The Core is an opportunity to inquire into the fundamental aspects of being and our relationship with God, nature and our fellow human beings.
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The Braniff Graduate School of Liberal Arts offers the following Classical Education programs: Master of Arts in Humanities with Classical Education Concentration and Certificate of Classical Learning. Each of these options includes a required core with additional flexibility in curriculum design so that you can customize a program of study appropriate to your personal, professional, and intellectual goals. Students consult with their academic adviser to map out a program of study.
For descriptions of the courses listed here, and the typical two-year schedule, refer to this webpage.
Fifteen credit hours of graduate-level courses are required. The following courses comprise the 鈥渃ore鈥� of the Master of Arts in Humanities with Classical Education Concentration. Each course is three credit hours.
HUM 6326 Great Works of the Middle Ages
15 to 21 credit hours of graduate-level elective courses from across the disciplines may be chosen. Students electing for and accepted into the thesis track take 15 hours of electives; those not completing a thesis take 21. These include, but are not limited to, the following courses. Most courses are three credit hours, but sometimes one- and two-credit courses are offered. In addition, the program regularly offers one-credit pass/fail seminars on targeted practical questions in education. Students may take this seminar up to three times.
Courses crafted specifically for our program in classical education, such as Master Teachers in the Western Tradition, History of Liberal Arts Education, Ancient Epics, Plato and Socratic Conversation, Augustine the Teacher, Aquinas on the Virtues, Tolkien as Teacher, The Inklings, Teaching Great American Speeches, Writing as Imitation, Teaching Classical Children鈥檚 Literature, Argumentation, Writing as Imitation, Roman Empire and Western Culture, etc.
With the graduate director鈥檚 approval, students may complete pertinent graduate-level courses from a variety of fields, including art, classics, drama, economics, education, English and other European literary traditions (French, German, Italian, or Spanish), history, politics, psychology, philosophy, and theology.
The M.A. thesis is optional. Students accepted into the thesis track register for a six-credit thesis course instead of six additional elective credits. Well before registering for the course (at least one semester, but preferably two or more), the student must consult with an academic advisor to determine a suitable thesis topic and appropriate criteria, and then begin the research process in earnest. While the six-credit thesis course is completed in one semester, it is expected that the student will do a significant amount of preparatory work on the thesis long before taking this course. For more information, contact your academic advisor.
** Formerly, the track with both a thesis and a foreign language requirement was referred to as the M.A., in contrast to the Master's or MHM, which requires neither. **
Twenty-four credit hours of graduate-level courses are required. Students participate in 吃瓜网 graduate courses, as well as special courses and seminars designed for the Jewish Classical Education track and taught by Tikvah professors. The following courses comprise the 鈥渃ore鈥� of the Master of Arts in Humanities with Jewish Classical Education Concentration. Each course is three credit hours.
6 to 12 credit hours of graduate-level elective courses from across the disciplines may be chosen. Students electing for and accepted into the thesis track take 6 hours of electives; those not completing a thesis take 12. These include, but are not limited to, the following courses. Most courses are three credit hours, but sometimes one- and two-credit courses are offered. In addition, the program regularly offers one-credit pass/fail seminars on targeted practical questions in education. Students may take this seminar up to three times.
Possible electives that can be taken from the 吃瓜网 and from Tikvah include: Elementary and Middle School Education Through a Jewish Lens, Tanakh and the Formation of Western Civilization, Teaching Midrash and Talmud with Western Civilization in Mind, Athens and Jerusalem: Affinities and Clashes, Hebrew Immersion for Elementary School Students, Plato and Socratic Conversation, Teaching Great American Speeches, Teaching Classical Children鈥檚 Literature, Classical Pedagogy in the Science Classroom, A World Destroyed and Rebuilt: Jewish Education after the Holocaust, etc.
** Formerly, the track with both a thesis and a foreign language requirement was referred to as the M.A., in contrast to the Master's or MHM, which, in the Jewish Classical Education Concentration does have a foreign language requirement. **
Nine credit hours of graduate-level courses are required. The following courses comprise the 鈥渃ore鈥� of the Master of Arts in Humanities with Classical Education Concentration. Each course is three credit hours.
Nine credit hours of graduate-level elective courses from across the disciplines may be chosen. These include, but are not limited to, the following courses. Most courses are three credit hours, but sometimes one- and two-credit courses are offered. In addition, the program regularly offers one-credit pass/fail seminars on targeted practical questions in education. Students may take this seminar up to three times.
The Certificate of Classical Learning is not state certification. It does not carry any official weight outside that given to it by the University of Dallas. It is simply an indication to schools and others that you have had a course of study in Classical Education.
If you are interested in pursuing state certification, the 吃瓜网 offers an Alternative Teacher Certification. This is almost entirely distinct from the Certificate of Classical Learning. Alternative Teacher Certification courses can be done together with the Humanities or Classical Education Master's, but this takes up all space for elective courses. There are 15 required credits for the Classical Education Master's and 24 for the Alternative Teacher Certification, with 3 credits shared between them (Philosophy of Education) (see for the full degree plan combining both).
The Master of Arts in Humanities with Classical Education Concentration and the Certificate of Classical Learning are part of the Humanities Graduate Program. This 36 credit hour degree allows students to design their own personalized curriculum around a core of four special courses devoted to the reading of seminal works of Western thought. To this core, courses are added according to interest, either in one or two concentrations, or in one or two historical periods, for a deep and broad educational foundation.