05/27/2026
"I visited [UT Austin's] School of Civic Leadership. It offers courses like “Excellence of Character: The Virtues,” “Great Thinkers in Realism and Geopolitics,” and “Truth and Persuasion.” I met faculty who had left other universities from across the country to do the sort of teaching that had inspired them to go into the profession in the first place. I was impressed by how hard they were trying to prevent this program from becoming a conservative ghetto. The students I met were all over the political map. They said they got involved in the program because they wanted to find a space on campus where they can argue things out. Some of them came from Classical Christian schools where they’ve been debating Aristotle since they were 11, and others came from normal public high schools where they had never heard of Aristotle, but they were mixing it up together now. One freshman told me, “This week alone two separate professors accused me of being a Neoplatonist.” I don’t know exactly what they meant by that, but it sounds like he’s getting a good education."
"Something Big is Happening on Campus," writes David Brooks, in a major new The Atlantic Monthly essay. In it, he explores the revival of civic and humanistic education across the country and argues that students are hungry for serious engagement with the "Great Conversation--the debate, stretching back centuries" about meaning, citizenship, character formation, and living a good life.
Read the essay here:
There’s a lot going right at universities, if you’re only willing to see it.
!["I visited [UT Austin's] School of Civic Leadership. It offers courses like “Excellence of Character: The Virtues,” “Gre...](https://img5.glunis.com/452/308/122203164404523082.jpg)
