Over at The Chronicle of Higher Education, Beth McMurtrie writes: Students seem increasingly cynical about the value of college, transactional in their approach to learning, and frustrated by their coursework. On college tours and in admissions literature, they are promised […]
college
College is not a job
With the new semester under way, Jonathan Malesic offers some advice to college students. Here is a taste of his piece at The New York Times: But the expectation that college will help them land a job has led too […]
The Author’s Corner with Tamson Pietsch
Tamson Pietsch is Associate Professor in Social and Political Sciences and Director of the Australian Centre for Public History at the University of Technology Sydney. This interview is based on her new book, The Floating University: Experience, Empire, and the […]
The Author’s Corner with Robert Mann
Robert Mann holds the Manship Endowed Chair in Journalism at Louisiana State University’s Manship School of Mass Communication. This interview is based on his new book, Kingfish U: Huey Long and LSU (LSU Press, 2023). JF: What led you to […]
Why don’t more theology students take history courses?
At the school where I teach there are ample opportunities for students to shape their intellectual experience through a double “major” or a “minor” or two. Just the other day, for example, I was talking to one of my academic […]
Why some conservatives hate college
A Current Affairs piece by Matt McManus and Nathan J. Robinson begins with a quote from right-wing MAGA pundit Charlie Kirk’s book The College Scam: “Where did Anthony Fauci acquire the medical authority and credibility to impose a lockdown on […]
Does social media hurt college applications?
A recent Washington Post piece argues that Gen Z’s “digital footprints” will haunt them. Here is Tatum Hunter: Aly Drake says she used TikTok like a diary. When she felt friendless, she’d make a video about it. When she noticed […]
College in the age of A.I.
New York Times columnist David Brooks encourages college students to take courses and learn to think in ways that “machines will not replicate.” Here is a taste: If, say, you’re a college student preparing for life in an A.I. world, […]
Teaching John Henry Newman’s “What is a University”
Once again I am teaching “Created and Called for Community,” Messiah University’s first-year core course. Today I taught an excerpt from John Henry Newman‘s 1852 book The Idea of a University. If you are a longtime reader of this blog, […]
The best campus novels of the last century
The list includes Dorothy Sayers’s Gaudy Night (1935); Wallace Stegner’s Crossing to Safety (1987); Ishmael Reed’s Japanese by Spring (1993); Philip Roth, The Human Stain (2000); and Tobias Wolff, Old School (2003). Here is Emily Temple at LitHub: The days […]
“The very best thing about your life is a short stage in someone else’s story. And it is enough.”
Yesterday’s Current feature by Robert Erle Barham brought back a lot of memories for me. It is a must read for anyone sending their kids off to school this week. Here is a taste: “Please stay,” I said. “Please.” Now […]
What should a college graduate know about slavery?
Historian Steven Mintz offers twenty-three things any college graduate should know about slavery. I like the idea of this post, but I would be happy if my general education (non-majors) students knew a handful of these facts. Here is a […]
Turkeys are invading college campuses
Not a joke. Here is The New York Times: They are lounging next to bike racks and outside dorms. They are strutting across Harvard Yard. And, yes, they are occasionally fanning their feathers and charging at innocent students. Across the […]
The history of back-to-school shopping
Here’s a relevant piece. Erin Blakemore of JSTOR Daily offers a brief history of back-to-school shopping. A taste: Saddle shoes and sweaters, milk bars and ballerina flats. In the mid-twentieth century, you could find all four at college shops: pop-up […]
Class of 2021: What’s in your toolbox?
Historian David Perry offers some advice to the class of 2021: We understand more or less the science of viruses, of germ theory, of infection. We know how to quarantine and that it works, and with modern telecommunications, quarantine didn’t […]
Out of the Zoo: “Operation Varsity Blues”
Annie Thorn is senior history major from Kalamazoo, Michigan and our intern here at The Way of Improvement Leads Home. As part of her internship she is writing a weekly column titled “Out of the Zoo.” It focuses on life as a […]