The “Mindfulness” Degree
Do American colleges still teach students how to think? Or have whole programs been built on fashionable but unexamined assumptions? Increasingly, one wonders whether parts of the curriculum are outright…
“Accommodation Nation” in the UNC System
Late last year, the Atlantic’s Rose Horowitch penned a widely shared essay on campus “disability accommodations,” the practice whereby students with learning disorders such as ADHD receive extra time on…
How Postmodernism Killed Great Literature
Last week, I finished reading Ottessa Moshfegh’s bestselling 2018 novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation. While I usually do not read books from the “Millennial Sad Girl Navigates Modern…
Ten Books We Want Under the Tree in 2025
If you’ve been a longtime reader of the Martin Center’s work, then you know we collect books. Our library now holds nearly 1,000 titles, although our recent move means that…
Student Learning in the Higher Education Compact
Introduction The authors of the Trump administration’s Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education were right to label the section on grade inflation “Student Learning.” The section demands that grades…
The Pernicious Effects of Grade Inflation
Higher education is suffering from many woes, and the federal government (and sometimes Donald Trump in particular) often gets much of the blame for them. But one factor that, in…
What Is Wrong with Economics Education?
How many times does an undergraduate economics student hear the name “Hayek” in his or her courses? The answer, in most programs, is close to zero. This is surprising. Friedrich…
The Compliance Theatre of Online Learning
Artificial intelligence has democratized knowledge more than any invention in history. Anyone can now solve a problem in physics, medicine, or Greek literature instantly. Yet the safeguards that once verified…
Why the Waywardness of Academic Geography Matters
For over 75 years, geography departments have been nearly nonexistent at so-called elite colleges in the United States. Most Ivy League schools, as well as Stanford and the University of…
Stop Meeting Students Where They Are
Over the past several years, a common refrain in education has been that educators need to “meet students where they are.” Equally common is the promise to do just that—and…