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Repairing Academia’s Crisis of Meaning
James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | June 5, 2019 | Shannon Watkins

Posted on 06/05/2019 7:04:35 AM PDT by reaganaut1

Traditionally, higher education introduced students to life’s most fundamental questions: “What is good?”; “What is true?”; “Do our lives have meaning beyond the material?”; and so on. The focus used to be on developing the whole person: To lift students morally and ethically, to pique their curiosity in all things, and to instill, as cardinal John Henry Newman wrote, certain “habits of mind” that produce a deeply thoughtful individual.

However, over time, those questions have faded into the background due to an increasing focus on obtaining credentials for employment. Savvy students who actively search for something deeper than the next “A” or “B” can usually find what they are looking for by carefully choosing their courses. But the great majority of students consists of those who either desire more from their educations than job credentials—but don’t know how to find it—and those who are unaware of the benefits of having a more meaningful worldview. Such students may be more likely to encounter destructive ideologies than be exposed to true wisdom. Or, perhaps, to remain shallow and lacking direction.

But there is a growing reaction to this failure to provide students with a deeper sense of self and purpose. Organizations are springing up to counter the academy’s abandonment of its traditional mission, to restore true liberal learning—and redirect students’ passions toward creating a more enlightened existence for themselves.

One such organization is the Scala Foundation at Princeton University. It was founded in 2016 by Margarita Mooney, an associate professor of congregational studies at Princeton Theological Seminary. She spoke on this topic during a February 27 guest lecture at Duke University entitled “Being Human in the Modern World: Why Personalism Matters for Education and Culture.”

(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...


TOPICS: Education
KEYWORDS: blogpimp; college

1 posted on 06/05/2019 7:04:35 AM PDT by reaganaut1
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To: reaganaut1

In order to reestablish academia as centers of honest learning and unbiased research, it is absolutely necessary to abolish tenure.


2 posted on 06/05/2019 7:10:21 AM PDT by allendale (.)
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To: allendale

Not a bad idea, but a few loopholes in ERISSA need to be closed first.

As a father of an adjunct professor, I can tell you that $300/month/class, when you can really only handle teaching 4 classes, is pretty crappy compensation for a person with 6 (or 10) years of college and post-grad academic perfection.


3 posted on 06/05/2019 7:28:02 AM PDT by L,TOWM (An upraised middle finger is my virtue signal.)
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To: reaganaut1

Why is this excerpted? The posting page doesn’t require it (I tested) and the site’s not listed at https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1111944/posts


4 posted on 06/05/2019 7:29:12 AM PDT by NobleFree ("law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual")
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To: reaganaut1
“What is good?”; “What is true?”; “Do our lives have meaning beyond the material?”; and so on."

Apart from a transcendent God what objective basis is there to answer any of those questions. All you've got left is personal preference and social pragmatism, both of which are purely subjective and can change from week to week and place to place.

5 posted on 06/05/2019 7:52:11 AM PDT by circlecity
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To: L,TOWM
Universities spending more and more on useless and often harmful administrators and less and less on professors is a scandal.

The whole concept of adjunct professors is demeaning to people who spent years preparing to teach at the highest level.

6 posted on 06/05/2019 8:12:44 AM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear
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To: reaganaut1

How about just teaching good old engineering ? and thanks


7 posted on 06/05/2019 10:11:47 AM PDT by Truthoverpower (The guvmint you get is the Trump winning express !)
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To: reaganaut1

There is a certain college that runs ads showing its graduates at graduation. Most are mainly minorities and you can watch as IQ 80s stroll across the stage accepting their “degrees.” Pitiful.


8 posted on 06/05/2019 10:16:22 AM PDT by pabianice
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