Paths to Knowledge

Each Paths to Knowledge (Paths) course is unique, asking students to consider different interdisciplinary topics from multiple angles.

Paths to Knowledge is an interdisciplinary course that focuses on different modes of reasoning and inquiry in the sciences, humanities, and professional fields, and emphasizes critical thinking, close reading, and thoughtful writing. Paths courses often address questions such as…

• Why do we seek knowledge, what is it, and how is it created?
• What is real, true, or meaningful in human experience?
• How do human societies govern themselves, why do they do so in the ways they do, and does morality have a role to play?
• How does, and how should, society make decisions about how to use [knowledge; technology; laws; cultural norms; etc.], and what is the "best" way to do so? What does "best" mean in the context of human society?
• How should we judge the value and validity of knowledge claims? Of what "reality" is?
• How should society make decisions about the uses to which knowledge is put?
• Whose conceptions of knowledge ‘counts’ and whose does not?
• How does knowledge contribute to the distribution, use, and imbalance of power?

Paths to Knowledge is the only specifically required course in the Honors program for any student fulfilling their Drake Curriculum (general education) requirements through the Honors Track instead of the Areas of Inquiry (AOI) Track, or seeking to graduate with University Honors. These courses are designed to help provide students with a grounding in interdisciplinary thinking, reading, and writing, and uses a discussion-based approach to student learning. Paths to Knowledge is meant to foster a curious, motivated intellectual community through which students build and maintain personal and academic relationships that strengthen both the Honors program and Drake University.

Each Paths course is unique, asking students to consider different interdisciplinary topics from many angles. These courses consist of special topics of study from the perspective of history, biology, politics, philosophy, business, psychology, education, sociology, literary study, writing, and other disciplines.

Sample of titles of past Paths courses:

• Education & Schooling: Why Bother?
• Love & Hate
• Theories, Isms, and Folderol
• Dogs & Friendship
• Global Citizenship: Your problem is my problem?
• Employment: Why People Hate Their Jobs

Paths is best taken during a student’s sophomore year, though many juniors and seniors may take it as well. Second semester first-year students may enroll with instructor permission.

Recent Paths offerings

Education & Schooling: Why Bother? (Spring 2025)

Dr. Matthew Hayden
Honors Director
Professor of Philosophy and Education

What is “education”? What is “schooling”? And what’s the difference? Why do we do either? To what extent do education and schooling help us understand the world? When is education or schooling helpful or unhelpful? Why is there so much controversy around it? Why do some individuals thrive in schooling and others struggle or fail? Both education and schooling are assumed to be necessary, but are they? This course will attempt to answer questions like these about education and schooling, a process and institution that constitutes the dominant method of knowledge transmission and creation in the contemporary world.

Through the disciplinary lenses of education, philosophy, sociology, economics, and psychology, students will explore the key characteristics and applications of education and schooling, and the symptoms and causes of obstacles to the successful realization of their aims. Students will discover more about their own philosophies and ideologies of education and learn to deconstruct complex issues surrounding this (vital?) domain of contemporary life. Through a grounding in academic journals, multidisciplinary research, individual research presentations, and the examination of various pop-culture representations of education and schooling through film, students will acquire a more informed and nuanced understanding of the concept and institution that have been omnipresent and unavoidably influential in their lives so far.