Lehrman American Studies Center

Murray’s article, along with the discussion about it, raises the question about accountability and assessment in higher education. I believe that these two issues will be the most prominent ones in public policy debates about higher education. Although the two issues are inextricably connected – and often confused with each other – they are distinct from each other and worth discussing.

Accountability is whether the institution is performing what it promises. For public institutions, the actors who determine an institution’s accountability includes tax-payers, the legislature, the board of control, and various administrators starting from the president downwards as well as alumni and other sources for enriching the school’s endowment. For private institutions, it is the same players except for the tax-payers and legislature. Although there are various aspects of the debates on accountability, with respect to faculty, the accountability debate really boils down to post-tenure review…

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Charles Murray suggests directing most undergraduate study toward certification rather than degrees. Many people, though they have degrees, don't know anything close to what they should know in their field. I think very highly of Charles Murray. He's brilliant and bold.

What the BA offers that certification cannot provide, among other things, is training in writing and speaking. But many colleges have given up on this.

What I like about this proposal is that it would challenge the complacency of the college industry in the same way that school vouchers challenge the complacency of the government school system.

For Most People, College Is a Waste of Time

By CHARLES MURRAY

The Wall Street Journal August 13, 2008; Page A17

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121858688764535107.html

Imagine that America had no system of post-secondary education, and you were a member of a task force assigned to create one from scratch. One of your colleagues submits this pr…

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In light of Lee's recent post and the number of comments on my previous post, I would like to propose that one of the key courses in any general education curriculum should be one that addresses human nature or what it means to be a human being. Let's call it Philosophical Anthropology 101.

This course should not only cover philosophies of human nature but should present students with a powerful and authoritative vision of humanity that they must consider and evaluate. Consequently, students could be introduced to the anthropological visions of Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Boethius, Rousseau, Nietzsche but also be presented with a vision that articulates the best of these philosophers' views while at the same time seriously considering critiques and concerns.

This course is an important "first" course for several reasons:

1. It answers the all too common call of relevance- students and many faculty often argue that the material must be "relevant" in order to engage st…

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I think that we all agree with Gerson's blog of what constitutes an educated person, although we may differ on some of the specifics:

1. A persuasive leader (teacher/great mind)
2. A teachable intellect and character
3. A recognition that s/he must leave a particular place of being and journey toward a higher place of being (the assent of the soul)

I thought that I would move the conversation along by asking the question: "What would be an ideal general education program, or a liberal education program?"

The traditional classical liberal education included the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music) and the trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric); contemporary liberal education programs usually are divided into the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences (St. John's College and a few others are exceptions in covering the Great Books, but for most universities, this is not a realistic option).

Assuming we had professors who could and would teach competently i…

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In a recent comment to my post, Lee suggested that the question posed above serve as a possible topic of discussion prior to any discourse regarding general education requirements. The following, then, are some general thoughts through which to begin this discussion.

I like to think of education in light of Plato's Allegory of the Cave. It involves leadership (something well within the mission of the LASC) as well as leading students out of a certain place to another place. In the language of the Allegory, someone must lead others out of shadows and delusions toward truth and light.

An educated person thus involves a number of prerequisites: s/he must have been led by someone else. Ideally, s/he must have been led by a more advanced knower and hopefully, in the words of Leo Strauss, by a great mind or teacher. This also implies willing submission to the tutelage of one's teachers and intellectual leaders. Thus, an educated person must be teachable, humble, and open to instr…

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Both Lee and Phil have raised the issue of general education requirements as well as the processes that often are in place at various institutions for the creation of the general education core.

One of the issues that has been raised is the self-interested and factious nature of general education committees. Every member is looking out for his or her major or department with little thought about a good and virtuous education for the students.

I think, however, that there may be another problem lingering in the background. Maybe I am wrong about this but if so will trust my colleagues here to correct me.

In my experience, most faculty engaged in general education committees and discussions about the core really do not understand liberal arts education, the purpose of general education, and, frankly, the purpose of education in general. They have been educated so narrowly in their own Ph.D. programs that they have never had the opportunity or maybe even desire to read and thi…

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I have just posted the syllabus for my course "The Rise and Fall of American Slavery." This is an upper-level course I regularly teach at Christopher Newport University (mainly to sophomore and junior history majors).

Even though it was abolished 143 years ago, slavery and its legacies continue to have an enormous impact on contemporary American society. The course tells the story of how human bondage developed in North America in the 1600s and 1700s. But I also focus a great deal of attention on the more extraordinary story of how and why a commitment to human freedom emerges in the US in the late-18th and early 19th centuries. I would certainly appreciate any feedback/suggestions for improvement regarding the course, its readings, as well as my approaches to this topic.

Perhaps we can also discuss how students today perceive slavery and its legacy in American history. My students are all over the spectrum. Some s…

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One of the greatest obstacles I confront teaching undergraduate students in general education courses is getting them to actually read the texts before class. In my elective courses, this is less of a problem because the students enrolled in the course are self-selective and usually have some intellectual interest or investment in the class. However, most students in general education courses have no interest in the subject (unless they are declared majors or minors in the field) and merely approach the class as another hoop to jump through for graduation.

This is not necessarily a fault of the students, since both administrators and faculty seem to be unable to construct a coherent general education program, much less articulate a justification for it (as a side-note, our school will implement a two-day crash course this autumn for incoming freshmen to explain the purpose of general education. Knowing the people in charge of this program, I am not hopeful of its success). My person…

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Last week was one of the busiest I have experienced in a long time. After almost 14 months of planning, I was able to implement and successfully execute a government camp for high school students (for more details on the camp see www.regent.edu/govcamp). It was a very rewarding experience. 15 high school students attended, some from as far as Maryland and Texas, to study counter-terrorism, national security, leadership, and public service. The camp was filled with multimedia presentations, talks with experts, and field trips to such places as Blackwater Worldwide, Langley AFB, the United States Coast Guard, and several other places. All of the sites we visited were normally off-limits to civilians giving this camp a cloak and dagger feel.

We academics have been educated and trained to address undergraduate, graduate, and well-educated audiences. We employ high level analysis, arguments, and critical r…

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I confess. I am a tree lover. Call me a tree hugger if you wish but I simply think that trees are amazing parts of the natural world. And they are a testament to the intricate design underlying our existence. So imagine my horror when driving into my neighborhood I noticed that two of my neighbors had hired professional tree killers (i.e., tree service corporations) to cut down seven beautiful trees- three tall southern pines and four beautiful dogwoods. Together, these trees probably represented at least 250 years of existence if not more. Obviously, none of these trees grew overnight. They each took years and years to grow weathering many suns, moons, and storms. And yet, in just a few minutes, they were gone never to grace our presence and most likely never to be remembered again. Clearly, my neighbors were within their legal rights to do as they wished within their property. After all, property rights have been a bedrock institution since the earliest days of the American…

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