Education's End: Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life

by Anthony T. Kronman

Book Overview

A passionate call for our colleges and universities to prepare young people for lives of fulfillment not just successful careers The question of what living is for--of what one should care about and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300143141
• ISBN13: 9780300143140
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Education's End - Putting the Big Rocks in First

While reading Education's End, I was reminded of a story (frequently attributed to Steven Covey) involving a one-gallon, wide-mouthed Mason jar set on a table, about a dozen fist-sized rocks, a bucket of gravel, a bucket of sand, and a pitcher of water. The speaker carefully places the rocks, one at a time, into the jar. When the jar is filled to the top and no more rocks will fit inside, he asks, "Is this jar full?" Usually, an audience says yes, but then the speaker successively adds buckets of gravel, sand, and water, each time impressing upon his audience the jar is not full. Finally, he explains the lesson from the demonstration: if you don't put in the big rocks first, you'll never fit them in. Education's End by Anthony Kronman, former Dean of Yale Law School, is an excellent analysis--I highly recommend it--of a critical issue that affects the framework of American society. A thoughtfully planned and carefully balanced argument about the role of the humanities in education, Education's End exposes the current shortcomings in higher education. For Kronman, the big rocks--the things of value--in education are the questions: What is the meaning of life? How should we spend our time? How can we succeed in the art of living? For much of our history U.S. education included the big rocks; they were part of a college education. Today, this is no longer true. Kronman reviews what he believes to be an unfortunate path traveled by higher education in the U.S., breaking down the regrettable history into three eras. First, during the antebellum era beginning with the opening of Harvard University, there was a focus on God, a Christian perspective, and an emphasis on "the ancient model of virtue and order." Second, during the era of secular humanism following the Civil War, there was a focus on family and country, and an emphasis on "modern ideas of individuality and creative freedom." And third, during our modern era, there is a focus on political correctness and the research ideal. The research ideal places an emphasis on research that restricts scholarship to a narrow field of specialization, and it requires publishing something new with the understanding that any contribution will be superseded. Chapter 3 (The Research Ideal) is excellent, but Kronman is really just beginning his critique. In Chapter 4 (Political Correctness), he skillfully, but tactfully, slays the three-headed monster of modern political correctness: diversity, multiculturalism, and constructivism (post modernism). After explaining why the natural and social sciences are better able to survive in the current environment, he peels away the layers of misguided intentions that appear to support political correctness exposing the problems for the humanities. For example, discussing why multiculturalism is unacceptable, he explains how "an internal dialogue" carried on by each succeeding generation of thinkers and authors throughout western history offered a unique teaching op

A void for filling

Kronman writes a compelling argument as to why college humanities and traditional liberal arts programs should provide the necessary spiritual and moral direction for our maturing youth. The reader should expect his argument to be compelling, he was the Dean of the Yale Law School and he teaches the Directed Studies Program at Yale. The book is compelling and captivating. Most people would struggle with a book so focused on such a seemingly esoteric subject. But Kronman's subject is is compelling and while lengthy - his arguments are almost alarmist in tone. The reading flows rapidly along throughout most of the book! Kronman takes on political correctness, constructivism, and religious fundamentalism (American grown as well as the Islamic brand), and warns us of the potential for threats to our culture and a more subtly, to civilization. While I don't question the validity of his arguments, I do question of the relevance of some of his points. He is advocating sandbagging, but the river is already out of its banks. He argues we could contain the crest of the flood despite the flooding today. (My simple and inelegant metaphor - not his). His history and tracing of the evolution in collegiate philosophy and development are accurate and insightful. His assesment of the vacuum in spiritual teaching and direction on America's college campuses is on point and certain to irritate humanities professors across the nation (as well as evangelicals and a few priests). He avoided political connections that could be made,the facist nation state and Nazi Germany - but the connections are there for anyone with familiarity in German or European history. The book is topical, virile,and provoking. Humanities departments would be well served to devise a study of the book and include it in their course offerings! But make no mistake, it is more exciting than any college course book. It is worthy of your time and consumption ant any age.

A MUST READ FOR PROSPECTIVE GRADUATE STUDENTS

This book is a must read for anyone that is contemplating graduate school in one of the social sciences or humanities. Professor Kronman objectively explains the emphasis on the so-called "research model" that sometimes seems to be more interersted in statistics for their own sake rather than reasonaed substance.

* * * 1/2, Excellent argument, blandly written

Kronman's book is very much needed in today's culturally- and spiritually-bereft age. He advances the argument that higher education has largely become a technical finishing school, where students are groomed for careers in their chosen profession like gears in a machine. Meanwhile their spiritual and emotional needs go un- or undernourished and the only forces that have moved in to take the place are science, to which many of the more educated types have a blind allegiance, and religious fundamentalism, which requires blind allegiance and a relinquishment of independent thought. Kronman advocates the humanities as they used to be taught, before the influx of 60s and post-60s revisionism and PC-curricula, as the answer. Furthermore, rather than apologizing for endorsing the allegedly "rigid, Eurocentric thinking" of Dead White Males, he demonstrates how the curricula of their works is actually more open and tolerant than much of the PC code of the last 30 years or so. It's a well-crafted argument, although of course he tends to idealize his side of the debate while showing us the worst of the PC side. Kronman traces the route of higher education in America from the founding of the earliest colleges and universities to post-civil war instruction to the 60s revolution that ousted most of what came before it. The problem is that the deconstructionists, after they were finished deconstructing, didn't offer anything in place of what they had dismantled, at least beyond the hazy philosophy of cultural relativism and a reluctance to evaluate *anything* qualitatively. (Everything is equally good and equally valid; where you come down is merely a matter of taste and personal cultural prejudices.) We've heard this before. But then Kronman offers an ingenious insight and twist: the humanities, already under pressure in the post World War II rising tide of science and specialization--quantification and analysis--felt insecure and was already headed in the direction of measurement and other "objected" criteria. It felt uncomfortable making moral or ethical judgments. In order to save its own relevance and compete in the burgeoning environment of the social and natural sciences, it was adopting their modes of quantification and "objective" observation. If humanities couldn't tell you the meaning of life, in other words, it could at least measure aspects of life and report on them. That way it too would seem more like a scientific discipline and less like pie-in-the-sky thought. Thus it fell over when the multicultural attacks began. Humanities professors felt almost embarrassed to defend the subjective assertions of Socrates, Aristotle, Kant, Goethe, et al, in the midst of accusations that they were just artificial constructs created to allow certain groups to remain in a state of cultural ascendancy. Thus, in the last 30 or so years, religion and all sorts of "spiritual" movements have moved in to fill the emotional void left by the shrinking

Not giving up on the meaning of life

The responsibility for teaching about the meaning of life has fallen on the shoulders of the Humanities as a result of the scientific bent (modern research ideal) and specialization of modern higher education. But most humanists have lost a sense of authority and teach instead that each person's point of view is as good as another. Political correctness has weakened moral authority further since the 60s (politically attractive but intellectually ruinous ideas). This leaves the wider culture with no organized alternative to religious fundamentalism to answer the question of the meaning of life.