I know what's missing from college education | Opinion
By failing to prioritize the formation of virtue, we have inadvertently cultivated a climate where the presence of a dissenting opinion is viewed as a threat rather than an opportunity for growth.
Benjamin Franklin said, “Only a virtuous people is capable of freedom.”
If he was right, then it is imperative for any free society ‒ if it is to remain free ‒ to educate its people in virtue.
This was the exact purpose of some of the places that formed the earliest foundations of the academy, the schools of ancient Athens. The Athenians' understanding of education consisted of something deeper than mere knowledge acquisition or career preparedness. It was "paideia" ‒ the formation of virtuous citizens.
Nearly every institution of American higher education was founded with this same goal in mind. Somewhere along the way, many in higher education drifted off the path.
Colleges have strayed from their core mission
In his prophetic work of educational philosophy, "The Abolition of Man," C.S. Lewis details this loss of virtue education in the educational institutions of the West. In moving from being places seeking to raise up human beings of wisdom and virtue to being places that exist merely for the disconnected pursuit of knowledge, Lewis argues, we create “men without chests."
That is, we risk churning out students with plenty of brains but no heart, who may have acquired knowledge or have been prepared for monetary success, but who are unprepared to defend truth against falsehood, unable to discern beauty from ugliness, or unwilling to risk anything in defense of goodness.
The results of such an educational drift in society are disastrous.
Today, it has manifested in the fractured campus culture we see all around us. In our current landscape, we have too often replaced the fearless pursuit of truth with the comfort of echo chambers.
By failing to prioritize the formation of virtue, we have inadvertently cultivated a climate where the presence of a dissenting opinion is viewed as a threat rather than an opportunity for growth. We’ve moved away from constructive dialogue toward performative outrage, where the goal is to "win" a confrontation rather than understand a neighbor.
Virtue must be the foundation of what universities teach
Many college graduates lack historical and constitutional literacy, which leaves them unable to defend the very freedoms that allow their education to exist.
Curricula are stripped of the moral and ethical frameworks required to build courage and empathy, yet society still demands that our graduates lead with those very traits. We expect the "fruit" of a flourishing society ‒ stability, innovation and unity ‒ while neglecting the "roots" of civic virtue that nourish them.
If the American experiment is to flourish in the coming generations, our diagnosis must be honest: Education has too often been hollowed out to make room for technical skill.
Something has to change.
We must return to a paradigm of education that cultivates the virtues our society so desperately needs. We must reclaim our higher purpose, which is to develop men and women of value and virtue who, in turn, infuse value and virtue into their families, communities, countries and world.
To accomplish this, colleges should form academic communities that promote viewpoint diversity, safeguard academic freedom and nourish intellectual curiosity. Students and faculty must be encouraged to question assumptions and engage in constructive dialogue about competing viewpoints.
Scholarly research is strengthened by multiple perspectives, without undue influence or censorship in service of the then-prevailing viewpoint. Truth is best found in robust conversation with others, with the wisest voices of both past and present.
“Tradition,” G.K. Chesterton reminds us, “is the democracy of the dead.”
Higher education is key to preserving democracy
Colleges should take an active role in nurturing students’ appreciation for foundational American values, including freedom of religion, freedom of speech and a free press. Students should grow in their understanding of these fundamental rights, the stories of the (admittedly flawed) heroes who secured and defended those rights and their own responsibility to preserve these freedoms for future generations.
If taught to and embraced by students in our colleges, these values will be embedded in our communities and will strengthen the democratic process for generations to come.
Most of all, we as institutions of higher education must boldly and unashamedly reclaim our greater purpose, our most fundamental reason for existing: the cultivation of virtue in our students. We must teach them integrity, humility and courage ‒ traits that they will learn more thoroughly from our actions than merely from our words.
As we do, I am confident we will provide an invaluable, transformational experience for students, rebuild the trust of the next generation and regain our position among institutions that most effectively contribute to a flourishing society.
As would-be President Ronald Reagan proclaimed on our Pepperdine campus in 1970, universities must not lose "sight of our primary purpose.” We must realize that we will not be judged, ultimately, by mere dollars in endowments or by knowledge acquired, but by the true “end product of our educational effort” ‒ “the quality of the young men and women that we send out into the world.”
They will know us by our fruit.
Jim Gash is president of Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.