John Ellison, dean of students at the University of Chicago, recently sent letters to incoming freshmen detailing the school’s commitment to academic freedom and inquiry. “Our commitment to academic freedom means that we do not support so-called ‘trigger warnings,’ we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial, and we do not
READ MOREOn the surface, Pokémon Go players appear to be zombified millennials walking aimlessly, eyes fixed on their cellphones. But in reality they are engaging with a new community of young adults who are embracing a healthy, stimulating, and socially beneficial technology. The game, which has become a global sensation, brings out the best in those
READ MOREAs many of you know, our story on the University of Chicago’s recent letter to incoming students has gone viral. In the refreshing letter, Dean of Students Jay Ellison tells incoming freshman that the university does not peddle in the realm of “trigger warnings” and “safe spaces,” and that potentially controversial speakers will not be
READ MOREFailure is like the original sin in the biblical narrative: everyone has it. Regardless of class, caste, race, or gender, we are all born to fail, we practise failure for as long as we live, and pass it on to others. Just like sin, failure can be disgraceful, shameful and embarrassing to admit. And did
READ MOREThere is much consternation, and quite a bit of alarm, at the recent vote of the British people to leave the EU, and the equally astonishing emergence of Donald Trump as the Republican candidate for the US presidency. Early on in these campaigns there was a tendency to mock Trump as a bit of a
READ MOREOver at the blog A Pilgrim in Narnia, Brenton Dickieson has done something kind of cool. He has taken C.S. Lewis’ book An Experiment in Criticism—in which Lewis attempts to answer the question “what makes a great book?”—and listed in chronological order all of the great books that Lewis references. The list serves not only
READ MOREDirector Tyler Perry has a new show that that debuted on TLC last night, but what caught most people’s attention is the color of many cast members. Perry, BET reports, is taking heat for the number of white actors in the show, which is called Tyler Perry’s Too Close to Home. Unfortunately, the show is
READ MOREOddly enough in our hyper-cynical society, there seems to be little questioning about underlying goals of some of the #BlackLivesMatter protests and related on-campus activism. Not to worry, Tom Wolfe did the job, pulling back the curtain for us way back in 1970. That’s probably a good thing since there probably aren’t any authors who
READ MORERecently, Japanese universities started moving away from liberal arts and social sciences, sending global “shivers down academic spines.” The official reason given was a need to focus on disciplines more needed by society. There’s been considerable self-examination about the direction of science at the highest levels, including in recent editorials in top science journal Nature. That’s a good sign: we can’t fix
READ MORE