I am honored to be asked to say a few words about the educational project that we all care so deeply about: the education of our citizens in the arts of freedom—the education needed to make our lives worth living and our American Republic worth loving. But before I do, I wish to remind you [...]
In Part I, I considered the reasons why competency-based education is incompatible with liberal learning. Now I want to discuss why it hinders students after graduation, and deprives the world of extraordinary individuals. Liberal arts colleges have always tried to encourage students to develop not only the intellectual virtues, but also the practical, ethical, and—yes, [...]
In a recent essay, Mark Shiffman notes that in the fiercely competitive but nonetheless gloomy context in which university students find themselves, many opt to “major in fear.” Fear that they will not find work or pay off student loans. Fear of lost opportunities or moving home with mom and dad. Consequently, Mr. Shiffman states, [...]
Competency-based education is a popular trend in higher education circles. It also seems to be a trend that could do great damage to liberal learning. What is competency-based education? It has two key elements. First, any course of study must be accompanied by a “competency framework”—a detailed statement of the knowledge and skills expected of [...]
Willa Cather’s The Professor’s House remains one of the most sobering novels I have encountered in my life. The protagonist, Godfrey St. Peter, a native Kansan who has spent his career teaching history and culture at a small college on the Great Lakes, has more than a few similarities to your present author (me!). On [...]
Some rather distressing, though hardly surprising, developments in our public schools were reported recently by our libertarian friends at reason.com. It seems the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) have decided it is time to reduce “the nonviolent suspension gap.” What is that, you may ask? It seems more African-American and Hispanic students are being suspended from [...]
In this essay, I propose that the paradigm presented by Matthew Arnold on the meaning of culture can and should be a response for understanding the eroding arts and humanities today. The Unmapped Classics The twentieth century economist E. F. Schumacher recounts in A Guide for the Perplexed that while in Leningrad, 1968, he was [...]
Welcome to the Class of 2018. Welcome to their families and friends. Welcome Back to the rest of the College community! There is nothing in the world like the energy in this room as we open our doors to another year of learning together. Like everyone else here, I prepared for this fresh beginning by [...]
I have been absent from the pages of The Imaginative Conservative these last several weeks, a place that I consider to be my literary home. The diversity of topics that The Imaginative Conservative publishes helped to foster a growing place of residence in my mind, a residence forged by the character of this journal and [...]
I. Principles and Parts of the Program Every plan of education, whether borne up by a passing trend or bound into a long tradition, is fraught with implicit philosophical principle. Since the program of St. John’s College is devoted to that peculiar kind of learning which of necessity includes a reflection on its own conditions, [...]
At an earlier session I spoke about Socrates as a model for imitating heroes, because he shows us how to use the lives of extraordinary people to help us make and remake a life worth living for ourselves. Now I’d like to speak about Socrates as a model for teachers to emulate. Teachers have chosen [...]
In 1990 the American philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre published Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry: Encyclopedia, Genealogy, Tradition.[1] The last chapter of this book is titled “Reconceiving the university and the lecture,” and it ends with a proposition: in academic discourse we should “introduce” ourselves before we start speaking. The introduction should be a statement revealing [...]
If, on your next trip to Vienna, you set out to understand the personality of this lovely world-capital-that-is-not-a-city, there are three must-sees during your time here. If, however, you are lucky enough during your visit to meet a member of Vienna’s high aristocracy, you will find all these elements personified in a predictably off-beat, refreshingly [...]
Legislation pertaining to sexual orientation is often justified by the claim that it protects citizens’ liberty. Advocates of this type of legislation do so with the intent of using the state to enforce the belief that homosexuality and other sexual choices are natural moral acts. Groups that support laws such as the “Fair Education Act” [...]