The Liberal Arts During Bondage: Part Two; How Do the Liberal Arts Help Us During Bondage?
Click Here to Read Part One Bringing You Up To Speed If you will recall from part one, for the past twenty years, we have taught that America was somewhere on the “pre-bondage” side of the cycle, between Selfishness and Dependence. As we enter 2013, we have clearly entered the Bondage phase. Just consider […]
If It Saves Just One Life
I was shocked, dismayed, and like you I personally grieved for the families who lost children at the Newtown, Connecticut shooting just two month ago. What a severe act of violence. Who can make sense of 27 senseless deaths? It will indeed be a black mark on American history. And as much as I try […]
The Study of the Liberal Arts: A Search For Self
The full spectrum of human nature cannot be taught–it must be discovered. But it is virtually impossible to discover in the modern world of computer games, social media, and texting. Seldom do we see anything but the worst of human nature in the world of politics or in the mansions of materialism or the ivory […]
The Fat Lady Begins To Sing
And so it begins… The most recent national election declared the passion of the American people for the Nanny State. Of the almost 127 million voters, a majority preferred a governing system that favors high taxes, a saturated welfare system, forced health care, and an abundance of government dependent workers. Apparently we have learned nothing […]
The Liberal Arts During Bondage: Part One
[This series of posts are a continuation of the blog posted on January 1, 2013 at Shanonbrooks.com entitled Job Training Versus Character Education] What does bondage look like? One attribute of human nature is that we tend to acclimate over time to whatever condition we are experiencing. We get used to the hot or cold […]
The Human Spirit
In spite of the fact that we live in a world dominated by the extreme credentialism, government regulation and oversight, and aristocratic hierarchy prophesied by Alexis de Tocqueville, Americans are still capable of pushing through the social and political miasma that bogs down our society and shine their individual brilliance on a nearly comatose nation. […]
Job Training Versus Character Education
Modern higher education has become proficient at convincing the American public that to earn a good living, one must hold a college/university degree. While some jobs/careers do require specialized training, the scheme of requiring a degree in most cases, is more a function of credentialism and jumping through hoops than actual job preparation. Just ask […]
Five Rules for Building Leaders
Mentors In a true liberal arts environment, the mentor serves one primary purpose–a model for emulation. Mentors in the liberal arts may lecture and critique and lead students to become better writers, they may ask penetrating questions and cause deep reflection, introduce students to distant lands and peculiar customs, pose problems to solve and demand […]
Funding Is Half Way There
Last month we sent out an email (The Right Idea At The Right Time) comparing the beginnings of Monticello College to other now well-known colleges and universities. We showed you the simple solution used by many institutions of higher learning centuries ago and how it stabilized those schools to become the great educational pillars they […]
A Renaissance in Social Leadership
I actually wrote and posted this article in 2009, but I felt that it was a good time to take another look. In Lee Iacocca’s book Where Have All the Leaders Gone?, he strikes a poignant cord—with all of these problems we are facing, where is the outrage? And now that he mentions it, […]