We live in a pathetically dumbed-down culture. Levels of literacy and numeracy plummet and levels of ignorance rise. Knowledge of the past disappears, its lessons unlearned, as the present shows its contempt for the wisdom of the ages and its sages. In short and in sum, and to put the matter bluntly, we live in [...]
The imagination must be won back. This is Dr. Onalee McGraw’s aim, and she fights with the finest of the films made in our own nation, by Hollywood itself, and sometimes even by corrupt men and women… “You young devils,” says Satan, the wily old misanthrope, wise in the ways of man, “believe you can [...]
Podcast stories, like reading, have the advantage of engaging the audience’s imagination. And lest the technophobes among us decry the dominance of gadgets, rather than the gadgetry taking us into a brave new world, the technology is actually allowing us to participate in a much older form of literature: storytelling… Some time ago, on these [...]
The ends of higher education are the acquisition of wisdom and virtue and the serious pursuit of knowledge and truth. Reading the Great Books helps us to get to these ends. Informed by the wisdom, the beauty, the goodness, and the truth we encounter in Great Books, we can responsibly and humanely practice our vocation [...]
Did you know that your words not only explain the things you want to communicate, but that your words also tell people things about you personally? When I began teaching almost 15 years ago, this time of year was often hectic for me and my students. Many of my nicest and brightest students could become [...]
In the late 1960s, revolutionary protests were directed at the conduct of the war in Vietnam and in advocacy of a "Civil Rights" movement. Leftist activists, assessing how best to capitalize on this unrest, concluded that revolution in the United States would not arise from America's working class and began to focus on American colleges [...]
The self is more distant than any star, says G.K. Chesterton, and we can only see the distant star which is the ego by learning to gaze beyond the self to the stars in the sky and the stars that sparkle in the eyes of our neighbours… We live in a seemingly crazy world. A [...]
Whether the wisest should rule has always been a vexed question, largely because the wisest are least likely to seek (or be granted) the power and prominence that accompany the highest position. But even being educated—simply knowing more or seeing with greater depth—can lead to friction in a democratic society. The great 19th-century convert, Orestes [...]
Our morally bankrupt culture sees sex as no more important, complex, or harmless than the ABCs. But it is unwise to teach the young that which is both beyond their understanding and harmful to their developing character. What American families need are educators who understand the true purpose of their craft and who possess a [...]
For many years I taught a course in Twentieth-Century Literature to college seniors. In truth it was actually a course in early to mid-twentieth-century literature because I didn’t teach any text published within the previous forty to fifty years. Authors on the syllabus included Chesterton, Joyce, Kafka, the War Poets (Brooke, Sassoon and Owen), T. [...]
Why doesn’t the United States do what Europe does when it comes to students and college? Why isn’t a college education free? Fall is here. That means many things are on their way down, including bank accounts as parents write tuition checks. Is anything going up? Maybe interest in “free” college. How often are we [...]
John Dewey is such a big name in the educational world that it can seem like there is no way to push back against his work. But Dorothy Sayers offers a way for the Liberal Arts not only to push back on Dewey but also to steal his thunder... As we look back at the [...]
The end of liberal education is not the learning of settled truths, and the inculcation of useful habits for obtaining useful goods, but the perfection of the human as human, not, primarily, as worker, citizen, or even believer. While people with backgrounds more religious and those with more secular mindsets may disagree about what gives [...]
Our world drowns in information, facts, bites, noise, opinions, and other particulars. Yet, even the best of our students have the most difficult time connecting one thing to another. It is myth that allows us to transcend the immediate and the ephemeral... About ten years ago, I proposed a course of study for first-year college [...]