Tag: University
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The end of the university: Udacity’s mounting case
We’ve been considering the case of Udacity, the larger case that it is mounting. In my mind’s eye, I’ve been imagining a bee hive cracked into, with bees and flowers and unimaginable things fluttering out. Now, any serious threat to the status quo may do more than show that it presents a novel solution. More importantly,…
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Reflections on the past 2 years of post-academic life
It had been almost two years since I’d re-read my paper, “Whither Moral Education?,” and what struck me only yesterday was the tone. The style of the piece caught my ear like a thief in the night. I could hear, as I hadn’t been able to before, a tinny shrillness, a crankiness, a forlornness. What…
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New universities for these unsettled times?
Unsettled Times We are living through unsettled times. Old ideas of education are no longer working; new ideas have yet to take hold. In the interregnum, we must think seriously in hopes of building new institutions aimed at fulfilling our basic needs and our higher ends. Weekend Events Later today, I’m heading to The Mycelium…
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On the other side of radical education lies wisdom: An exhortation; or, on the question whether really free is really good
As I review the list of alternative higher education schools, I’m struck almost immediately by their shared ethos of anarchism. They begin with a rejection of the status quo and then level their critique at the corporatization of the modern research university. They say that the university is the institution of elitism, the perpetuation of privilege,…
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Alasdair MacIntyre on the very idea of the university
Alasdair MacIntyre, “The Very Idea of a University: Aristotle, Newman, and Us,” British Journal of Educational Studies 57.4 (December 2009), 347-362. The following are notes taken on MacIntyre’s essay. I’ve sought to make my notes intelligible and worth your time. MacIntyre’s essay is worth reading in its own right as it casts an unfavorable light…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 