A Response to the Cynical Student
You’ve heard the complaints: When am I ever gonna use this? How is this relevant to the real world? How is reading Shakespeare going to make me a better banker? … Continue reading “A Response to the Cynical Student”
What Should We Teach in Journalism Schools?
There’s something rotten in American journalism schools. From a tendency toward bias to outright activism, journalism in higher education is not what it should be: a place to guide young … Continue reading “What Should We Teach in Journalism Schools? “
Derek Bok’s Higher Expectations – Our Colleges Should Accomplish More
Former Harvard president Derek Bok has long lamented that our institutions of higher education largely underperform in their missions. He has now written another book making that argument. His Higher … Continue reading “Derek Bok’s Higher Expectations – Our Colleges Should Accomplish More”
A Conservative Student’s Experience at UNC-Chapel Hill
I am so grateful for and blessed by my time at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. However, I am keen to the reality that my political foundations … Continue reading “A Conservative Student’s Experience at UNC-Chapel Hill”
We Need to Teach About the Socialist Alternative…and Its Failure
Karl Marx is a common fixture on college course syllabi. From English to sociology to philosophy, the German socialist’s writings are explained, analyzed, and dissected. I find myself, a teacher … Continue reading “We Need to Teach About the Socialist Alternative…and Its Failure”
Be Reasonable, But Not Naive, About the Crisis in Higher Ed
Let’s Be Reasonable: A Conservative Case for Liberal Education is indeed a reasonable book. Drawing on thinkers from John Locke to Allan Bloom, Ursinus College political theory professor Jonathan Marks … Continue reading “Be Reasonable, But Not Naive, About the Crisis in Higher Ed”
Teaching Students Civil Dialogue in a Culture Hostile to Free Speech
It can be disheartening to witness how college culture has become inhospitable to viewpoints that fall outside of the ideological mainstream. For example, a March 2020 report by three professors … Continue reading “Teaching Students Civil Dialogue in a Culture Hostile to Free Speech”
It’s Time to Start a New University
Two viruses—one biological, the other ideological—have delivered a mortal blow to American higher education. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of colleges and universities will soon be wiped out by an unprecedented combination … Continue reading “It’s Time to Start a New University”
Universities Appease China, Ignore Human Rights Abuses
Long the vanguard of liberal change, the American university now leads the appeasement of a hardened authoritarian China. The interest in promoting a broader community of scholars has given way … Continue reading “Universities Appease China, Ignore Human Rights Abuses”
The Brutal and Beautiful Art of Education
Tara Westover and her family lived off the grid on Buck’s Peak, a mountainside in Idaho so remote that life there was anchored in “circles of perpetual change that, when … Continue reading “The Brutal and Beautiful Art of Education”