Ian Lindquist

In a time that prizes vocational training, on the one hand, and indoctrination masquerading as education, on the other, Eva Brann’s writings can help readers recapture a vision of education that is truly free — free from utilitarian concerns, and a good in itself.

A new book aims to dispel the idea of the divine chosenness of the Jews. In fact, it promotes a moralism as heavy-handed as that of the most simplistic preacher.

Columbus’ legacy is as important as ever today because it reminds us that historical accuracy and public honor are not mutually exclusive. While recognizing Columbus’s imperfections, we can also honor the good he passed down to us.

Traditionalist Christians and Jews can take advantage of this moment to renew classical and civic education.

This core mission of the American university is the common ground of American society, apart from partisan rancor and mob tactics, and dedicated to the proposition that all positions are created equal and up for debate.

Combatting distrust, despair, and isolation during the coronavirus pandemic will mean looking to America’s faith-based organizations for help feeding the poor and needy, for encouragement in prayer which engenders hope, and for remembering that human beings will once again feast together with joy.

Renaissance education reform is in many respects the ancestor of a current education-reform movement in American that has been growing since the early 1980s. Like the Renaissance reformers, classical educators today introduce their students to classical virtue and classical authors. Today’s classical educators do not view their approach as an exercise in antiquarianism but rather as necessary for a life fully lived.

By rediscovering and dusting off ancient forms and ideals of education and at the same time utilizing decidedly modern associational forms, classical education schools have become some of the most successful and thriving educational options in America.

A land of hope is one that is ever moving toward a better future but also one that must see its limitations and appreciate how to work within the context of limitation. Wilfred McClay’s account of America ultimately points readers toward this seeming contradiction which, in his woven-together story of the country, reveals itself in the end as the glory of living out tensions inherent in the human condition.

From college students’ inability or unwillingness to tolerate disagreement to the increased partisanship of political elites, American society appears to have forgotten that a bedrock practice of liberal democracy is the hurly-burly back and forth of the intellectual arena. Some K-12 schools are taking notice and responding by recommitting to teaching the intellectual and moral habits that allow students to enter contentious debate and to disagree agreeably with their peers in high school and afterward.

The title of Shakespeare’s play—The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark—suggests that Hamlet has a public role to play in Denmark. But what is that role and how should we understand it? To do so, we must first understand what is rotten in the kingdom of Denmark—and try to understand what Hamlet the prince can and should do about it.

Colleges today encourage students to conflate youthful arrogance with high moral purpose.