by all decent people, but they should not replace what really constitutes a Liberal Arts-Humanites program: studying the great Art, Literature, History, Philosophy, and Religions of humanity.
The fact that certain Iraqis are being exposed to the greatest that civilization has to offer, and LIKING it, is reason to hope. It’s a tiny sun of hope, that, at least in Iraq, has been pretty dark.
November 21st, 2010 | 10:09 pm
“…where the marxists have turned the Humanities away from studying Shakespeare, Aristotle, and other traditional topics, to various fashionable topics, such as sexism, racism, etc….”
To enlarge on your point, Bret, Shakespeare and Aristotle are indeed “relevant” studies for those who are concerned with such evils as racism, because Shakespeare and Aristotle deal constantly the problems of human evil and human folly. Anyone who is serious about studying the evils of his own age must approach them with an intellectual and moral foundation built on the wisdom of past ages, not just the current opinions of current voices. (Which is why marxists are so keen on erasing the past.)
November 21st, 2010 | 11:29 pm
I am delighted to hear of this venture. The original concept of the liberal arts just as ‘the university’ was a sense that students needed to be educationally ‘born again’ and liberated from the passions and slaves to their egos and personal opinions.
This was turned upside down through Descartes’ ‘Cogito ego sum’, however there is a wind blowing and I believe it is breaking the stranglehold that rationalist subjectivism has held on the throat of society’s mind.
May enterprises like these increase
November 22nd, 2010 | 12:30 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Qubad Talabani, Kevin Forrester. Kevin Forrester said: "Something Terrible and Wonderful" http://tinyurl.com/28j9bko [...]
November 22nd, 2010 | 3:17 pm
this is really wonderful and very good step for us as KURDISH PEOPLE iam Kurdish and from Kurdistan region and i see this step will be helpful for our development,
thanks for this step and aso thanks for you Joseph Knippenberg for what you interested to wright .
regards
kurd pilot
sangar sallaey
November 22nd, 2010 | 4:33 pm
[...] there something that I can mix with water that will clean the shower room of mold/mildew/germs/etc without [...]
November 25th, 2010 | 2:31 am
This is what we need for a brighter future in our region. I hope students from all walks of life have a stake in this wondeful place and that is up to PM making sure his efferts will continue to bear fruit in years to come.
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