I hear more and more from my students that they don’t have enough time. This is a real shame. It’s one thing for lack of time to blight the lives of independent adults. But it’s another thing for college students to feel so pressured that they cannot let their education unfold. Speed kills learning. Part …
Anyone who is attracted to liberal learning has heard the never-ending argument against it. What good will it do you where it really matters—in the wallet? If you’re still a student, this argument has been bearing down on you most of your life. Since the 2008 crash, liberal education has taken it on the chin. …
Ever since I posted the last entry, I’ve been receiving emails with questions about serious conversation. Let me try to explain how the concept grows out of the difficulties faced by determined, resolute readers. The dilemma of the resolute reader I am a reader. Always have been, as far back as my memories go. Even before I …
In the last post, I said that serious conversation allows us to deepen and broaden our understanding of the wisdom contained int he greatest books and artworks. What is serious conversation? And how does it enhance our reading? Let’s begin with what it is not, since many people seem to be put off by the …
“I’m too busy working and caring for my family to go back to school, so I’ve been keeping my mind alive by reading great books on my own,” a man named Robert was telling me recently at a book-signing event. “I’ve been following a reading schedule I found online, and I’ve replaced some of my TV-watching-time …
In the previous post, we said that specialized disciplines are not as freeing as liberal learning, which aims at training the imagination first and foremost. Each discipline’s special methods isolate it somewhat from other disciplines. They create a safe and brightly illuminated island where those who accept the current paradigm of thinking can do their work without fear …
In the previous post, we said that imagination is trained by studying metaphor. What is metaphor, and how does it train the imagination? You probably remember the high-school definition of metaphor: an extended simile. That’s not what we’re talking about here. Metaphor, taken in its widest application, refers to all connections of any kind, all links among objects or thoughts, no matter how close or distant they seem upon first consideration. The study of metaphor, the domain of connections, is crucial to education . . .
As I mentioned in the last post, the liberal arts are not primarily about becoming “well rounded.” They are primarily about developing the discernment and judgment to make good choices in life. A liberal education tries to attain this by developing imagination. If this seems strange, I suspect it’s because we tend of think of …
Some readers were surprised at the focus on autonomy in my previous post. Why, they asked, did I choose to write about personal freedom instead of the usual topics that crop up when one talks about liberal education—classic texts, arts and sciences, critical thinking, and the like? Well, of course, liberal education is at least …
Every human being deserves to be autonomous. Americans, in particular, should agree with this sentiment, because it follows from one of the three unalienable rights mentioned in the Declaration of Independence—the right to liberty. It would make no sense to have liberty if we could not direct our own actions. And that is the essence …