Throwing Rice at the Rhino

Dear Colleagues Across the Curriculum

Whatever the content of Gen Ed : premises, themes,
topics, abstract-to-applied ratios....

is this (below) the algorithm?  protocol?  standard
operation procedure?  By which Gen Ed, like
Regular Ed, will bes processed and delivered?
I'm just asking.

              syllabus (contract)
 
     * lecture-to-discussion ratios
     * attendance policy
     * reading and writing assignments
        (texts, term & semester papers)
     * quizzes and examination policy 
     * deadline policy (late penalties)
     * presentation/poster policies
     * assessment and evaluation policy
     * diagnosed learning disability policy


And if so, so what?

Years ago one of our biologists, now gone, claimed:
     "We don't teach subject matter , we teach
                  Taking A Course."
           (subject matter = the tokens)

Marshal McLuhan insisted "the medium is the message" -
not the message.

Distinctive! said Gary: Innovative!

Should  the overwhelming Post Gutenberg, Post Literacy,
Neo-Oral technological matrix we swim in now (all wet
with underlying premises of dry) factor-in to our consideration
of Gen-Ed, if not the Old-School Regular Ed we're used to?

      Is the following considered Abstract or Applicable?
 
“Most enduring structures [seemingly sustainable
 in their terms—having been around   for a long time, 
figure they must be doing IT right etc.]  in nature, 
society, the human psyche, are resistant to fundamental changes, by which I mean changes that alters the
givens [premises, parameters, tolerances] of those
structures themselves.
 
“No self-contained [system] can induce it’s own
fundamental change. It’s   almost a matter of logic,
because self-containment means it knows nothing
beyond it’s own givens.
 
In such cases, accidents are useful indeed.
 
"Artists, to, have long known that happen stance
breeds new worlds, that sometimes the creative spirit
must abandon its own designs, the kingdom of our
intentions being so cramped and predictable. "
                      (Lewis Hyde)