You wouldn’t think it would be controversial to praise Western Civilization. Even among liberals. After all, liberalism itself, and the principles of liberty, protection of the underdog, celebration of diversity, the scientific method, and a host of other things that … Continue reading →
[Hat tip: Fuzzy Slippers at Legal Insurrection.] The NAS (National Association of Scholars) reports on the slant of the books on the typical college reading list given to incoming freshmen to prepare them for the rigors of college study: Hundreds … Continue reading →
You may already be familiar with a recent incident at Evergreen State College in Washington state that resembles so many other incidents at colleges lately. At Evergreen, an angry mob of students confronted a professor for standing against racism, and … Continue reading →
Riots in Berkeley, California resulted in the university’s decision to cancel a scheduled speech by Milo Yiannopoulos, and the incident has been characterized as a blow against freedom of speech and/or First Amendment rights. In a very technical sense it … Continue reading →
It’s the education, stupid. A while back I wrote a post that mentions a book by E. D. Hirsch entitled Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know: Written in 1987 (the same year as Allan Bloom’s book The Closing … Continue reading →
Oh, it’s so hard to keep the dictates of diversity straight! A person can be trying to do the right thing, and yet fail. For example, yoga: Student leaders have pulled the mat out from 60 University of Ottawa students, … Continue reading →
It occurs to me that the Cultural Revolution in American universities is entering a new phase. Previously, the demands were for the resignation of administrators and professors who were insufficiently self-flagellating and compliant. Now the focus has turned to getting … Continue reading →
[NOTE: The dancing bear reference is to this quote from Allan Bloom’s 1989 description of the behavior of most faculty and administrators in response to Cornell’s crisis in 1969: [S]tudents discovered that pompous teachers who catechized them about academic freedom … Continue reading →
I’ve been too busy to follow what’s been happening at Yale. But since we’ve have talking about what’s going on at college campuses, I’ll take a moment to pay some attention. Conor Friedersdorf has a piece on the subject at … Continue reading →
The University of Missouri story is not over. It has legs, and it has tentacles. I wrote two posts about it yesterday, and one at Legal Insurrection today that’s even longer, and I’m still not done. Nor are they. If … Continue reading →
In response to my post on the resignation of President Wolfe of the University of Missouri, commenter “cornhead” asks: “How is the [university] president responsible for all these actions of third parties?” Cornhead’s question was almost certainly rhetorical. But I’m … Continue reading →
…that was noted by Allan Bloom decades ago in The Closing of the American Mind. I’ve written about Bloom’s book and thesis many times, particularly here and here. If you read those posts, you’ll immediately see their relevance to what’s … Continue reading →