Happiness Isn’t Stapled to a Diploma
For decades, college was seen as the ultimate standard of success: the pathway to a good job, financial stability, and, for most, happiness. However, many people (including myself) have begun…
Posts tagged with
“humanities”
RE: “‘Let Them Be Born in Wonder’”
Josh Herring’s article “‘Let Them Be Born in Wonder’” (8 September 2025) brought to my mind my own path to a liberal-arts education. Perhaps my experience can encourage today’s high-school…
“Let Them Be Born in Wonder”
The 2025-26 academic year began with a fell note of doom for the humanities. Dr. Jenn Frey at Tulsa University had built a beautiful Honors College grounded on the Great…
How Humanities Professors Got Marginalized
In any discussion of the state of the humanities, the first fact is a numerical one. In School Year 2021-22, while a little more than two million people earned bachelors’…
Hacking the Humanities
We are living through a period described by technologists as an “AI Boom” or “AI Spring.” A swift and impressive gain of function in generative artificial-intelligence systems (AI), made possible…
The Post-Truth Classroom
Veritas. Lux et veritas. Veritas vos liberabit. Truth. Light and truth. Truth will set you free. These are the official mottos for Harvard, Yale, and Johns Hopkins. They reflect a…
Universities Have Forgotten Their Purpose: Pursuing the Contemplative Life
Editor’s note: this essay is adapted from a talk delivered by Jessica Hooten Wilson at Word on Fire’s Good News Conference on November 7, 2021, in Orlando, Florida. Universities are…
The “Permanent Crisis” of the Humanities
“Part of the story of why the humanities are always in crisis is that we have needed them to be in crisis.” This provocative declaration was made by Chad Wellmon,…
Peer Review, a Tarnished “Gold Standard”
I recently submitted a manuscript to an education journal, a review essay of another scholar’s work. It opened with a compliment of the author’s “highly-praised and influential work.” To that…
When Universities Don’t Step Up, Good Professors Are Forced to Step Down
With “cancel culture” running rampant on social media, in politics, and in the classroom, professors who put forth the effort to help students think critically and challenge their beliefs are…