Teaching Methods

A new approach to teaching "Great Books " in high schools calls for scholars to reconsider the question of whether classics are relevant in a multiculturally conscious age. This classroom approach, referred to as "participant examples, " requires students and teachers to act out situations from books they are reading; it strives to make the universal human truths found in these books relevant to modern audiences. A study examined the risks and benefits of this approach. Eight English and history classes were observed at an inner city school over a 3-year period. The student body was ethnically mixed: 50 % Black, 257. Hispanic, 15 % Vhite, and 10 % Asian. Results showed that through participant exampl:.: great books have even more relevance and power in the classroom than scholars such as Robert Hutchins and Mortimer Adler have maintained. The study points out, however, that Great Books ' power doesn'