10 Books We’d Like to Find Under the Christmas Tree in 2020
One of my favorite projects at the Martin Center is the cultivation of our higher education library. So far, we’ve collected nearly 700 books about higher education and educational philosophy.…
True Learning Starts With Real Mentorship
There’s a chasm between the purpose of a liberal arts education and how many colleges and universities actually operate. Throughout academia, excessive value is placed on efficiency, research publications, and…
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…
Did You Know? Chinese Government Influence at North Carolina Colleges
Three universities in North Carolina host chapters of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association, a group with ties to the Chinese government. According to a May article in Campus Reform,…
To De-Politicize Art Schools, Students Need to Fight Back
It has never been harder to teach artistic individualism in America. A religious devotion to the causes of social justice dominates the ideas of professors in the academy, and David…
NC State’s Quixotic Foreign Language Requirement
For decades, universities have required students to fulfill a foreign language requirement. However, some research has shown that two semesters of a foreign language appears to have no meaningful effect…
Who Is Responsible for the Loss of Faith in Science?
In an essay in the liberal UK broadsheet The Guardian, multiple authors chart out the most important task for the incoming Biden administration: to “restore the faith in science.” “Joe…
Dear Humanists: You Have Done That Yourself
Every time I read an op-ed piece from some English professor (and isn’t it always an English professor?) whining about the demise of the humanities, in The Chronicle of Higher Education or elsewhere,…
Students Aren’t Learning Life Skills; Colleges Need to Teach Them
When students think back to their college days, they may remember a philosophy class that made them question their life or an art class they thought would be easy, but…
Can the President Cancel Student Debt? Should He?
Many people and groups are pressuring Joe Biden to issue an executive order that would cancel some or all federal student debts shortly after he takes office. During the campaign,…