This really hit home. I went through a strong academic program at a top school for my major (not an Ivy, but elite in its domain). Yet what shaped me most wasn’t the coursework—it was the environment. Specifically, the mentors I met—men who weren’t just instructors, but gatekeepers into deeper traditions.
One of them initiated me into what you might call a Sacred Network of Excellence—a living brotherhood whose roots trace back to Los Alamos and the Manhattan Project, ARPANet, and other quiet fellowships within the old defense world. Through him, I didn’t just gain a deeper sense of mission—I eventually found my way to the Church.
Another mentor connected me to the Great Books lineage of Mortimer Adler and the University of Chicago. That intellectual inheritance—classical, ordered, humane—shaped me profoundly and is a key reason I am here commenting today.
None of that came from a syllabus. It came from people. Real education is not content delivery—it’s transmission of soul. It’s about being invited into a tradition and tested in its discipline. What you’ve written reminds us that while the institution is collapsing, the collegium still lives—and it still calls men to join it.
When we rebuild what comes next, it can’t just be an “alternative university.” It must be a sacred brotherhood of excellence—formed in pursuit of truth, forged in mutual respect, and rooted in something eternal. That’s the real university. That’s what we lost. And that’s what we need to recover.
Adler's "How to Read a Book" is fantastic. So much of it seems obvious and trivial, but put together it gives you the tools to truly read a text you never knew you didn't have.
I came to enjoy reading later in life, in my early twenties, and to the classics even later, in my late twenties. I didn't hate high school or college, but I was bored...all the time.
Once I started reading in earnest I entered a graduate literature program in my early thirties. Absolutely loved that experience. Got to read things I wanted to and had some interesting professors.
Much later after that I had to change careers and took web development classes in my late forties. Again, loved that school experience as it was what I wanted to do, not what I was made to do.
It gives me pause to think about the hundreds and hundreds of hours I sat bored in classrooms, unchallenged intellectually and have always wondered in what ways that may have stunted my intellectual and creative development and in what ways it still affects me today. We homeschooled my son, one of the best decisions we've ever made.
School is often wasted on the young. My best students when I taught in-person were always the nurses- older women returning to school who only needed my history classes as core credits. But they always really liked learning.
Its not that it is wasted, just that it occurs at the wrong time in your life. Intellectual life requires a kind of monastic environment that calms the passions so you can focus. Its hard to learn Calculus, Physics, Philiosophy AND date a bunch of chicks to find your soulmate AND chose the right major/career all at the same time. A lot of young people need real life exp. and be in a secure longterm relationship as prequisites to have a calm space in their life to pursue intellectual development correctly
I'm not sure "wasted" is the right word. I would more say "School is often forced on the young." Students will learn all manner of things if they're interested. There's a good book (maybe you're familiar with it) called "The Book of Learning and Forgetting" by Frank Smith. He writes a lot about this. I review the book here:
European with an American degree here (more than one American degree, but never mind that now). I'm back in Europe. I don't think things will go the way that you think. The higher ed sector, especially in the United States, is headed for a crash of some sort, sure. But what survives is likely to be more of a European-style university. What I mean by that is that you'll see far less emphasis on essays, homework, class attendance, etc. Instead, you'll get to the point where, for most courses, there's exactly one requirement: the exam. (Written or oral, or perhaps a combination of the two. It doesn't matter.) Everything else is optional, and it doesn't count toward your grade.
If you wanted to make the argument that American higher education is better than its European counterpart (or that it was 20 or 50 years ago - take your pick), what would the argument look like? It would probably have to do with the fact that, in the United States, students are expected to engage throughout the semester, submit things such as essays and homework on which they get feedback. (And yes, of course, there is less early specialization in the United States, which you can see as good or bad, depending on your perspective.) Well, AI is basically making it impossible to maintain precisely the thing that American universities used to do better than European ones. It's a joke now. AI writes the essays, AI does the homework. Students are cynical, instructors are burning out (who wants to spend hours and hours each week giving feedback to a robot?). And so, expect to get a more barebones version of a university education: yes, there are lectures; no, nobody enforces attendance; no, there is no homework; your entire grade is based on how you perform on the exam; technically, you can get a degree without ever once showing up to class, as long as you pass your exams, although almost everyone who actually graduates does in fact attend classes (more or less).
The good news? Euro-uni is cheaper. A LOT cheaper.
No one will go along with that here, at least without a lot of bloodshed and shouting, in part because they won't go along with the testing regime that determines success or failure. It's depressingly true, but even at the level of policy there are so many impediments--many seem insuperable--to hanging success or failure on a blind and fair exam that excludes the use of computers.
I took pharmacology in medical school with exactly that attitude. It was brute memorization, and I spent class time in the library studying, instead of listening to pointless lectures.
It isn't evident from my short introduction to your work here how old you are, hence when you went to college. My (university) 'experience' was in the 1970's, and it was a disaster. I went to a SUNY College at the urging of Guidance Counselors and parents, and against my better judgement. Upon graduation from high school (with highest honors, I might add) I felt like I had been released from prison. But I succumbed to considerable pressure, borrowed what 50+ years ago was a significant amount of money, and enrolled as a Biology major. One semester cured me of any desire to be a biologist. I went from a HS graduating class of about 75 students, where teachers actually cared if you learned anything, to lecture halls of 500 students where the professor was a speck at a podium droning on until he could get back to doing research. My work was mediocre at best, and I left after my second semester due to illness (and disappointment at the colossal waste of time and money). I hit the local labor market until I got the taste of that year out of my mouth, and actually wanted to learn from teachers who wanted to teach. I found that at a new community college that had sprung up within commuting distance of home. I have to smile, remembering one of my first classes was Psych 101 held in a local church (with the morning sun shining through stained-glass) while the actual campus was being completed. I went on to graduate with an AS in Liberal arts with a 3.97 cumulative average. I took a variety of course I thought would help me in my working life, and have never regretted it. At 70 I'm a better student than ever, and a voracious reader. So I smile at your musing about what to do if you had a million dollars. It's a lovely dream. Can I come, too, if my credits are transferrable?
You're most kind! (I'm used to being looked down upon and excluded for not having a 4 year degree, but I'm widely read and can usually hold up my end of the conversation.)
I'm with you - I loved college. Where else can you learn about the history of jazz, Islamic thought, and C++ code, all in the same day?
Sure, you could do that on the Internet, but it would be a much lonelier (and thus less enjoyable) affair.
I often wonder if my children will attend college. They seem like they'll have the aptitude, but it's still early to know whether they'll have the desire. I'm certainly not interested in forcing them to attend if they don't. But the thought of them enrolling in some alternative program that exists solely to train them for a career feels somewhat empty. Practical, sure, but lacking joie de vivre. Luckily I've got a while before any decisions need to be made. Perhaps the university collapse will have progressed sufficiently that we'll see new signs of life.
My older kids are getting to this point now and I really don't know what they will do. On the one hand, they probably got a better and more thorough education by eighth grade than my husband and I did through undergrad (and we are both intellectually curious people who went to a very good college, though it was in its last gasps then and is a dumpster fire of a place now.)
On the other, there are some very good colleges where I think they could thrive, but we are (probably?) priced out. There is a neat new place near us that combines trade school with a solid humanities curriculum. I have one kid at least who loves working with his hands, and it bothers me to no end the contemporary idea that people who enjoy hard work must be dummies.
I definitely think it's been to their benefit that we've always been a household where it's normal to discuss ideas and books around the dinner table. I have relatives who nod approvingly and tell me I'm doing the right thing because it will improve their test scores, but to be honest that's the stupidest reason imaginable. I want my children to love being alive and delight in things old and new.
“I have relatives who nod approvingly and tell me I'm doing the right thing because it will improve their test scores, but to be honest that's the stupidest reason imaginable. I want my children to love being alive and delight in things old and new.”
I don’t know you, but I love you for this quote. Your children are unimaginably lucky.
I'm curious about their attitude to "good" schools. My nephews are good-but-not-great students who were happy to go to state schools, and it seems to me that Gen Z is very conscious of how bad the student debt problem got for some millennials* and wants no part of it.
(*I had a millennial boss once; she was great at her job, but the law degree plus graduate degree that it required left her $250,000 in debt.)
They would love a Great Books/classical curriculum. However, the schools that share that vision are very expensive, do not take federal funding (this is probably good but it does price people out in the current system). We are financially comfortable as a family of nine in a low cost of living area, but even with some very intellectually minded kids this is probably out of reach without some kind of windfall, which I don't anticipate.
I think that most of my kids are on pace to out read, out write, and out think a lot of college grads by the time they finish high school, but it won't matter because the credential will still be required for employment. We are blessed that our kids are getting a stellar education K-12. We will probably have to be very pragmatic about post secondary, even if that doesn't fit what we think college should really be for.
I have encouraged my sons to consider now what lines of work will support a family and minimize/eliminate debt. There are trade schools, community colleges, and four year schools close enough where they could live at home and still participate in our family and community life. I don't *think* the idea of just going and getting drunk for four years appeals to them.
A proven model to consider is the Integrated Humanities Program at the University of Kansas in the 1970s. It was created and run by John Senior, Dennis Quinn and Frank Nelick. Their goal was to awaken undergraduates to wonder and the pursuit of truth. It was shut down because so many students converted to Catholicism, which was a result of exposure to the riches of Western Civilization, not the goal.
A modest suggestion for the Librarian--kindly include a "Buy me a coffee" at the end of your essays. I wanted to stand up and cheer after this one and put a Jackson in the tip jar.
Just finished an undergraduate French course at the tender age of soixante dix ans (leave the translation for you 😉) with a room full of 18-20 somethings, and it was great! Challenging, great prof, supportive, just well done. Great bunch of classmates, many of whom were still working their way through college. My state has a program where codgers like me can take up to 12 credits at state universities free. What a great idea for those of us, like you, who love learning! Your view of the next iteration of the collegium really resonates with me!
Those programs for older students are great. My state allows you to take as many classes as you want for credit for free, so long as there's space. One of my best students was a retired postal worker.
This spring we went from straight homeschooling (just me & them & what I felt like teaching) to a hybrid charter program. It serves its purpose, but part of that purpose appears to be to show how awful mainstream education really is.
My boy is taking an online class for English. The videos are boring and repetitive, and everything he writes is checked and assessed by AI before he can submit it. This week he had to write a brief narrative, which he did, creating an entertaining short story with dialog and action. The AI called it "below standard." Apparently, it was looking for a dry explanation with consistently long sentences. Entertainment doesn't enter into it. Hopefully the human teacher who eventually assesses his writing will at least get a chuckle out of his story.
Regardless, each week in this class is a battle of human striving against a merciless program which has no tolerance for someone who isn't content to be an NPC. We are sticking it out, because my kids need to understand that this is the world they will be combating for the foreseeable future. If they can navigate it and work with it without being subsumed by it, they will be the better for it.
Perhaps now more than ever, one must be in the world but not of it.
Might I suggest the fabulous writing communication program at IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing) created by Andrew Pudewa. It is both delightful and structured and style learning so you are freed to grow later with confidence. Most of his ideas are on video as well so you could be inspired there first. It teaches how to read for key words so that you are grounded in truth but learn creatively from there. And he especially pegs this for “boys who would rather be building forts.”
Plus — it is a great way to teach/learn across all curriculum. For instance, writing about science discoveries, or history through literature characters.
College used to be one of three places--alongside God and the West--where the True, the Good, and the Beautiful were made to share the same space. A person was allowed to become fully human--to learn for the love of learning, to make beauty for the love of making, to take in the wisdom of the past and carry it forward into the future. It will be so again.
Your last two paragraphs reminds me of one of my favorite movie quotes: "The perfect blossom is a rare thing. You could spend your whole life looking for one and it would not be a wasted life."
Wow, did this resonate. Went to college on the basis of scores, not grades, determined to be pre-med, and left the university system 5 years later with a Masters in Ancient Greek. First job? Systems Engineer with IBM. Go figure. I believe education is highly dependent on your curiosity, and passion for simply “learning”. I also believe it is incomplete without travel, which is education “in motion.” It is a simple equation, the two halves/portions of which lend their color to who you become, and how you contribute.
Beautifully written. My children attended St Johns In Annapolis. A great books school. I was so jealous. I considered going back to school at 50!!(Rodney Dangerfield redux!!).
Seems like the Khan Academy learning model, which flips the script on what happens in the classroom and at home, might work in the age of artificial intelligence and chatbots. Bring the research and writing tasks into the classroom (e.g., let them do as much research as they want at home using chatbots but then make them write essays without assistance in "classroom sprints" of 20 or 30 minutes - perhaps collaboratively, a la The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling). Would apply lots of research from spaced repetition, destructive editing, agile software, and paired programming methodologies. That would be exciting!
“Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.” ― Eric Hoffer
To my mind, the ideal of scholarship has been corrupted by the intersection of politically aimed social engineering and copious amounts of taxpayer funds. I think a great deal of nonsense could be removed from the system by getting the government out of the business of making student loans and returning them to the private sphere. This would largely remove the perverse incentives that have turned college campuses into indoctrination centers while enriching the credentialists. In short, it has become a racket and it's time to remove the financing so that it can collapse back into something useful.
In the college I attended, the Computer Science courses were full of curious, hungry students. In the required humanities courses everyone took, it was quite a different story. It was clear most students had no business being in college.
I actually sponsored a senior project not too long ago, and the students were still top-notch and really knew their stuff. It's reassuring the young men who really want to learn haven't gotten that curiosity beaten out of them by convenience.
This really hit home. I went through a strong academic program at a top school for my major (not an Ivy, but elite in its domain). Yet what shaped me most wasn’t the coursework—it was the environment. Specifically, the mentors I met—men who weren’t just instructors, but gatekeepers into deeper traditions.
One of them initiated me into what you might call a Sacred Network of Excellence—a living brotherhood whose roots trace back to Los Alamos and the Manhattan Project, ARPANet, and other quiet fellowships within the old defense world. Through him, I didn’t just gain a deeper sense of mission—I eventually found my way to the Church.
Another mentor connected me to the Great Books lineage of Mortimer Adler and the University of Chicago. That intellectual inheritance—classical, ordered, humane—shaped me profoundly and is a key reason I am here commenting today.
None of that came from a syllabus. It came from people. Real education is not content delivery—it’s transmission of soul. It’s about being invited into a tradition and tested in its discipline. What you’ve written reminds us that while the institution is collapsing, the collegium still lives—and it still calls men to join it.
When we rebuild what comes next, it can’t just be an “alternative university.” It must be a sacred brotherhood of excellence—formed in pursuit of truth, forged in mutual respect, and rooted in something eternal. That’s the real university. That’s what we lost. And that’s what we need to recover.
Adler's "How to Read a Book" is fantastic. So much of it seems obvious and trivial, but put together it gives you the tools to truly read a text you never knew you didn't have.
He was a great reader, which is one of the highest forms of esteem I can offer.
also good is the 'Readers Manifesto'
Thank you very much, and you are very correct.
I came to enjoy reading later in life, in my early twenties, and to the classics even later, in my late twenties. I didn't hate high school or college, but I was bored...all the time.
Once I started reading in earnest I entered a graduate literature program in my early thirties. Absolutely loved that experience. Got to read things I wanted to and had some interesting professors.
Much later after that I had to change careers and took web development classes in my late forties. Again, loved that school experience as it was what I wanted to do, not what I was made to do.
It gives me pause to think about the hundreds and hundreds of hours I sat bored in classrooms, unchallenged intellectually and have always wondered in what ways that may have stunted my intellectual and creative development and in what ways it still affects me today. We homeschooled my son, one of the best decisions we've ever made.
School is often wasted on the young. My best students when I taught in-person were always the nurses- older women returning to school who only needed my history classes as core credits. But they always really liked learning.
Its not that it is wasted, just that it occurs at the wrong time in your life. Intellectual life requires a kind of monastic environment that calms the passions so you can focus. Its hard to learn Calculus, Physics, Philiosophy AND date a bunch of chicks to find your soulmate AND chose the right major/career all at the same time. A lot of young people need real life exp. and be in a secure longterm relationship as prequisites to have a calm space in their life to pursue intellectual development correctly
I'm not sure "wasted" is the right word. I would more say "School is often forced on the young." Students will learn all manner of things if they're interested. There's a good book (maybe you're familiar with it) called "The Book of Learning and Forgetting" by Frank Smith. He writes a lot about this. I review the book here:
https://theinmate.substack.com/p/the-book-of-learning-and-forgetting
Due to me having both a "religious" and a "secular" education, I have been able to get a bit of a glimpse of this.
At the secular university, students attended so they could get their degree so they could get the job.
At the religious, students believed in what they were learning and valued it for its own sake.
When education became coupled to job attainment was where it died. It can only be resurrected by once again severing the two.
I agree.
European with an American degree here (more than one American degree, but never mind that now). I'm back in Europe. I don't think things will go the way that you think. The higher ed sector, especially in the United States, is headed for a crash of some sort, sure. But what survives is likely to be more of a European-style university. What I mean by that is that you'll see far less emphasis on essays, homework, class attendance, etc. Instead, you'll get to the point where, for most courses, there's exactly one requirement: the exam. (Written or oral, or perhaps a combination of the two. It doesn't matter.) Everything else is optional, and it doesn't count toward your grade.
If you wanted to make the argument that American higher education is better than its European counterpart (or that it was 20 or 50 years ago - take your pick), what would the argument look like? It would probably have to do with the fact that, in the United States, students are expected to engage throughout the semester, submit things such as essays and homework on which they get feedback. (And yes, of course, there is less early specialization in the United States, which you can see as good or bad, depending on your perspective.) Well, AI is basically making it impossible to maintain precisely the thing that American universities used to do better than European ones. It's a joke now. AI writes the essays, AI does the homework. Students are cynical, instructors are burning out (who wants to spend hours and hours each week giving feedback to a robot?). And so, expect to get a more barebones version of a university education: yes, there are lectures; no, nobody enforces attendance; no, there is no homework; your entire grade is based on how you perform on the exam; technically, you can get a degree without ever once showing up to class, as long as you pass your exams, although almost everyone who actually graduates does in fact attend classes (more or less).
The good news? Euro-uni is cheaper. A LOT cheaper.
No one will go along with that here, at least without a lot of bloodshed and shouting, in part because they won't go along with the testing regime that determines success or failure. It's depressingly true, but even at the level of policy there are so many impediments--many seem insuperable--to hanging success or failure on a blind and fair exam that excludes the use of computers.
I took pharmacology in medical school with exactly that attitude. It was brute memorization, and I spent class time in the library studying, instead of listening to pointless lectures.
It isn't evident from my short introduction to your work here how old you are, hence when you went to college. My (university) 'experience' was in the 1970's, and it was a disaster. I went to a SUNY College at the urging of Guidance Counselors and parents, and against my better judgement. Upon graduation from high school (with highest honors, I might add) I felt like I had been released from prison. But I succumbed to considerable pressure, borrowed what 50+ years ago was a significant amount of money, and enrolled as a Biology major. One semester cured me of any desire to be a biologist. I went from a HS graduating class of about 75 students, where teachers actually cared if you learned anything, to lecture halls of 500 students where the professor was a speck at a podium droning on until he could get back to doing research. My work was mediocre at best, and I left after my second semester due to illness (and disappointment at the colossal waste of time and money). I hit the local labor market until I got the taste of that year out of my mouth, and actually wanted to learn from teachers who wanted to teach. I found that at a new community college that had sprung up within commuting distance of home. I have to smile, remembering one of my first classes was Psych 101 held in a local church (with the morning sun shining through stained-glass) while the actual campus was being completed. I went on to graduate with an AS in Liberal arts with a 3.97 cumulative average. I took a variety of course I thought would help me in my working life, and have never regretted it. At 70 I'm a better student than ever, and a voracious reader. So I smile at your musing about what to do if you had a million dollars. It's a lovely dream. Can I come, too, if my credits are transferrable?
I hope to see you there.
You're most kind! (I'm used to being looked down upon and excluded for not having a 4 year degree, but I'm widely read and can usually hold up my end of the conversation.)
The Librarian is as ageless as wisdom itself.
Wow. This is one of the most powerful pieces of writing I’ve read in a long time. You have a true gift. Thank you.
You have to be a great reader to be a great writer (thinker).
Thank you very much.
I'm with you - I loved college. Where else can you learn about the history of jazz, Islamic thought, and C++ code, all in the same day?
Sure, you could do that on the Internet, but it would be a much lonelier (and thus less enjoyable) affair.
I often wonder if my children will attend college. They seem like they'll have the aptitude, but it's still early to know whether they'll have the desire. I'm certainly not interested in forcing them to attend if they don't. But the thought of them enrolling in some alternative program that exists solely to train them for a career feels somewhat empty. Practical, sure, but lacking joie de vivre. Luckily I've got a while before any decisions need to be made. Perhaps the university collapse will have progressed sufficiently that we'll see new signs of life.
My older kids are getting to this point now and I really don't know what they will do. On the one hand, they probably got a better and more thorough education by eighth grade than my husband and I did through undergrad (and we are both intellectually curious people who went to a very good college, though it was in its last gasps then and is a dumpster fire of a place now.)
On the other, there are some very good colleges where I think they could thrive, but we are (probably?) priced out. There is a neat new place near us that combines trade school with a solid humanities curriculum. I have one kid at least who loves working with his hands, and it bothers me to no end the contemporary idea that people who enjoy hard work must be dummies.
I definitely think it's been to their benefit that we've always been a household where it's normal to discuss ideas and books around the dinner table. I have relatives who nod approvingly and tell me I'm doing the right thing because it will improve their test scores, but to be honest that's the stupidest reason imaginable. I want my children to love being alive and delight in things old and new.
“I have relatives who nod approvingly and tell me I'm doing the right thing because it will improve their test scores, but to be honest that's the stupidest reason imaginable. I want my children to love being alive and delight in things old and new.”
I don’t know you, but I love you for this quote. Your children are unimaginably lucky.
Thank you, that is very kind!
I'm curious about their attitude to "good" schools. My nephews are good-but-not-great students who were happy to go to state schools, and it seems to me that Gen Z is very conscious of how bad the student debt problem got for some millennials* and wants no part of it.
(*I had a millennial boss once; she was great at her job, but the law degree plus graduate degree that it required left her $250,000 in debt.)
They would love a Great Books/classical curriculum. However, the schools that share that vision are very expensive, do not take federal funding (this is probably good but it does price people out in the current system). We are financially comfortable as a family of nine in a low cost of living area, but even with some very intellectually minded kids this is probably out of reach without some kind of windfall, which I don't anticipate.
I think that most of my kids are on pace to out read, out write, and out think a lot of college grads by the time they finish high school, but it won't matter because the credential will still be required for employment. We are blessed that our kids are getting a stellar education K-12. We will probably have to be very pragmatic about post secondary, even if that doesn't fit what we think college should really be for.
I have encouraged my sons to consider now what lines of work will support a family and minimize/eliminate debt. There are trade schools, community colleges, and four year schools close enough where they could live at home and still participate in our family and community life. I don't *think* the idea of just going and getting drunk for four years appeals to them.
St. John’s Annapolis.
A proven model to consider is the Integrated Humanities Program at the University of Kansas in the 1970s. It was created and run by John Senior, Dennis Quinn and Frank Nelick. Their goal was to awaken undergraduates to wonder and the pursuit of truth. It was shut down because so many students converted to Catholicism, which was a result of exposure to the riches of Western Civilization, not the goal.
A modest suggestion for the Librarian--kindly include a "Buy me a coffee" at the end of your essays. I wanted to stand up and cheer after this one and put a Jackson in the tip jar.
Thank you. I might do that.
Just finished an undergraduate French course at the tender age of soixante dix ans (leave the translation for you 😉) with a room full of 18-20 somethings, and it was great! Challenging, great prof, supportive, just well done. Great bunch of classmates, many of whom were still working their way through college. My state has a program where codgers like me can take up to 12 credits at state universities free. What a great idea for those of us, like you, who love learning! Your view of the next iteration of the collegium really resonates with me!
Those programs for older students are great. My state allows you to take as many classes as you want for credit for free, so long as there's space. One of my best students was a retired postal worker.
This spring we went from straight homeschooling (just me & them & what I felt like teaching) to a hybrid charter program. It serves its purpose, but part of that purpose appears to be to show how awful mainstream education really is.
My boy is taking an online class for English. The videos are boring and repetitive, and everything he writes is checked and assessed by AI before he can submit it. This week he had to write a brief narrative, which he did, creating an entertaining short story with dialog and action. The AI called it "below standard." Apparently, it was looking for a dry explanation with consistently long sentences. Entertainment doesn't enter into it. Hopefully the human teacher who eventually assesses his writing will at least get a chuckle out of his story.
Regardless, each week in this class is a battle of human striving against a merciless program which has no tolerance for someone who isn't content to be an NPC. We are sticking it out, because my kids need to understand that this is the world they will be combating for the foreseeable future. If they can navigate it and work with it without being subsumed by it, they will be the better for it.
Perhaps now more than ever, one must be in the world but not of it.
Might I suggest the fabulous writing communication program at IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing) created by Andrew Pudewa. It is both delightful and structured and style learning so you are freed to grow later with confidence. Most of his ideas are on video as well so you could be inspired there first. It teaches how to read for key words so that you are grounded in truth but learn creatively from there. And he especially pegs this for “boys who would rather be building forts.”
Thanks! I'll keep that in mind when we're choosing an English curriculum for next year.
Plus — it is a great way to teach/learn across all curriculum. For instance, writing about science discoveries, or history through literature characters.
Every tool we use forms us, especially while we are children. Proceed with caution.
College used to be one of three places--alongside God and the West--where the True, the Good, and the Beautiful were made to share the same space. A person was allowed to become fully human--to learn for the love of learning, to make beauty for the love of making, to take in the wisdom of the past and carry it forward into the future. It will be so again.
Your last two paragraphs reminds me of one of my favorite movie quotes: "The perfect blossom is a rare thing. You could spend your whole life looking for one and it would not be a wasted life."
What movie is the blossom quote from, please?
I think he’s referencing The Last Samurai.
Thank you! I must watch it.
Yes, it's the Last Samurai.
Thank you!
Wow, did this resonate. Went to college on the basis of scores, not grades, determined to be pre-med, and left the university system 5 years later with a Masters in Ancient Greek. First job? Systems Engineer with IBM. Go figure. I believe education is highly dependent on your curiosity, and passion for simply “learning”. I also believe it is incomplete without travel, which is education “in motion.” It is a simple equation, the two halves/portions of which lend their color to who you become, and how you contribute.
Thank you.
Beautifully written. My children attended St Johns In Annapolis. A great books school. I was so jealous. I considered going back to school at 50!!(Rodney Dangerfield redux!!).
A lot of people have mentioned St. John's. It's a great program, from what I've heard.
I remember getting their literature when my kids were nearing graduation. I so wanted to trade my engineering degree! What an amazing curriculum.
Seems like the Khan Academy learning model, which flips the script on what happens in the classroom and at home, might work in the age of artificial intelligence and chatbots. Bring the research and writing tasks into the classroom (e.g., let them do as much research as they want at home using chatbots but then make them write essays without assistance in "classroom sprints" of 20 or 30 minutes - perhaps collaboratively, a la The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling). Would apply lots of research from spaced repetition, destructive editing, agile software, and paired programming methodologies. That would be exciting!
“Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.” ― Eric Hoffer
To my mind, the ideal of scholarship has been corrupted by the intersection of politically aimed social engineering and copious amounts of taxpayer funds. I think a great deal of nonsense could be removed from the system by getting the government out of the business of making student loans and returning them to the private sphere. This would largely remove the perverse incentives that have turned college campuses into indoctrination centers while enriching the credentialists. In short, it has become a racket and it's time to remove the financing so that it can collapse back into something useful.
In the college I attended, the Computer Science courses were full of curious, hungry students. In the required humanities courses everyone took, it was quite a different story. It was clear most students had no business being in college.
I actually sponsored a senior project not too long ago, and the students were still top-notch and really knew their stuff. It's reassuring the young men who really want to learn haven't gotten that curiosity beaten out of them by convenience.
That sounds like a fine idea.