Education & Liberal Learning

The Locale and Grace of Teaching

books May 6, 2013

I’ve not yet decided if I’ve succumbed to despair (a sin) or prudence, but I no longer participate in any of the forums at my campus about online education, MOOCs, virtual office hours, assessment, and the countless other distractions from…

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Whither the Public Library?

library April 1, 2013

Despite constant speculation about public libraries’ “relevan[ce] in the digital age,” and serious budget cuts caused by the recent recession, the American public library is not in crisis. Local governments have made no effort to drop libraries as a basic…

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Catholic Education Today: Scientiam Viarum Tuarum Nolumus

Hell & Its Torments March 8, 2013

About a month ago I happened upon a copy of The Concord…, student newspaper of Bellarmine University. In particular my eye was caught by a letter to the editor whereby undergraduate Wesley Scott addressed a contraversial 4.9% tuition raise.

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What Does the Boss Really Do? Business Education and the Liberal Arts

boss March 7, 2013

An address given to the Ciceronian Society at Mount St. Mary’s University, March 3.
At the start of each semester, I ask my MBA students, “What are you here for? An education or a credential?” The students neither hesitate nor…

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An Ancient Legacy of Form: Guardini on Mastery and Nearness

Ship_in_full_sail_by_Munin February 26, 2013

Our dwelling place is the state not of nature but of culture.

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The Wonder of Liberal Education

Septem-artes-liberales February 25, 2013

Having had a day off last week in honor of the past presidents, I am loathe to disagree with former presidents (in this case, of the American Historical Association). But a post on the value of liberal education (via John…

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Life Under Compulsion: The Itch

inf.29.82.dore February 11, 2013

Thee let old men, Thee let young men,
Thee let boys in chorus sing;
Matrons, virgins, little maidens,
With glad voices answering:
Let their guileless songs re-echo,
And the heart its music bring,
Evermore and evermore!
From Prudentius, Cordenatus ex …

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Faith, Wonder, and the Method

Gentile da Fabriano January 30, 2013

In Summa Theologica 2-2.1.4, Aquinas argues that every action can be understood in two ways: according to its order of intention–…the goal one has in mind when one acts, and aims to bring about by acting–as well as its

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Life Under Compulsion: The Dehumanities

reading statue January 21, 2013

Imagine a new father looking into the eyes of his child.  A wisp of blond hair curls about the scalp.  The fingers, wrinkled like those of an old man, curl about his own finger.  He has blue eyes, but who…

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The Learning and Limits of Libraries

office library January 17, 2013

Three articles recently caught my eye, all of which having to do with scholars’ fame, only two having to do with their libraries.
The bookless one involved a professor of history at the University of York who blamed the victims…

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Glenn Beck Gives Utopia a Bad Name

January 15, 2013

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res]
So Glenn Beck has proposed his grandest scheme yet: the construction of separate planned community, literally built around (in terms of architecture and overall design) the idealization (and arguably the idol-ization) of what he understands…

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Life Under Compulsion: Bad Universality

equations December 31, 2012

This is Part VII of a series of essays. Read Part VI here.
I had not thought that the tsars of education could possibly have come up with another idea as inhuman or stupid as have been their many innovations…

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Continuing to Argue Against Abortion

baby feet December 19, 2012

“Yet because the decision will not allow the question to remain silent, and yet sounds an ambiguous note as to how it would be answered in terms of our contemporary liberalism, the decision [Roe v. Wade] ‘Commends th’ ingredients of…

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Life Under Compulsion: Curricular Mire

arch of titus December 17, 2012

This is Part VI of a series of essays. See Part V here.
In my last essay, I took issue with the inescapable computer, that costly thing on the student’s desk in “good” schools, inducing the itch for instant “information”…

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Life Under Compulsion: Human-Scale Tools and the Slavish Education State

421814_11464286 December 3, 2012

This is Part V of a series of essays titled “Life Under Compulsion.” See Part IV here.  
When he was governor of Maine, Angus King made sure that there was a computer on the desk of every middle-school child…

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Life Under Compulsion: If Teachers Were Plumbers

pipes November 19, 2012

This is Part IV of a series of essays. For previous installments of “Life Under Compulsion,” see Part I, Part II, and Part III.
“Good morning, Mr. Jones,” says the man at the door.  “I see that the pipes in your…

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