There are so many generous and high-sounding phrases and ambitions in "A Crucible Moment: College Learning & Democracy's Future," the report by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), that to criticize them almost seems bilious and misanthropic. "A Crucible Moment," too, grounds its recommendations in measures of civic…

Long regarded by the vanguard of America's universities as antiquated and even dangerous, civic education is suddenly fashionable again. With the publication of "A Crucible Moment," a long battle in the culture wars appears to be winding down. It appears that everyone supports civic education today. For the past three decades, the ideal of civic…

In this article, the author talks about "A Crucible Moment: College Learning & Democracy's Future." There is a moment within "A Crucible Moment: College Learning & Democracy's Future" when the report gets it right. The academics tackle a National Governors Association study that envisions colleges as job training centers. The authors of "A…

The agenda of "A Crucible Moment: College Learning & Democracy's Future," "commissioned," "funded," and "nurtured" by the U.S. Department of Education, is nothing less than an attempt to implement a "transformation" of America by "transform[ing] current academic norms about what counts as scholarship." The author suggests that people may remember…

In this article, the author talks about the report "A Crucible Moment: College Learning & Democracy's Future," which provides a blueprint of what higher education ought "not" to do. The document was produced by the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U), an organization with a long history not only of demanding the advancement of…

The question of the relation between liberal education and political liberty, perennially important, is driven for this forum by the Obama administration's endorsement of "A Crucible Moment: College Learning & Democracy's Future," according to which the chief ends of postsecondary civic education ought to include the promotion of sweeping…

A "civic recession" is as worrisome as an economic recession. "A Crucible Moment: College Learning & Democracy's Future" (The National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement, 2012) should be praised for acknowledging the peril and seeking to rebuild the "depleted civic capital." Welcome, too, is the report's conviction that…

In this article, the authors talk about the relevance of American political science and America. Political science has enormous strengths in its highly talented practitioners and sophisticated methods. However, its disconnection from its host society, while not so severe as for fields like English and sociology, nonetheless poses an existential…

In this article, the author explains how forty years of politicized hiring in the law schools has left its destructive mark. The results are potentially catastrophic: Market forces and internal law school policies may be combining to produce a legal education bubble the likes of which the country has never seen. (Contains 11 footnotes.)

While many law students and recent grads have come to feel that legal education is an expensive waste of time now that the job market for lawyers has collapsed, some seasoned law practitioners have their own concerns about the worth of a legal education. Their concerns, however, relate to product quality rather than product marketability.…

On December 31, 2013, Hillsdale College--a small liberal arts college in rural south-central Michigan--will no longer be authorized to recommend students to the state of Michigan for teacher certification. Hillsdale's over a century-and-a-half tradition of preparing teachers for public schools will, sadly, come to an end. Hillsdale will lose the…

The assumption behind the fierce competition for admission to elite colleges and universities is clear: The more elite the school one attends, the brighter one's future. That assumption, however, may well be flawed. The research examined recently by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights provides strong reason to believe that attending the most…

This essay explores the ubiquity of the sustainability agenda in higher education in the United Kingdom (with some parallel examples from the United States) with a view to pointing out its corrosive influence on educational ambition. In so doing, the author suggests that the prevalence of sustainability within education has only been possible…

The University of Delaware has a zero-tolerance policy for anything remotely resembling "hate speech." As such, the school implemented a mandatory training for all 7,000-odd students in its dorms. The sessions were part of a thorough thought-reform curriculum, designed by the school's Office of Residence Life, psychologically to "treat" and…

Academics are inclined to think of their work as a pure calling. But the fact remains that the profession of higher education--like all professions--is embedded in various rules, assumptions, and programs that further the fiduciary obligations of the profession and also protect the rights, agendas and self-interests of the profession's members.…