Despite working for the renewal of liberal education for two decades, I never expected a public institution to be recovered. At best, I hoped for a minority of private colleges to recover an authentic mission. Thanks to you and Governor DeSantis for restoring the democratic promise of intellectual freedom and education for liberty.
I have my B.A. from Columbia University. The most interesting facet there was the Core Curriculum. Everyone - whether an English, History, or Philosophy major - or a STEM student - learned about Literature, Art, Music, and Contemporary Civilization - beginning with Classical Antiquity and going right up to the present. It was Columbia, so the professors had their slant. But, there's no getting around the texts, the ideas, and the messages - not even for Barry Sotero.
I know that everyone who was graduated from Columbia has common educational basis. We all understand references from the Odyssey or the Decameron or the Inferno or Paradise Lost. We all had discussions of "the good" for Aristotle and Kant and John Stuart Mill and Bertrand Russell. That ought to be the aim of classical education.
Today, we have a students who are a pack of idiots with ADD social media doom-scrolling. That is where the younger generation gets their "news and information," if you can call what Taylor Swift or a Kardashian wore the night previous as "news and information." And there is no common educational basis - whether the Bible or a classical curriculum - to provide societal context for issues - especially important ones.
In 1984, former KGB agent Yuri Bezmenov detailed the Soviet plan for ideological subversion:
“What it basically means is: to change the perception of reality of every American to such an extent that despite of the abundance of information no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interest of defending themselves, their families, their community, and their country.”
We are there. We are a country without the tools for rational thought.
Kudos to you, Chris, and to Ron DeSantis for being culture warriors, while we still have an opportunity to save the Western Tradition.
I live in Sarasota and am constantly confronted with left wingers complaining about the transformation of New College, as if the old NC was a treasure, instead of a giant indoctrination factory. On top of that, we have to read daily articles in the Herald Tribune slamming the new leadership and lying about their intentions. Remember, leftists can’t stand anything that doesn’t align with their ideology. God forbid we have one
My mailbox was flooded with recruiting brochures and materials from New College in the early 1980's after I took the PSAT or SAT, I forget. A very high score but not Ivy League recruiting high. I lived in Florida but hadn't even heard of the college. And from what I gleaned I could tell the wokiness wasn't going to be my thing and I took a different path.
We didn't call it woke back then, and it surely wasn't as woke then as it became before Chris and his team. But since they pushed a few dozen mailings my direction I've known of them since. And when I read of Rufo's leadership initiatives I pull for him a little harder. I know he's up against something that's at least as old as the first brochure New College ever sent me.
- Alumni[d] include Mark Weiser, the Xerox PARC computer scientist who conceived of the approach to evolving computer interfaces known as "ubiquitous computing". Weiser attended New College from 1970 through 1974.
***This is the science that invents transhumanist computer-human portals***
- Other prominent New College graduates include William Dudley, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York;
***Advancing digital currency that is to become the teeth of Social Credit systems***
- Ambassador Nancy McEldowney, National Security Advisor to Vice President Harris;
***How's that national border security mission coming along Kamala? Or anything else she's responsible for that doesn't require kneepads and astroglide?***
- University of Pennsylvania law professor and vice provost Anita L. Allen, named to the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues;
***Bioethics, like Christine Grady, aka Mrs. Anthony Fauci's role as Chief Bioethicist at the National Institute of Health. Ethics variety "Utilitarianism," lies, deception, democide, genocide all fair game if employed for a declared 'greater good.' Like Stalin's "sometimes you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette" ten million broken eggs "ethics."***
- Jennifer Granick, surveillance and cybersecurity counsel at the ACLU and former civil liberties director at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society and the Electronic Frontier Foundation;
***Ministry of Truth censorship regime.***
- national MSNBC, NBC and Telemundo anchor José Díaz-Balart;
***'Nuff said.***
- founder of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies Rick Doblin;
***Noah Harari's distractions for 'useless eaters.'***
- David M. Smolin, professor of law and director for Cumberland School of Law's Center for Biotechnology, Law, and Ethics;
***Ethical (Utilitarian) mandates of experimental biotech injections, a Mrs. Anthony Fauci BFF***
Note: I was surprised to see my former State Rep. Joel Judd listed as an alumni. I knew and had many interactions with him. Dumber than a box of rocks. Very surprised to see him listed as an alumni since New College is supposedly for smart honor's students. The man's an imbecile.
How about weaving this Michael Oakshott quote into your mission statement: "Education is not acquiring a stock of ready-made ideas, images, sentiments, beliefs and so forth; it is learning to look, to listen, to think, to feel, to imagine, to believe, to understand, to choose and to wish."
The first clause of Oakshott’s statement certainly describes indoctrination (not education) where we distort complex reality into simple clarity. I’m grateful my undergrad liberal arts institution emphasized the trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric) and the quadrivium cuz my 2nd MA at cal state and my current PhD at Virginia tech seek to remove any renaissance-era modernist methods and knowledge. The anti-western, anti-male, postmodern project teaches us to only look left and right rather than up to truth. The trivium ensures Oakshott’s 2nd clause can occur…actual education.
The goal -- the effect upon the student -- is missing!
That is, to foster in a young person a strong character of self-reliance, one that delights in and is capable of independent thinking, intellectual discovery and scholarship the aim of which is the discovery of what is True; who possesses a healthy skepticism, and applies scientific inquiry by means of the judicious parsing of evidence; who venerates and wishes to pass on to future generations the great discoveries of millennia of human inquiry and aesthetic creation; who repudiates nihilistic fantasies of destruction and becomes a positive and constructive presence throughout the student's life.
The most important purpose of liberal education that has been lost across America’s Universities is the ability to think independently, to reason, and to arrive to one’s own conclusions. It’s NCF’s commitment to diversity of opinion, free speech, and open debate that can revive critical thinking in American youth.
That ability to think independently has to be cultivated from an early age. It is lost in our schools and has to be restored in the entire education system.
I have been thinking deeply about the mission of higher education for decades as a professor. I don't think such a statement is complete without a bold introduction, paraphrasing the American founding documents: "The mission of higher education is to preserve, protect, and defend Western civilization and its self-evident truths, with which we have been endowed by our Creator."
I like it. The essential concepts or ideas that are perhaps not quite explicit as I'd prefer them to be are:
1) Commitment to Truth. Include the motto: Verum, Bonum, Pulchrum (according to Google this is: The True, The Good, The Beautiful). Currently, the lower-case "the true" lacks necessary emphasis.
2) To be a place where people learn how to think, rather than what to think. The commitment to logos and techne gets at this, but I would announce it in plain English.
Regrettably "how to think" and "what to think" are synonymous in much of today’s academy and have driven education to the knife’s edge of the slippery slope. Post secondary education should focus on the mechanics of thinking. Perhaps students should be taught simply to reason and develop their own conclusions based on facts.
Point taken. I agree. By "how to think," I was referring to the mechanics of thinking, which is by its nature, completed by individuals. In the same way as explaining to someone how to shoot a basketball is about the mechanics of the shot made by the person holding the ball. That said, your point is a good one to ensure clarity of meaning. Thank you for mentioning it.
I've always thought the words "teacher" and "teaching" are improper, presumptuous, in opposition to independent thought, and suggest a false heirachy. Nobody injects knowledge into others. Learning is a very personal endevour. I much prefer the word "coach" and "coaching." It suggests independent thinking whereas the word "teaching" suggests filling an empty vessel with water -- indoctrination. Just saying. Do not know if this thought can be weaved into this mission in some manner.
As a relatively new resident of FL, many thanks to you and Gov. DeSantis for your efforts to restore a classical liberal arts education at New College and at other public universities and colleges in this wonderful state of ours. How is the dismantling of the massive DEI infrastructure going, by the way, at the public universities? Too many identity-based grifters to easily overcome - like a metastasized cancer, I would imagine. My only comment would be to remove the reference to Oxford in your draft mission statement. I wrote a reference letter for a Rhodes Scholar about 5 years ago and sadly, Oxford has become totally woke. It can no longer be a legitimate model for a true academic meritocracy, certainly not one that encourages free speech and diversity of thought.
Yes, it might not be a good idea to mention Oxford. Also Chris, your associations and feelings regarding the word "Oxford" may differ substantially to what others think and feel about the word. Just my opinion.
I love the opening paragraphs of this post, especially the simple question that you put forth: "What is the purpose of higher education?" My response is this. The purpose of higher education is to learn; to grow; and to pursue truth. What is truth? Truth has at least two aspects. First is the nature of reality. Facts! Second is what works; and what works for me will be different from what works for you. Inevitably we aren't going to agree on what works, so respecting our differences is essential. We want to live peace and the way we obtain that is by respecting others and their rights. What are these rights? Put most concisely, these rights are life, liberty and property. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." What does this mean? It means that government shall not favor or fund any religion. But what is religion? Is it limited to supernatural religions and belief in God? No, because DEI is a religion too. The government should not fund any religion, including secular religions such as DEI, socialism, climate alarmism, or racism of any sort, including affirmation action. Discrimination is a secular religion. New College should not respect an establishment of religion or discrimination. Why didn't the Framers include discrimination in the First Amendment? We know why, but let's not dwell in sorrow. Let's fix it!
Great job with the language of your new mission statement. l like it.
The statement is excellent and I hope you can live up to it.
Christopher Rufo, please check this article by a Harvard undergraduate in the current issue of Harvard Magazine, the alumni magazine. It is the most horrifying commentary about what has happened to academics at a top-level institution that I have yet seen--and I've been looking.
Interesting article. I think doing the minimum effort to get the desired grade isn't really new. In the 1980's when I was in nursing school I worked a full time job, went to school, and spent a lot of time on my social life. I did what was needed to pass the class and not much more. If a class was interesting I may have put more effort into it. I admit the main reason I was in school then was to be able to get a better paying job. Later as I took classes to get a higher degree it was always because I wanted to get a better job, not out of curiosity or a desire to learn something. That being said, my favorite class was an ethics class that had us arguing all sides of controversial topics. I loved playing the devil's advocate, arguing the side the majority was against. I can honestly say that I put more effort into assignments for that class.
As an independent adult student, I viewed college as primarily transactional. I didn't have the luxury of attending for the "college experience" or for the joy of learning with my background. I suspect others of similar status have the same motives.
Although I appreciate learning for learning's sake and indulge in this frequently myself, that can now be accomplished quite easily online. How do educational institutions compete with this? Growth and change are needed.
I would add "scientists" to the list "citizens, artists, academics..."
And that last sentence seems both vague and overly grandiose. I'm not sure if it needs to be replaced by anything. Why not just end with the preceding sentence?
Despite working for the renewal of liberal education for two decades, I never expected a public institution to be recovered. At best, I hoped for a minority of private colleges to recover an authentic mission. Thanks to you and Governor DeSantis for restoring the democratic promise of intellectual freedom and education for liberty.
We're working on it! Hope to provide a model for other states.
I have my B.A. from Columbia University. The most interesting facet there was the Core Curriculum. Everyone - whether an English, History, or Philosophy major - or a STEM student - learned about Literature, Art, Music, and Contemporary Civilization - beginning with Classical Antiquity and going right up to the present. It was Columbia, so the professors had their slant. But, there's no getting around the texts, the ideas, and the messages - not even for Barry Sotero.
I know that everyone who was graduated from Columbia has common educational basis. We all understand references from the Odyssey or the Decameron or the Inferno or Paradise Lost. We all had discussions of "the good" for Aristotle and Kant and John Stuart Mill and Bertrand Russell. That ought to be the aim of classical education.
Today, we have a students who are a pack of idiots with ADD social media doom-scrolling. That is where the younger generation gets their "news and information," if you can call what Taylor Swift or a Kardashian wore the night previous as "news and information." And there is no common educational basis - whether the Bible or a classical curriculum - to provide societal context for issues - especially important ones.
In 1984, former KGB agent Yuri Bezmenov detailed the Soviet plan for ideological subversion:
“What it basically means is: to change the perception of reality of every American to such an extent that despite of the abundance of information no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interest of defending themselves, their families, their community, and their country.”
We are there. We are a country without the tools for rational thought.
Kudos to you, Chris, and to Ron DeSantis for being culture warriors, while we still have an opportunity to save the Western Tradition.
Thank you!
So true. Americans no longer have a common foundation not in education nor culture. We’re a fractioned people.
Intentionally so.
Divide and conquer- obviously...
Thanks! These are the courses I was referring to in my comment above.
I live in Sarasota and am constantly confronted with left wingers complaining about the transformation of New College, as if the old NC was a treasure, instead of a giant indoctrination factory. On top of that, we have to read daily articles in the Herald Tribune slamming the new leadership and lying about their intentions. Remember, leftists can’t stand anything that doesn’t align with their ideology. God forbid we have one
Right, it was a disaster. All of the numbers revealed that it was the lowest-performing public university in the state. We are turning it around.
God forbid we have one college that is traditional.
My mailbox was flooded with recruiting brochures and materials from New College in the early 1980's after I took the PSAT or SAT, I forget. A very high score but not Ivy League recruiting high. I lived in Florida but hadn't even heard of the college. And from what I gleaned I could tell the wokiness wasn't going to be my thing and I took a different path.
We didn't call it woke back then, and it surely wasn't as woke then as it became before Chris and his team. But since they pushed a few dozen mailings my direction I've known of them since. And when I read of Rufo's leadership initiatives I pull for him a little harder. I know he's up against something that's at least as old as the first brochure New College ever sent me.
Sounds like my experience with Antioch. The word "woke" didn't exist in 1994 but I still understood what it was.
And look at this New College alumni:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_College_of_Florida
- Alumni[d] include Mark Weiser, the Xerox PARC computer scientist who conceived of the approach to evolving computer interfaces known as "ubiquitous computing". Weiser attended New College from 1970 through 1974.
***This is the science that invents transhumanist computer-human portals***
- Other prominent New College graduates include William Dudley, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York;
***Advancing digital currency that is to become the teeth of Social Credit systems***
- Ambassador Nancy McEldowney, National Security Advisor to Vice President Harris;
***How's that national border security mission coming along Kamala? Or anything else she's responsible for that doesn't require kneepads and astroglide?***
- University of Pennsylvania law professor and vice provost Anita L. Allen, named to the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues;
***Bioethics, like Christine Grady, aka Mrs. Anthony Fauci's role as Chief Bioethicist at the National Institute of Health. Ethics variety "Utilitarianism," lies, deception, democide, genocide all fair game if employed for a declared 'greater good.' Like Stalin's "sometimes you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette" ten million broken eggs "ethics."***
- Jennifer Granick, surveillance and cybersecurity counsel at the ACLU and former civil liberties director at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society and the Electronic Frontier Foundation;
***Ministry of Truth censorship regime.***
- national MSNBC, NBC and Telemundo anchor José Díaz-Balart;
***'Nuff said.***
- founder of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies Rick Doblin;
***Noah Harari's distractions for 'useless eaters.'***
- David M. Smolin, professor of law and director for Cumberland School of Law's Center for Biotechnology, Law, and Ethics;
***Ethical (Utilitarian) mandates of experimental biotech injections, a Mrs. Anthony Fauci BFF***
Other alumni:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_New_College_of_Florida_alumni
Note: I was surprised to see my former State Rep. Joel Judd listed as an alumni. I knew and had many interactions with him. Dumber than a box of rocks. Very surprised to see him listed as an alumni since New College is supposedly for smart honor's students. The man's an imbecile.
How about weaving this Michael Oakshott quote into your mission statement: "Education is not acquiring a stock of ready-made ideas, images, sentiments, beliefs and so forth; it is learning to look, to listen, to think, to feel, to imagine, to believe, to understand, to choose and to wish."
God speed anyway with your project.
Really enjoy much of Oakeshott's work.
The first clause of Oakshott’s statement certainly describes indoctrination (not education) where we distort complex reality into simple clarity. I’m grateful my undergrad liberal arts institution emphasized the trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric) and the quadrivium cuz my 2nd MA at cal state and my current PhD at Virginia tech seek to remove any renaissance-era modernist methods and knowledge. The anti-western, anti-male, postmodern project teaches us to only look left and right rather than up to truth. The trivium ensures Oakshott’s 2nd clause can occur…actual education.
Thank God for New College, UATX, Hillsdale and others who aren’t afraid to teach people to think!
All great institutions!
Add Ralston College in Savannah as well as University of Dallas.
Simply beautiful.
Thanks to all involved in this worthy project.
A very happy Floridian
The goal -- the effect upon the student -- is missing!
That is, to foster in a young person a strong character of self-reliance, one that delights in and is capable of independent thinking, intellectual discovery and scholarship the aim of which is the discovery of what is True; who possesses a healthy skepticism, and applies scientific inquiry by means of the judicious parsing of evidence; who venerates and wishes to pass on to future generations the great discoveries of millennia of human inquiry and aesthetic creation; who repudiates nihilistic fantasies of destruction and becomes a positive and constructive presence throughout the student's life.
Nicely written.
Thank you. I experienced it myself, thank goodness, a genuine liberal education and live my éducation every day.
The most important purpose of liberal education that has been lost across America’s Universities is the ability to think independently, to reason, and to arrive to one’s own conclusions. It’s NCF’s commitment to diversity of opinion, free speech, and open debate that can revive critical thinking in American youth.
That ability to think independently has to be cultivated from an early age. It is lost in our schools and has to be restored in the entire education system.
I have been thinking deeply about the mission of higher education for decades as a professor. I don't think such a statement is complete without a bold introduction, paraphrasing the American founding documents: "The mission of higher education is to preserve, protect, and defend Western civilization and its self-evident truths, with which we have been endowed by our Creator."
Yes, I think that's the right sentiment.
I like it. The essential concepts or ideas that are perhaps not quite explicit as I'd prefer them to be are:
1) Commitment to Truth. Include the motto: Verum, Bonum, Pulchrum (according to Google this is: The True, The Good, The Beautiful). Currently, the lower-case "the true" lacks necessary emphasis.
2) To be a place where people learn how to think, rather than what to think. The commitment to logos and techne gets at this, but I would announce it in plain English.
Nice one.
Regrettably "how to think" and "what to think" are synonymous in much of today’s academy and have driven education to the knife’s edge of the slippery slope. Post secondary education should focus on the mechanics of thinking. Perhaps students should be taught simply to reason and develop their own conclusions based on facts.
Point taken. I agree. By "how to think," I was referring to the mechanics of thinking, which is by its nature, completed by individuals. In the same way as explaining to someone how to shoot a basketball is about the mechanics of the shot made by the person holding the ball. That said, your point is a good one to ensure clarity of meaning. Thank you for mentioning it.
I've always thought the words "teacher" and "teaching" are improper, presumptuous, in opposition to independent thought, and suggest a false heirachy. Nobody injects knowledge into others. Learning is a very personal endevour. I much prefer the word "coach" and "coaching." It suggests independent thinking whereas the word "teaching" suggests filling an empty vessel with water -- indoctrination. Just saying. Do not know if this thought can be weaved into this mission in some manner.
As a relatively new resident of FL, many thanks to you and Gov. DeSantis for your efforts to restore a classical liberal arts education at New College and at other public universities and colleges in this wonderful state of ours. How is the dismantling of the massive DEI infrastructure going, by the way, at the public universities? Too many identity-based grifters to easily overcome - like a metastasized cancer, I would imagine. My only comment would be to remove the reference to Oxford in your draft mission statement. I wrote a reference letter for a Rhodes Scholar about 5 years ago and sadly, Oxford has become totally woke. It can no longer be a legitimate model for a true academic meritocracy, certainly not one that encourages free speech and diversity of thought.
Yes, it might not be a good idea to mention Oxford. Also Chris, your associations and feelings regarding the word "Oxford" may differ substantially to what others think and feel about the word. Just my opinion.
Love this! This is what every institution of higher learning should believe and promote.
I think you should consider adding scientists, mathematicians, and engineers to your list (citizens, artists, entrepreneurs, etc.)
Great suggestion on "scientists" and "mathematicians." (We don't have a dedicated engineering program.)
Their scope will not be that large.
I love the opening paragraphs of this post, especially the simple question that you put forth: "What is the purpose of higher education?" My response is this. The purpose of higher education is to learn; to grow; and to pursue truth. What is truth? Truth has at least two aspects. First is the nature of reality. Facts! Second is what works; and what works for me will be different from what works for you. Inevitably we aren't going to agree on what works, so respecting our differences is essential. We want to live peace and the way we obtain that is by respecting others and their rights. What are these rights? Put most concisely, these rights are life, liberty and property. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." What does this mean? It means that government shall not favor or fund any religion. But what is religion? Is it limited to supernatural religions and belief in God? No, because DEI is a religion too. The government should not fund any religion, including secular religions such as DEI, socialism, climate alarmism, or racism of any sort, including affirmation action. Discrimination is a secular religion. New College should not respect an establishment of religion or discrimination. Why didn't the Framers include discrimination in the First Amendment? We know why, but let's not dwell in sorrow. Let's fix it!
Great job with the language of your new mission statement. l like it.
The statement is excellent and I hope you can live up to it.
Christopher Rufo, please check this article by a Harvard undergraduate in the current issue of Harvard Magazine, the alumni magazine. It is the most horrifying commentary about what has happened to academics at a top-level institution that I have yet seen--and I've been looking.
https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2024/03/university-people-the-undergraduate-balance?fbclid=IwAR3kDRAMXJADQhh9t6hgQlzC2labUx9bbbQkgKOT1OYRsNkWJ5oj3zqCPeY
Interesting article. I think doing the minimum effort to get the desired grade isn't really new. In the 1980's when I was in nursing school I worked a full time job, went to school, and spent a lot of time on my social life. I did what was needed to pass the class and not much more. If a class was interesting I may have put more effort into it. I admit the main reason I was in school then was to be able to get a better paying job. Later as I took classes to get a higher degree it was always because I wanted to get a better job, not out of curiosity or a desire to learn something. That being said, my favorite class was an ethics class that had us arguing all sides of controversial topics. I loved playing the devil's advocate, arguing the side the majority was against. I can honestly say that I put more effort into assignments for that class.
As an independent adult student, I viewed college as primarily transactional. I didn't have the luxury of attending for the "college experience" or for the joy of learning with my background. I suspect others of similar status have the same motives.
Although I appreciate learning for learning's sake and indulge in this frequently myself, that can now be accomplished quite easily online. How do educational institutions compete with this? Growth and change are needed.
Good interesting read. Thanks for providing this link .
This is excellent.
I would add "scientists" to the list "citizens, artists, academics..."
And that last sentence seems both vague and overly grandiose. I'm not sure if it needs to be replaced by anything. Why not just end with the preceding sentence?
Great suggestion on scientists.
Maybe consider adding an adjective to the student pursuits: informed citizens, curious scientists, etc.