In this time of renewed world strife, it might seem counter-intuitive or even irresponsible to argue that, more than ever, we need genuine old-fashioned liberal education whose ends are wisdom and virtue. Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine last week stunned the world, but perhaps what ought to be truly stunning is that almost everyone, across [...]
Let us offer to the young some clear years for becoming not a this or a that, but for learning to be a human being, whose powers of thought are well exercised, whose imagination is well stocked, whose will has conceived some large human purpose, and whose passions have found some fine object of love [...]
Eva Brann’s contributions to the larger academic community are twofold: She gives her students, colleagues, and readers a sweeping variety of writings and offers herself as a model of one who never shies from thinking, discussing, and seeking knowledge; and she is a tireless defender of the educational practices at St. John’s College, where she [...]
With such a rich intellectual, artistic, and moral heritage, why among the many institutions of Catholic learning (including, of course, the Benedictine ones) are there so few dedicated to a liberating and humane education in truth, humility, and love? Glory in All Things: St. Benedict and Catholic Education Today, by André Gushurst-Moore (Angelico Press, [...]
What are our students going to be bringing into their first contact with this world? Primarily sanity. Grounded in the real virtues, cardinal and theological, they understand themselves and others as loved by God, given life by His will, sustained by His purposes. It’s Finals week at Wyoming Catholic College. Since Monday, students have been [...]
One of the administrators at my school recently asked faculty to contribute a “solidarity statement.” The email specified what was being sought: For your statement, we’re asking you to share how you personally will engage in the work of creating an inclusive and equitable campus community that truly values all. What, specifically, will you do [...]
A few weeks ago, as I was looking up my undergraduate advisor’s address, I was stunned to find that he’d passed away in September. Professor Walter T.K. Nugent was 86. He was a great teacher, a great scholar, and a great man. He equally inspired and intimidated me, and I’m deeply proud to count him [...]
The teaching of modern universities is that we inhabit a godless, indifferent, pointless material universe where consciousness itself is an accident. A prevailing nihilism settles out from this failure of questioning. If we reopen the essential questions, we can have faith that the truth will sustain us and reward us for our love of it. [...]
This book is full of observations about friendship—discerningly borrowed and observantly original; it is a credible descendant of those wonders of human perspicacity, Aristotle’s books on friendship. One of those borrowed observations is that “the point of being friends is to charm each other.” Willing Dogs and Reluctant Masters: On Friendship and Dogs by Gary [...]
Making judgments is a privilege of persons only. A privilege that is necessary, both to live well on earth and to enter Heaven. There are at least nineteen different kinds of judgment that we should distinguish. I’m sorry I could not find a twentieth, to match the number of digits on our fingers and toes. But [...]
Learning and teaching are mysterious processes. To understand them fully would mean to discover the secret of our lives. For we are, perhaps above anything else, learning and teaching animals. What I have to speak about, briefly and in a most elementary way, is what both learning and teaching mean and do not mean. Learning [...]
This is the beginning of an extraordinary adventure, one that will bond the freshmen to each other for life and form the way that they experience the world of the mind and the tradition of the West, which is their home and birthright. I mean the West, of course, in the broad cultural sense, but [...]
Music liberates us from vulgarity, intellectual rigidity, and the tyranny of unexamined, popular opinions about music and beauty. Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul. –Plato Music transcends the classroom, the concert stage, and professional recordings. It pervades life. Mankind has long used music in all sorts of ways: [...]
In our contemporary world of ubiquitous mirage, the skills of discernment are not only important, they are of vital benefit. "Likely stories" are a bedrock of classical education, and classical educators should endeavor to have students read them not because they believe students must be virtuous in order to go to battle against societal disintegration [...]