A Defense of AI Parenting
I rejoiced when I heard that my children’s school had canceled their weekly library hour. I’m sorry. I know how that sounds. Truly, I am a bibliophile; my kids have been surrounded by piles of books,...
View ArticleThe Crisis of Liberal Education
Liberal education is in a state of perpetual crisis. Over the past two years, the University of Tulsa’s Honors Director, Jennifer Frey, built a program where students read “thousands of pages of...
View ArticleBeyond the Battlefield of Ideas
My position is that a university cannot be an open society in all respects and that it must be bounded in certain ways in order to achieve its fundamental mission. That mission, I believe, requires us...
View ArticleIs Higher Education Inherently Political?
In defiance of a higher education landscape dominated by progressive ideology, a handful of colleges are seeking to create an alternative. These institutions are following three distinct strategies....
View ArticleDrafting Socrates into the Culture Wars?
Recently, my husband and our eight-year-old son went to cheer on friends who participated in an Academic Challenge competition. These trivia-style contests involve questions on such subjects as...
View ArticleTaking the High Road
The year 2023 was not a good one for the humanities and the liberal arts. A number of public universities, such as West Virginia University, continued the decade-old trend of slashing the humanities...
View ArticleThe Wisdom of Lifelong Education
On the northside of Indianapolis, there is a senior living community, numbering about 160 residents. Over the past few months, a group of interested residents and I have been meeting weekly for 90...
View ArticleLiberal Arts and the Future of the University
After decades of conservatives bemoaning the moral decline of the university, there is now widespread agreement that serious reforms are needed. The last couple of years have seen a proliferation of...
View ArticleOn Being Your Own Teacher
“Have you yet recognized that you are and always have been your own teacher?”These words have stayed in my mind since 2006, when I first noticed them stretched across a prominent wall inside St....
View ArticleIn Defense of Voracious Reading
Every so often, I come across a repeated sentiment expressed by different people at different times. “It’s far more impressive,” they might say, “to read 3-5 excellent books well in a year, than to...
View ArticleServile Sciences
Among the many slogans adopted during Covid pandemic, one that was constantly repeated was “Trust the experts.” The models could’ve been way off, the numbers of cases and deaths completely distorted...
View ArticleThe School of Aspen
I first became fascinated with the Aspen Institute when I was a young partner in Big Law. Having had the benefit of a Great Books education and having taken a master’s degree at the University of...
View ArticleEducating for Tacit Knowledge
Classical education is in full bloom. Inevitably, success comes with controversy. Critics of the classical curriculum note that it is content-heavy, with all students expected to learn a substantial...
View ArticleThe Purpose of a Liberal Education
When my son was seven years old, he could reel off all the stats anyone would ever need to know about Detroit Tigers baseball. Batting averages, RBIs, home runs, or stolen bases—he knew them all. Of...
View ArticleSins of Admissions
You might have heard the adage, “There will be prayer in schools as long as there are tests in schools.” The same goes for cheating on tests. There will be bribery, deception, extortion, and other...
View ArticleAcademic Freedom Won’t Survive Carnival Act Universities
Generally a person is in her grave before the profane start dancing on it. Fresno State University Professor Randa Jarrar, by contrast, could not tarry an hour after the announcement of Barbara...
View ArticleJustifying the Liberal Arts
The raison d’être for government funding and subsidy of education is that, beyond return of education to the educated person, educated individuals also generate positive externalities and public goods...
View ArticleBludgeoning Aspiration to Get to Equality
There is no more fateful failure of modern political thought than its failure to distinguish between elitism and social exclusivity. From this failure stems an enormous, costly, and increasingly...
View ArticleKilling Socrates
Marco Rubio demonstrated keen political instincts during one of the primary debates when he used his opening remarks to argue for an end to the stigmatization of vocational training, handily linking...
View ArticleMarco Rubio vs. Aristotle?
Aristotle, unfortunately, won’t be on the ballot. Marco Rubio’s form of dissing liberal education is probably more ridiculous than the more insistent and policy-driven efforts of Scott Walker, although...
View Article
