The Common Core is the academic foundation at King’s.
Most colleges and universities in the United States have a small number of prerequisite or common courses that all students must take — for example, a freshman writing course or a history overview. In contrast, King’s requires twenty courses spread over four years.
We realize that this educational paradigm challenges certain current practices, but we have witnessed its effectiveness both inside and outside the classroom. Our faculty models scholarship that inspires our graduates to nurture lifelong intellectual pursuits. Our graduates demonstrate what is best about The King’s College education as they apply their analytical skills in opportunities in influential places of service around the globe. They realize the value of their education when they are working in teams that encounter a problem that only the most disciplined and creative mind can see its way around.
Students take nine Common Core courses as freshmen, five as sophomores, four as juniors and two as seniors. Altogether, the Common Core is half of the courses required for graduation from King’s.
Courses draw from the classical disciplines— history, philosophy, literature, theology, science and math—in addition to more contemporary disciplines, like politics, business and economics. We expect exceptionally high oratory and writing skills throughout the curriculum.
Our experience is that only Christians whose roots go deep into the sources of Western Civilization and the Christian Intellectual Tradition are fully prepared to meet the challenges of modern society. We prepare leaders with these skills by ordering the experience of our Common Core to support three main principles:
1. Chronological exploration of the cultural context that grants essential ideas shaping Western Civilization and the American Experiment. Included are three Western Civilization courses and two courses in American Political Thought and Practice.
2. Conceptual, cross-disciplinary approach, presenting students with the religious, literary, political and economic elements that form civilizations, including sacred texts, important stories, laws and social context. Students read the Greek philosophers at the same time as the Hebrew Scriptures.
3. Close, unabridged reading of several substantial texts, or Great Books, rightly acknowledged as canonical works, including Sophocles, Homer, Cicero, Plutarch, and Virgil from the ancient period.
The Common Core provides every student the framework to engage ideas from across disciplines. Business students can navigate philosophy and Media students economics. The Core provides every student with an opportunity to explore different disciplines before choosing a major and future career.
Core Curriculum Course List
- College Writing I
- College Writing II
- Quantitative Reasoning
- Christianity and Society
- Foundations of Philosophy
- Introduction to Economics
- Foundations of Politics
- Introduction to the Literature of the Hebrew Scriptures
- Introduction to New Testament Literature
- Western Civilization I
- Western Civilization II
- Western Civilization III
- Scientific Reasoning
- American Political Thought and Practice I
- American Political Thought and Practice II
- Economic Thought and Practice
- Foundations of Judeo-Christian Thought
- Persuasive Writing and Speaking