Gary visits Philip Dearborn’s Podcast to explore the crucial role of faculty in the spiritual lives of students. To listen on Apple, click here. Show Notes: Gary David Stratton, PhD, the Dean of Arts and sciences and Professor of Spiritual…
Lessons From a Decade of Teaching Online
Our college places a high value on relational learning, which is much more natural on a campus where students and teachers get to interact during and after classes. Over the years we’ve found that cultivating these relationships online is possible, but takes great intentionality.
Welcome to Your Hastily Prepared Online College “Remote Learning” Course (Humor)
With the help of our men’s field hockey coach turned online-learning coordinator, I have developed a virtual experience that matches the intimacy and rigor cultivated in my face-to-face class (…or not)!
Prayer in a Time of Pandemic
“Shelter in Place” takes on new meaning in the light of an ancient psalm.
A Bump in Leadership, Ethics (and Pay): Making a Case for an Arts and Sciences Education
Graduates who report that in college they talked with faculty members about nonacademic and academic subjects outside class are nearly twice as likely to have become leaders in their localities or professions.
History isn’t a ‘useless’ major: It teaches critical thinking, something America needs plenty more of
The value of disciplines that prepare students to be critical thinkers escapes any politician who prefers only mindless followers, but one look at your Facebook feed ought to convince you that America needs more critical thinkers, not less.
Strengthening the general ed curriculum requires a change in faculty roles
The daunting goal of a general education curriculum is to inspire students and have them experience the joy of learning in the first weeks of the freshman year…. To accomplish this we must radically change our thinking not only about the roles of faculty who teach general education courses, but also who among our instructors should be assigned to teach these classes.
Degrees of Ignorance: The Gutting of Gen Ed, by Michael W. Clune
There is no reason to unduly limit our students’ horizons. Following your interests does not doom you to a life of poverty and struggle. Today’s students are being deprived of that freedom, and we educators are to blame.
The Intelligence of Emotions: Philosopher Martha Nussbaum on How Storytelling Rewires Us
The stories we tell ourselves about who we are and what we feel shape our emotional and ethical reality, which of course is the great psychological function of literature and the reason why art can function as a form of therapy.
The Illusion of Respectability, by Allen Guelzo
Our mission is simple. And it means death to one of our greatest lusts.
What do Recent Campus Protests Mean? NYT, WSJ, CHE, and IHE Disagree
As anger over race relations leads to rallies, sit-ins and several prominent resignations of administrators, experts consider the messages, the tactics and the backlash. Four opinions.
Are Doomsday Approaches to the Loss of Faith Among Millennials Accurate? by RJS
Headlines scream … Ex-Christians, Young Adults Leaving the Faith, A Generation of Dropouts, Quitting Church, the Rise of the Nones. We are on the verge of a crisis with faith and the faithful in retreat. Could we be the last Christian generation or have we exaggerated a catastrophic problem?