Want to bless your co-workers? Before making a comment/asking a question in a meeting, stop and ask yourself, “is this relevant? is this generally applicable? is this meeting the best venue to discuss this topic?” — Thomas S. Kidd (@ThomasSKidd) […]
academic life
Exiles from Eden
Due to a few things going on in my life right now, I have been thinking again about Mark Schwehn‘s book Exiles from Eden: Religion and the Academic Vocation in America. This book has been very influential in the way I […]
What Makes Your Book Valuable?
How do authors measure the success of their books? Rachel Toor asks this question in a very interesting piece at The Chronicle of Higher Education. Given my history in publishing, people often ask me for help with their book projects. One […]
Darryl Hart Weighs-In on the Thomas Kidd-Jonathan Merritt Debate
In case you haven’t heard, Baylor University historian Thomas Kidd and journalist Jonathan Merritt had a debate. Read all about it here. And now Darryl Hart has commented on it. As is usually the case, Darryl manages to throw everyone […]
The President of the Master’s University and Seminary Speaks About His Poor Accreditation Report
Earlier today I called your attention to a Chronicle of Higher Education piece on the WASC Senior College and University Commission accreditation report on The Master’s College and Seminary, an evangelical institution run by megachurch pastor John MacArthur. Read it here. […]
What is Going on at The Master’s University and Seminary?
The Chronicle of Higher Education is calling the WASC Senior College and University Commission’s report on The Masters University and Seminary, a conservative evangelical Christian institution in Santa Clarita, California, “one of the most scathing accreditation reports in recent memory.” As […]
Do Students Give Better Evaluations to Faculty Who Grade More Generously?
Nancy Bunge thinks so: Research on student evaluations of teaching suggests that the gender and age bias most colleges pride themselves on avoiding contaminate those evaluations, along with other nonacademic factors — like “sexiness.” Since many institutions of higher learning use these surveys to determine […]
Should a Premillennial Dispensational View of the Bible Disqualify a Person from a Teaching Job at a University?
I was sad to hear of the death of Leo Ribuffo. In 1991 or 1992 I wrote him a letter to ask him he was taking graduate students at George Washington University. He never wrote me back, but I was […]
The Forgotten Virtue of Gratitude
Our annual Thanksgiving tradition here at The Way of Improvement Leads Home. I wrote this Inside Higher Ed piece on gratitude in November 2008. Hard to believe that was ten years ago. Today I republish it on the same day that my parents move out […]
Lepore: “Anyone who makes an identity-based claim for a political position has to reckon with the unfortunate fact that Stephen Douglas is their forebear, not Abraham Lincoln or Frederick Douglass”
Evan Goldstein of The Chronicle of Higher Education recently interviewed Jill Lepore about her new book, the academy, identity politics, and writing. Here is a taste: Q. How is the academy implicated in or imperiled by this moment of epistemological crisis? A. The […]
Is Academia a Cult?
Andrew Marzoni thinks so. He compares his experience in academia with his experience in a cultic religious community. Here is a taste of his piece at The Washington Post: Cults are systems of social control. They are insular but often […]
A Different Kind of August
I returned to the office today. The summer seemed longer than usual. This is probably because Messiah College starts classes a week later this year. (The first day of class is next Tuesday). It also seems longer because I am […]
Consider Placing This Language in Your Syllabus
Source Commitment to Viewpoint Diversity, Mutual Understanding, and Constructive Disagreement In order to create a classroom environment that supports respectful, critical inquiry through the free exchange of ideas, the following principles will guide our work: Treat every member of the […]
“Critical Thinking” and the University
Over at his blog Blue Book Diaries, Jonathan Wilson reminds us that the teaching of “critical thinking” skills is not the primary purpose of a college education. (Neither is job training). Here is a taste of his piece “The Most […]
Gutting Academic Books
Douglas Hunter has published a really interesting piece at Slate about the practice, common among graduate students in history, of understanding the argument of a book without really reading it. This process is often described as “gutting.” Hunter explores the implications […]
Historian Nathan Hatch is the Highest Paid College President in the U.S.
What can you do with a history major? Earn $4 million a year as a college president. Many readers of this blog know Nathan Hatch for his award-winning The Democratization of American Christianity. But did you know that he was pulling […]
Good Advice: A Cover Letter is Not a Vita and a Vita is Not a Cover Letter
Karen Kelsky explains at The Chronicle of Higher Education: Question: I’m preparing my job documents for the fall and looking for ways to economize. Can I just write a really short cover letter since all the information I would put […]
Princeton’s Robert George on Intellectual and Ideological Diversity in the Academy
While I was visiting a big state university a couple of weeks ago I had a robust, spirited, and civil conversation with the history faculty about how to teach controversial or morally problematic issues. Many of the history professors in […]
Erin Bartram on Leaving Her Students
If you heard our interview with Erin Bartram on Episode 37 of The Way of Improvement Leads Home Podcast you will, at times, hear the pain in her voice as she comes to the end of her career as an […]
What if College Classes Had Corporate Sponsors?
As universities become more and more corporate, writer Suzanne Fernandez Gray wonders what it might look like if academic courses eventually get corporate sponsors. Read her very funny piece at McSweeney’s. Here are a few of my favorites: A-H 350 TWENTIETH CENTURY ART Sponsored […]