Higher education

Review: The Pietist Vision of Christian Higher Education

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pietist-vision

The Pietist Vision of Christian Higher Education, Christopher Gehrz, ed. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2015.

Summary: The contributors to this volume consider the “usable past” in Pietist thought and practice that might serve in the “forming of whole and holy persons” in Christian colleges with a Pietist heritage.

Pietism often comes in for a bad rap in discussions of higher education from a Christian perspective. It is often viewed as anti-intellectual, more concerned with the affections of the heart than the life of the mind. The contributors to this volume, most with a connection to Bethel University, would propose both that this is a mere caricature of a truly robust Pietism, and that there are significant resources of theology and practice in historic pietism that may be drawn on as a “usable past” to form “whole and holy persons” from the students and faculty at Pietist institutions.

I found the contributions in the first two sections of this work to be the strongest in actually defining what this usable past might be and how it could be critical to the higher education enterprise. In Part One on teaching, scholarship, and community in a pietist university, Daniel Williams argues that the convertative and conventicle aspects of pietism provide basis for transformation in a community of learners. Katherine Nevins argues for the importance of the priesthood of all believers, the emphasis on love of God and neighbor, and the pietistic virtues of humility and openness to correction as vital in the university classroom. Jenell Paris proposes that the Reformed integrative paradigm, with its focus on intellect and worldview may be complemented by the Pietist focus on the love of learning and the value of the intrinsic worth of a discipline of study. Phyllis Alsdurf contrasts the educational visions of Carl F. H. Henry and Carl H. Lundquist, a former Bethel University president. Henry was the better know both for his publications and his vision of a Christian Harvard. Lundquist, while sharing many of Henry’s evangelical commitments and endeavors actually realized the leadership of a Christian institution, instilling a perspective that linked love of Christ and learning, of heart and mind, of university and church mission together. Roger Olson returns to the themes of conversion and community and their role in fostering a learning that is transformative rather than just informative, and values sincere questioning and critical thinking done communally.

Part Two then considers Pietism’s impulse of service to the world as part of our witness to Christ. Dale Durie applies the priesthood of all believers to the idea of a priesthood lived out in every field of inquiry in God’s temple, the creation, under God’s leadership, praying for and blessing others, being the church wherever we are, and acting in the world for the common good. Christian Collins Winn commends the Pietist virtues of openness, humility, love, and hope as vital to fostering a civil public discourse. Marion Larson and Sara Shady write of how these virtues have informed their efforts to educate students to relate to those of other faiths (see also From Bubble to Bridge from the same authors reviewed here).

Part Three includes two models of Pietist informed education, in the fields of science and science teaching, and in nursing. Part Four seemed the most “miscellaneous” of the four parts. It begins with an essay by Raymond VanArragon on how open-mindedness and a Pietist concern for truth are held in tension. The next turns to the question of whether a Pietist university can be coherently organized while emphasizing Christian experience. Following this is Kent Gerber’s discussion of the need to curate and preserve Pietist resources and archives to foster research into “the usable past.” Finally Samuel Zalenga writes of the challenge of preserving Pietism given the neo-liberal economic pressures impacting the life of all universities.

Christopher Gehrz concludes this collection with what he thinks Pietism can contribute in a season emphasizing innovation in the university world, and in so doing summarizes themes that have run through a number of these essays. Pietism emphasizes conversion, a transformation of the heart and not simply the informing of the mind, and Gehrz argues for the liberal arts when STEM has gained ascendancy as the “liberating” arts. He contends that the Christian university can function as a “little church within the church,” bringing reform to the whole. Finally, he sees the Pietist university as instrumental in serving to bring about a new world, as inward transformation is translated into outward service.

What strikes me in reading this work is that it reflects one side of a conversation between the Pietist and Puritan (Calvinist Reformed) streams of the church in American history. The collection underscored for me both a deep appreciation of the Puritan stream, and yet a recognition of the worth brought by the undervalued Pietist stream. Rather than opposing these to each other, it is exciting to dream of what could happen in bringing these two streams together into a mighty river bringing fresh life and transformed character as well as intellectual rigor into Christian higher education, which may in turn both serve and challenge the secular higher education establishment.

Review: After College

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After College

After College, Erica Young Reitz. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2016.

Summary: A faith-oriented guide to navigating the transition from college to early adulthood, exploring issues of faith, relationships, community, work, calling and finances.

Much has been made about the loss of faith that sometimes occurs among youth who go to college. Less attention is given to the deepening of faith of others or the spiritual awakening of some that occurs during college. Even less have there been good discussions of how believing students navigate the transition to post-collegiate early adulthood. Until now.

Erica Young Reitz, who has led the Senior EXIT program, a senior year college transition program at Penn State, has given us a kind of roadmap describing the transitions post-collegians face, and what it means to live faithfully to Christ in a new situation. In her introduction, she writes:

“Leaving the gates of university life often comes with the expectation that we’re ready for what’s on the other side. But what does readiness even mean? Some students feel ready in September of their senior year (get me out of here!) while others—who may actually be more equipped for the “real world” than they realize—dread college coming to a close. In the scurry of résumé preparations and job applications, it’s easy to reduce readiness to our emotions about entering adulthood or to a list of key items necessary for life on our own.”

The first part of the book explores what faithfulness to Christ looks like in this new situation. She explores what it is like to go, like Abraham, with God into the unknown. She considers our expectations of “normal” and whether these have room for adversity, in which we might experience taking up the cross in new ways. She explores the big question of discerning God’s will, especially when faced with a myriad of choices.

Part two then explores what faithfulness looks like in community. She honestly discusses finding new friends post-college and the challenge to become hospitable people. She talks about finding a church, with some helpful material for those who have experienced different forms of abuse in their church experience. She talks about the diversity of people we will encounter and going out of our comfort zones. She gives very practical counsel on the matter of parents and moving from dependence through independence to a healthy form of interdependence. She candidly discusses dating, sex, and marriage, post-college. I especially appreciated her practical counsel about not living together while saving up for the storybook wedding, which seems to be the narrative of many young couples.

The final part of the book concerns living out our calling faithfully in the world. She includes chapters on stewarding every area of life for the kingdom, dealing with the realities of the workplace, and our handling of finances. She offers a very practical discussion of workplace realities and what it might practically mean to “bless” our co-workers. In the area of finance, she offers helpful resources including a budget planning sheet and challenges the assumption that it is necessary to take on large car loans and consumer debt, freeing one to use more resources for kingdom aspirations.

The book is informative without being preachy, using a number of stories while also giving very practical tips. Reitz helps people understand how this period is a kind of liminal space that may feel disorienting or painful, and how to live as a person of faith in this time. Each chapter concludes with “Going Deeper” questions that could be used individually or in a group discussing the book. There are passages for scripture study as well as a few additional relevant books suggested.

This is a great gift for graduating students. Even better, it would make a great discussion resource for a semester discussion with a group of seniors. The issues Reitz raises also raise important questions for those of us working in collegiate ministry. Are we waiting until senior years to talk about things like the will of God, community, work and calling, money and sexuality? We probably talk about sexuality before then, but what about the others? Are we simply mentoring students for our mission on campus or also for their mission in life? After College is a great resource to help students navigate this crucial transition from the former to the latter.

 

Review: Called to the Life of the Mind

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Called to the life of the Mind

Called to the Life of the Mind, Richard J. Mouw. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2014.

Summary: A collection of reflective essays by one of the deans of evangelical scholarship on the calling and importance of the Christian scholarly task.

This is an absolute gem of a book!

Rarely am I so effusive about a title but this short collection of pithy essays that I devoured in an afternoon is a quite wonderful gift to anyone who loves Christ and loves scholarly work and wonders what a life pursuing these loves might look like.

Mouw begins by admitting his own surprise in discovering his vocation as a scholar, having grown up in a conservative evangelicalism in which, “you don’t need exegesis, you just need Jesus.” He discusses the “accusing voices” that considered the intellectual life dangerous to the soul, concluding that while there is something to those warnings, it is possible to be both a rigorous scholar and a devout lover of God. He affirms the value of scholarship against the larger value of God’s kingdom, the importance of the tedious intellectual “calisthenics” necessary for the fruit of rigorous scholarship, and the value of not needing to make hasty applications of what we discover.

He goes on to explore how evangelical scholars engage the wider scholarly world, eschewing either withdrawal or “takeover.” He pleads for a scholarship that is both humble and hopeful, that recognizes that all the Kuyperian “square inches” over which Jesus is Lord belong to him but will only be perfectly known by us in eternity. He speaks of the communal character of Christian scholarly work, that scholars may help one another in a “shared commitment to creative teaching and scholarship.”

I found this last proposal particularly intriguing, as Mouw framed this in terms of an academic “religious order” in which Christian scholars working at Christian institutions might also encourage the “dispersed believers” working at more secular institutions. Engaging the conversation about a “Benedict option“, he calls rather for a more truly Benedictine-type engagement that both strengthens the church and has a renewing influence in the world.

The concluding essays discuss the unique opportunity of the academy as a safe place for intellectual exploration, the various roles played in academia from serious scholarship to “populizers”, the hopes and fears of academic pilgrimage with its unknowns, the dangers of critique becoming a way of life, rather than a moment during our work, and the unique perspective we have because we believe in creation–that truth is a discovery of creation and not a creation in and of itself.

In his last essays, he returns to the theme of humility and hope, concluding with these words:

“If we effectively appropriate these attitudes — humility and hope — we can display the kind of patience that is capable of tolerating complexities and living with seemingly unconnected particularities without giving in to despair or cynicism. To show forth this kind of approach to intellectual complexities is to perform an important ministry — a Christ-like ministry — in the present day academy.”

This collection of essays is one that I would suggest every Christian scholar keep handy for those moments when one may be tempted to cynicism or despair about the future of the academy or is in need of a refreshed vision for one’s calling. Joining Mouw in his reflections on the humble and hopeful task of scholarly work under Christ may be just the encouraging word needed to enable one to press on in the academic journey.

Review: Mapping Your Academic Career

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Mapping Your Academic Career

Mapping Your Academic Career, Gary M. Burge. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2015.

Summary: Traces the career trajectory of a college professor, identifying the factors that mark the successful passage from one “cohort” to the next, the risks to be negotiated in each season of work, and key resources for career development.

When many of us are young, we give relatively little thought to what the “map” of a career might look like and what differentiates a career that is successful and fulfilling from one that is not. Often, the focus is on landing a good starting position in a field for which one has prepared and then advancing within it. Often, though, we think the passage into adulthood is simply one of obtaining a real job, which we do in some form, with promotions and achievements, until we retire. What Gary M. Burge proposes, in this case for the academic career of a college professor, is that there is a discernible course that can be traced for college professors, and certain marks that differentiate successful and fulfilling journeys in academia from those that are not.

He breaks the career trajectory into three “cohorts”. Each of the cohorts is discussed in one of the chapters of the book. Each section includes helpful addenda on topics like mentoring, sabbaticals, financial planning, and retirement planning.

Cohort One faculty are those who have completed the doctorate and are pursuing tenure, which defines the key theme of this cohort: security. The chapter assumes those who have been appointed to tenure track positions and may have been more helpful if it included some material for those who have not yet been able to land such positions. It focuses on the formation of one’s core identity as a professor, on building strong peer and mentoring relationships, and on experiencing strong student and college validation of one’s work. I thought one of the most interesting sections here was his discussion of “toxic anxiety” and the importance of early intervention. This cohort ends with the granting of tenure.

Cohort Two is concerned with the theme of success. Key factors are effective teaching that connects with students, the pursuit of scholarship, often honed to a particular sub-discipline that one becomes “expert” in, for the sheer interest and enjoyment of the work, and the finding of one’s own voice, both in one’s discipline and institution. The pitfalls here are in not continuing to develop professionally, a type of egocentric disengagement, and unresolved institutional dissonance. Successful faculty are sought after by students, are making a distinctive contribution in their scholarly work, and both speak into and represent well the institutions with which they are affiliated.

The third cohort has to do with significance. These are “senior” faculty moving toward the end of their careers and are in the midst of a redefinition of both themselves as they age, and what is truly important within their work. If they negotiate this well, they become valued mentors to junior faculty and become more focused in their scholarship. If they have indeed grown in wisdom, they are often trusted “adult sages” to students who don’t want them as a friend but as a caring adult who listens and mentors. At some point, this stage ends in retirement, with the wise counsel of doing so before one has to.

Burge does not address the question of exernal changes: institutional change, disciplinary change, technological change, and change in student culture. Perhaps this is implicit in the developmental process he charts, but it seems to me that we are in a season of rapid change in higher education and how one negotiates this in the course of an academic career is significant for each of the cohorts, and especially the latter two.

One thing I appreciated was that while written by someone who is clear about his own faith commitments and published by a Christian publisher, the text is written neither for a Christian audience nor laced with Christian jargon or biblical references, other than occasional references to the author’s scholarly work in New Testament. This book could be used with any group of faculty concerned with faculty career development. It is generic to concerns all faculty face.

Burge wisely counsels talking with those who are ten years ahead of us to help us understand what’s ahead. This book, while no substitute for such personal interactions, is a helpful guide to think about the contours of, and important questions one must address in, the course of an academic career. He points out the dangerous “rabbit trails” academics can pursue that end in disillusionment and disappointment, as well as the essential tasks one must address for growth. This is a helpful handbook for academics at any stage of their careers.

 

 

The University Today: Secularization

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Statue of William Oxley Thompson, President of The Ohio State University 1899-1925, in front of Thompson Library. Photo (c)2015, Robert C. Trube.

That fount of all human knowledge, Wikipedia defines secularization as follows:

“Secularization refers to the historical process in which religion loses social and cultural significance. As a result of secularization the role of religion in modern societies becomes restricted. In secularized societies faith lacks cultural authority, and religious organizations have little social power.”

Universities, which arose out of church cathedral schools in Europe, and in the U.S. as institutions to train ministers, and other professionals, for the service of God have become places where religion is confined to the personal and private and extra-curricular aspects of student and faculty life.

Yet the effort to create a “neutral” public square both denies that secularism itself is an ideology and fails to prevent the rise of other militant political and religious ideologies. The following material, Part Four of an address given first at the World Assembly of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students in 2015 explores these ideas at more length and explores what hope there might be for collegiate ministries facing this apparently bleak secular landscape.

Secularization:

At Ohio State, we have a statue of William Oxley Thompson, the longest sitting president of Ohio State from 1899 to 1925. What few acknowledge is that Thompson was a Presbyterian minister who on one occasion during his tenure commented, “I am essentially and always a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Incidentally I am president of the university….”[1] Many of the institutions, even state institutions where we work, have Christian origins and influences, and yet the prevailing ideology is a secularist one that confines matters of faith to personal and private spheres of life. Often, our ministries are tolerated to the extent that they conform to this prevailing ideology.

Issues around human sexuality reflect the emphasis on personal expressiveness that arises from secularization. And here I must apologize for the cultural imperialism of significant portions of the Western church, which have moved from teaching a redeemed sexuality that has been the consensus of the church across cultures and through history, to affirm pretty much whatever our culture affirms. This has been done without consultation with the church in the Majority World. Those in the West have not considered the consequences of affirming what would be considered decadent by some of the enemies of Christianity.

At the same time, we have often said and done that which is hurtful to those Jesus might have considered as “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” A friend who is a university leader in my country and deeply committed Christians says, “These are young people, trying to figure out their lives.” We may remember our own awakening awareness of our sexuality and our struggles to live with this. Imagine that awakening with the awareness that one’s physical anatomy and mental perceptions of attraction or gender are in conflict with each other. I wonder  what might have happened in my own country if we had devoted ourselves to caring for those facing these struggles, loving them, and as God gave opportunities, helping them follow Christ rather than trying to win a “culture war.”

We also see the rise of militant, clashing narratives:  political, sexual, and religious. Secularism in part serves to mitigate the clash of narratives in our settings and sometimes affords the opportunity for those of different views to engage each other with civility. And yet both we and others realize this secularism is not a neutral meeting ground but an ideology in its own right. Secularism values certain narratives above others, such as vague gnostic spirituality or outright atheism, and certain value systems such as materialism.

The truth is that secularism lacks substance and the result is the assertion of vigorous competing ideologies from an evangelistic atheism to militant Islam. On U.S. campuses, this takes the form of competing demonstrations. In places like Garissa and northern Nigeria, it means the death of brothers and sisters. Might it be that our opportunity is to witness to a third way between the hollowness of secularism and the militancy of clashing ideologies, one that holds together and extends the grace and truth of the Lord Jesus to an alternately truthless and graceless world?

Questions:

  1. How are we equipping our students to understand and engage with courage and grace the reigning paradigm of secularism?
  2. How might we function as a “third way” people providing an alternative to pervasive and empty secularism and militant ideologies?

[1] James E. Pollard, William Oxley Thompson: Evangel of Education (Columbus: The Ohio State University, 1955), p. 226.

The previous three parts of this address may be accessed by following these links:

Internationalization

Technology

Economics

 

The University Today: Economics

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Education-Costs

This is the third of four posts on trends shaping the world of higher education today. The original audience for this material was the 2015 World Assembly of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, a gathering of collegiate ministry leaders from over 150 countries in Oaxtepec, Mexico. The two previous posts have dealt with internationalization, and technology.

This week, I turn to the economic issues shaping the landscape of higher education and consider the implications this has on research programs, the fate of academic programs, and access to higher education for prospective students from various socio-economic backgrounds. The questions I pose at the end concern the issues of justice and equity raised by these economic trends.

Economics:

Universities in most countries are facing economic pressures. In many settings, state subsidies of higher education has been significantly cut. Part of this reflects the massive debt loads many countries are facing. This also is reflected in changes in global research funding trends. The U.S. accounted for 37 % of research funding in 2001, but only 30% in 2011. EU funding dropped from 26 to 22 % in the same period while East and Southeast Asia research funding increased from 25 to 34 %.[1]

What these economic pressures have led to is the increasing corporatization of the university. Academic departments are being treated as “profit centers” and expansions or cuts in programs are determined almost solely on the basis of revenues generated. There has been a spate of articles in American media about the growth of the administrative class while growth in tenured faculty positions has been far slower, and universities increasingly rely upon lecturers or adjunct faculty to control costs.

One of the factors that drive international student enrollments is that many are subsidized by their governments or represent the economic elites of their countries and can afford to pay premium tuitions, enhancing the bottom lines of cash-strapped institutions.

The other economic issue is that students and their families are bearing increasing financial burdens for education, and this may lead to a new elitism in education. Student debt in the U.S. is currently estimated at $1.3 trillion dollars.[2] In countries where the cost of education is increasingly shifted to students, there is a danger of accentuating class divisions and opportunity inequities.

Questions:

  1. How might we advocate for shalom and justice in the university as it struggles with issues of cost?
  2. What ought to be our response if we find ourselves in the elite, or ministering to the cultural elites on our campuses?

[1] http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind14/index.cfm/chapter-4/c4s2.htm (last accessed 6/22/2016).

[2] http://www.cnbc.com/2015/03/10/student-loan-initiatives-could-benefit-40m-borrowers.html (last accessed 6/22/2016).

The University Today: Technology

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A library and a world at my fingertips as I write this post (c)2016 Robert C Trube

Last week, I began a series of four posts on The University Today, adapted from an address last summer at the World Assembly of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. I focused on four change forces (internationalization, technology, economics, and secularization) at work in the university world and considering their implications for collegiate ministries working in the university. I’m struck as I write this that these trends do not have implications for Christians in the university alone. They profoundly shape the character of our institutions.

Nowhere is this more true than in the rapidly changing world of technology which is shaping what is being taught, how it is being taught, and how students learn. Most significantly, technology is shaping, wittingly or unwittingly, the very sense of what a university is for. Here is the excerpt of the address on technology, followed by questions for reflection:

Technology

The explosion of technology is shaping what is taught and funded at many of our institutions. Pressures from parents, students, governments, and businesses are compelling changes in how higher education’s ends are being conceived. Academic degrees in fields related to science, technology, engineering, and math (or STEM) are being emphasized while programs in the humanities, languages, the arts, and social sciences are struggling to secure funding, enrollments, and to reconceive their role as an adjunct to STEM. In many settings, education is being treated as a commodity rather than a formative experience and engagement with life’s big questions. Students are the customers, faculty and university staff the vendors, and productivity is measured in terms of job placement rates.  As I’ve already observed, the decision of many governments to subsidize international study reflects the fact that STEM enjoys an international consensus.

Technology is also shaping the way we learn, and the way education is delivered. A student may now access on a smartphone information that might have taken hours to find in a university library. Increasingly, the classroom is not the location of lectures but a place to discuss and apply content viewed online and to collaborate in learning with other students, a shift being referred to as the “flipped” classroom. Increasingly educators are required to display expertise not merely in their academic discipline but also in the use of various online technologies and social media. We have also seen a vast increase in online courses as either an alternative to or adjunct to education on a physical campus.  Technology also means instant communication of everything from revolutions to complaints about the campus administration.  One university leader I know utilizes social media constantly not only to promote the accomplishments of his institution but also to maintain contact with current and prospective students, and other constituents of the university.

Questions

  1. How might Christians contribute to the discussion of education’s purpose in the institutions where they work? What are the opportunities for our mission if the spiritual hunger and aspirations of students are not acknowledged and the “big questions” are not explored in their education?
  2. How should the transformation in the delivery of education influence our ministry approaches on campus? What will it mean for us to incarnate the gospel in an increasingly virtual world?

 

The University Today: Internationalization

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One grad fellowship, six pumpkin-carving winners, six countries (Columbia, Nigeria, China, Thailand, USA, Canada)

Almost a year ago, I had the privilege of presenting a plenary session titled “The University Today” at the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students World Assembly in Oaxtepec, Mexico. Over the next four Thursdays, I will be posting in four installments the four “change forces” I see at work in the landscape of higher education and the questions I believe this raises for collegiate ministries not only in the U.S. [my context] but, I believe with contextual nuances, globally. The four are: 1) the international character of higher education, 2) the impact of technology both in teaching and as a focus of the university’s mission, 3) the economics of higher education and how these are re-shaping the campus, and 4)secularization,  its effects and the militant reaction it sparks.

After the discussion of each change force, I pose a couple questions. I would love to hear from others familiar with the higher education context their thoughts, questions, and rejoinders. If you are impatient and would like to hear the whole talk, it may be found on YouTube.

Internationalization:

Increasingly, students are traveling from every nation to every nation. Current UNESCO estimates are that 3.7 million students study abroad each year, and this number is growing. Over 690,000 are in the US, but over 235,000 are in China.  Increasingly, this is being funded by governments. Brazil has launched an initiative to provide 75,000 scholarships for students to study abroad in science and technology.[1] Studies show that international study has great advantages in an enlarged perspective, language learning, international contacts and career development.[2] The U.S. is encouraging students to include study abroad in their educational experience. What studies do not show is the increasing opportunity study abroad provides for gospel witness and partnerships in the universities of the world!

The global nature of higher education does not simply reflect the flow of people but also the flow of ideas. The necessity of collaboration across cultures was underscored by the recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa where understanding of epidemiology had to walk hand in hand with understanding the cultural practices of how families care for their sick and bury their dead and those on the ground had to overcome both western ignorance and African suspicion. Whether it is a matter of dealing with contagious disease or climate change or global business, it is increasingly common for students and faculty to work alongside co-investigators half way around the world, whether virtually, at academic conferences or in the field.

Universities themselves are crossing international borders, whether through online courses or though “branch” campuses. The University of Nottingham has a campus in Malaysia, Cornell University is in Qatar, the Sorbonne in Abu Dhabi and Leeds Metropolitan University has a campus in India.[3]  New York University is contending with the Chinese government about academic freedom issues on its campus in Shanghai.[4]  Indigeneity has long been a value in IFES and might it be important to listen to each other with regard to this trend and then seek to influence institutional policies in our own countries.

[Since first posting this material, Ruth Kinloch has kindly written to me, providing a link to an article she authored, “46 Study Abroad Statistics: Convincing Facts and Figures,” providing updated statistics that confirms the continuing growth and impact of study abroad. ]

Questions:

  1. What will it mean for our movements to practice relational and intellectual hospitality with the guests on our campuses? What might we learn from our sister movements about extending welcome? And how, in each of our countries, will we work to prepare our students to be culturally sensitive witnesses, and not just tourists, as they study abroad?
  2. How might we help each other in grace and truth and humility to recognize the cultural blinders and cultural captivities that hinder effective cross-cultural collaboration in mission and in research.

[1] http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20120926-the-statistics-of-studying-abroad (last accessed 7/27/2015).

[2] http://studyabroad.ucmerced.edu/study-abroad-statistics/statistics-study-abroad (last accessed 7/27/2015).

[3] http://www.topuniversities.com/student-info/choosing-university/university-branch-campuses (last accessed 7/27/2015).

[4] https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/06/26/officials-us-universities-china-tell-congress-they-have-protected-academic-freedom (last accessed 7/27/2015).

Hope for the Humanities?

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?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????The other day, I wrote on the rise of STEM education as well as alternate forms of post-secondary training. I argued that for many these forms of education provide the opportunity for productive work and economic advance. Also, I noted that the traditional liberal arts, humanities-oriented education might be an unaffordable luxury for many who do not come from more leisured, elite backgrounds. You might think I have it out for the humanities. And you couldn’t be more wrong.

The word “humanities” points to the fact that these disciplines have to do with the “human.” Historically, these disciplines have explored what it means to be human, how we have thought and lived out our humanness through history, what the life well-lived looks like, what constitutes the good, the true, and the beautiful, from whence they come, and why they matter. The worth of the humanities have been argued as the intellectual enrichment, and the depth of understanding, and character that informs virtuous life and citizenship. Stanford University defines the humanities as follows:

The humanities can be described as the study of how people process and document the human experience. Since humans have been able, we have used philosophy, literature, religion, art, music, history and language to understand and record our world. These modes of expression have become some of the subjects that traditionally fall under the humanities umbrella. Knowledge of these records of human experience gives us the opportunity to feel a sense of connection to those who have come before us, as well as to our contemporaries.

Some of the courses I took in college (many were Gen Ed required courses) set me on a lifelong journey of learning. Most significant were a couple of courses in history that helped me see that history wasn’t simply about events and dates but understanding the complex variables of politics, economics, personality, beliefs, and so much else that contribute to events. I trace my love of history from those courses that impressed me with the idea that there was a value in knowing how we got here historically. Likewise, literature courses taught me to read deeply and critically, enhancing my enjoyment and appreciation of works. A philosophy course helped me understand the key figures in philosophy and the great questions of ultimate reality, ethics, and the ideas of the good, the true and the beautiful. I didn’t major in any of these disciplines but the courses began a lifelong pursuit of learning in each. This leads me to some observations:

  1. It appears to me that the radical skepticism and suspicion that seems to characterize some of the critical approaches particularly in literature and history may be digging these disciplines’ graves, rather than fostering a love of the humanities among both majors and non-majors. I can never forget the stunned look of a grad student in literature when I asked her when was the last time she had enjoyed a book.
  2. It seems we need to accept the reality that because of the demands of many technical disciplines there will be limited opportunity for humanities education of college students and thought and research needs to be devoted to how this might whet the appetite of the receptive to pursue lifelong learning.
  3. I wonder if there needs to be a conversation between secondary educators and the higher ed world on how to make the most of both high school and Gen Ed courses in the humanities. We saw dedicated high school teachers at my son’s school foster an engaged learning in lit and history courses.
  4. I’m struck with how much interest in the humanities there is among educated adults later in life. There is the example of The Great Courses and other online courses as well as reading groups organized around various interests in many communities. In our state, adults over 60 can audit courses at state universities and this affords opportunities for humanities educators to engage with motivated students.
  5. Departments who want to attract more majors need to be both compelling and honest. Majors may very well need to do a graduate degree or a second undergrad degree in a more employable field. For a student to choose that form of double work means they need compelling reasons to pursue these fields of study, inherent in the discipline.

This brings me to a critical question. The liberal arts developed in the context of the cathedral schools and universities that grew out of the church and the early universities in this country that were almost all church-related institutions. The liberal arts grew out of a perspective that rooted goodness, truth, and beauty in the transcendent, that understood both the greatness and fallibility of human beings, that saw history as having a telos or end and not simply the study of the will to power, or just “one damn thing after another” as Henry Ford saw it. It is striking that so many, like Anthony Kronman, continue to argue for the humanities, acknowledge their religious roots and yet are unwilling to allow a possible role of scholars of faith in contemporary studies in the humanities even though they may be the allies who may play a key role in their recovery.

The demise of the humanities would be a great loss. We are human beings and not just human doings. Understanding what it means to be human, and how to live well, and to understand how humans live best in society are all things the humanities can teach us. Might it not be one of those times when all who value the humanities, whether people of faith or not, come together to re-conceive their place in the academy? Along the way, we all might learn a bit more about what it means to be human.

 

The Humanities, STEM, and Post-Secondary Education

/ rtrube54 / 6 Comments
university hall

University Hall, The Ohio State University by Robert C. Trube, 2016 (all rights reserved)

I was in the hospital over the weekend. Not to visit but as a patient. I won’t tire you with the details, but an encounter underscored some discussions with collegiate ministry staff this past week. The conversation was with an orderly, who with courtesy, grace, and care, wheeled me from the ER to a room on the eighth floor–at 5 am in the morning. I learned that while he works at nights to support his family, he is enrolled in a radiology program at our local community college — and loving it as a forty-something.

This man illustrates the promise in American higher education. A man doing good and worthy work devoting spare hours to acquire a base of knowledge and skill to pursue work that has come to interest him and will likely provide a better income for him and his family.

It seems to me that the defenders of the humanities over against science, technology, engineering, and math often do not seem to be speaking to people like my orderly. While defending their discipline’s nuanced and critical readings of literature, art, music, and history, and even with their accounts of race and class, they do not seem to recognize the opportunity STEM fields offer many to improve their economic status while preparing for good, worthy, and needed work that requires more than a high school diploma.

Do the purveyors of the humanities remember that originally their work was in service of the monied elites of the leisured classes–that these courses served as a “gentleman’s finishing school” for young heirs who would become lawyers or inherit the family’s interests, or sometimes for the training of clergy, who needed a broad understanding of the best that humans had thought and written to inform their preaching.

STEM education also offers the opportunity for advance for those whose station in life otherwise does not allow it. And it emphasizes that scientific rigor, mathematical precision, the ability to translate scientific theory into technological innovations that promote human flourishing are equally marks of education along with understanding what the best that has been thought, performed, or written contribute to educating that has as its end learning to live the well-lived life.

There is another issue that actually places the humanities and STEM over and against another form of post-secondary education–training in skilled trades such as carpentry, electricians work, plumbing, and the skills required to maintain and prepare our many machines from computers to cars to the climate control of our buildings. Most of these also involve significant training beyond that of high school but of a different sort than college education. But they have a common end–they prepare people for good work that is both needed and economically beneficial. There is an old saw that says that the society that despises both its philosophers and plumbers is in trouble, because then neither its ideas nor its pipes hold water!

We are tempted to create hierarchies of more or less noble work. Do we consider the work of the electrician who wires a building well as important as that of the electrical engineer designing the latest micro-chip? Do we consider HVAC technicians who configure systems to heat and cool a building efficiently as important as historians who clear away national myths with a more honest rendering based on sources of our national beginnings. Might all these be done Coram Deo, before God, with God-pleasing excellence? For that matter, was not even the orderly’s work in transporting me to a room where I could receive good medical care, offering me a warmed blanket and a friendly voice, noble work. I think so and was struck that all our conversations about educational priorities must keep in mind people like the man who served me so well and wants more for himself and his family. It seems that is a most “human” thing to do.