Leaving the Blight of Higher Education: Part II–Farewell, Faculty
Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part essay; part I can be read here. The previous essay dealt with the moral decline of the student body in higher…
Articles by Thomas Bertonneau
Leaving the Blight of Higher Education: Part I–Farewell, Students
Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part series. In May of 2020, my wife and I took our retirement after more than 30 years of teaching college, the…
Literary Criticism without Literature
Few undergraduates have read more than the topical “edgy” fiction sold by hucksters to middle and high schools.
The “Smart Classroom” Meets Wagner
It is easier to teach drama to students when you have today’s technology at your disposal.
Ignorance and Envy in Academe
Plato’s parable of the cave has surprising relevance for college education today.
The Amazing Colossal Syllabus
Instructors have to spell out every detail for today’s students, and do some of their thinking for them.
Down with Research Papers!
They rely on easily accessible sources and deference to conventional opinion; students should be assigned essays instead.
The Mind of a Plagiarist
Many students try to escape doing work by plagiarizing–but their profound ignorance often trips them up.
Forget U.
Tradition depends on memory, but modern culture depends on forgetting.
Literacy Lost
University faculty are finally noticing that college students don’t read very well, but Neil Postman and Jacques Ellul saw it years ago.