There is a personal, human element to liberal education, what john Henry Newman once called the "living voice, the breathing form, the expressive countenance" Those who cherish personalized instruction would benefit from a phrase to defend and promote the practice. Author Scott Newstok proposes in this article that we begin calling it "close learning", a term that evokes the laborious, time-consuming, and costly but irreplaceable proximity between teacher and student. While computers can accelerate the exchange of information and facilitate "training", they cannot transmit the development of knowledge much less the wisdom that comes of face to face classroom encounters. Newstok reminds us that his devotion to close learning should not be mistaken for an anti-technology stance. He considers that close learning is entirely compatible with engaging in meaningful conversations outside the classroom such as faculty corresponding with students via e-mail, navigating the vast resources of the internet, and reminds readers that all of these things, useful as they are to facilitate learning are best used in the service of close learning and that the payoff comes in the classroom.