My mom was working in her garden the other day when a car pulled up and a man stepped out. A frequent visitor to the neighboring house, this man was no stranger to my mom, particularly because he often made unexpected comments in passing.

This time was no different.

“Harvard forever,” he said as he went by.

“I didn’t say anything,” my mom wearily told me later, figuring his comment was some type of political commentary on the ongoing controversy between the Trump administration and one of America’s most prestigious universities.

His statement is certainly a nice sentiment – and as someone who is a sucker for nostalgia, I tend to hate seeing historical institutions like Harvard disappear, too. But should we really want places like Harvard – or other higher education venues – to continue forever if they’re no longer advancing the true purpose of education?

That question naturally leads us to ask what the purpose of education is, particularly at the university level. Many believe the answer to that question is to fill students’ minds with facts and figures, cultural commentator and author Bernard Iddings Bell wrote in the mid-20th century. But in Bell’s mind, “The true business of a university is to see to it that men and women learn to give primary consideration to how to feed the extra-animal hungers,” which he labels as “the hunger for meaning, the hunger for love, [and] the hunger for creative craftsmanship.”

“By feeding these hungers—or trying his best to do so—man can arrive at life of a sort that makes sense,” Bell continues.

The Hunger for Meaning

Satisfying the hunger for meaning means students must learn how to ask “Why?” Bell explains. It also means that they pursue the “meaning of the universe or the meaning of man,” seeking truth and asking questions in order to mature. In essence, such ponderings boil down to the question of origins – where man came from and what his purpose is in life – questions which many today associate with God and what He requires of man, a topic taboo at many universities today.

Ironically, this quest for meaning was something hinted at in Harvard’s Charter of 1650. Harvard was founded to promote “the advancement of all good literature arts and sciences … that may conduce to the education of the English and Indian youth of this country in knowledge and godliness.” [Emphasis added.] Given some of the behavior out of Harvard in recent years – some of which has led to the current rescinding of government monies – it seems questionable whether the pursuit of godliness and knowledge of the truth is still pursued at this institution … or at many others like it.

The Hunger for Love

The hunger for love goes “far beyond mere glandular stimulation,” Bell explains. In other words, the true love for which we must teach our students to hunger is not sexually motivated, but rather, unconditional, the type of love in which “the strong pours himself out for the weak; the wise for the foolish; the good for the wicked.”

That type of love seems to be opposite of that pursued in recent years on many college campuses, particularly given the penchant for running every academic subject through the DEI lens, as well as the hatred which seems present in the many campus demonstrations against those of various ethnic backgrounds.

The Hunger for Creative Craftsmanship

“The university almost completely ignores the importance of this hunger,” Bell writes. “It provides its students with some opportunity to master other men’s experiments but with little opportunity to create. They make nothing much, not even their own fires. Their very amusements are purchased ready-made.”

When schools fail to teach students to do something useful with their minds and bodies, creating beautiful things, Bell says, they deprive the next generation of a joy-filled life, empowered to “do his or her own creating and to do it as beautifully as possible.”

This observation is rather ironic considering President Trump’s recent suggestion that government money be redirected from Harvard and into trade schools instead. Although many of us would likely dismiss this suggestion as just another humorous Trumpian bluster, might he have a valid point? Would our students experience more joy and purpose in life if, instead of having their brains stuffed full of Marxian ideologies, they learned to think creatively, then act upon that creative thinking?

With the rise of AI technology, many are predicting that life as we know it will rapidly change in the next few years. Given this potentially massive change, perhaps it’s time we redirect our students’ education to its deeper purpose, helping them find meaning, love, and creative outlets for true labor. Doing so may not only restore their joy in life … it may also retain their sanity in an uncertain future.

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The republication of this article is made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal. 

Image Credit: Picryl