The Great Ideas is a demonstration course for those interested
in becoming Ames Christian learners, and also serves as the orientation course for new learners. Its purpose is to lay out the framework for the Great Ideas curriculum model.
The Great Ideas model is built around the
notion that education is all about encountering powerful and meaningful ideas. Specifically, the Great Ideas curriculum is designed to provide learners with a balanced introduction to the arts, sciences, and social
sciences along with their specialized studies.
This course is an introduction to that model. Its primary purpose is to help learners encounter "the basics" as it relates to The Great Ideas. Its contention, and ours,
is that learners can readily prepare to deal with sophisticated and powerful ideas if they first master several "basic" concepts.
In this course "basic" does not equate to "easy," but rather to "foundational." The
Great Ideas reviewed in this course form a bedrock core of ideas. Those ideas, once mastered, form the basis for encountering other, more specialized ideas.
As you consider these Great Ideas, begin to think about how
they apply to the great questions and issues of our time, and of all time: Human freedom; personal and national security; eternal truth; and personal fulfillment.
