A Reminiscence and a Mission Statement

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
1

If you missed this column in the NYTimes, you, as a prospective student, current student, parent or alumnus of the University of Chicago will be interested in its statement of one man’s reason for attending the U of C and a perhaps slightly idealized description of what he got from the place. (There’s also a nice picture of kids walking through Hull Gate.)

Education, he holds, isn’t the teaching of a fixed lesson but an "exercise in interrogation… To listen and understand; to treat no proposition as sacred and no objection as impious; to be willing to entertain unpopular ideas and cultivate the habits of an open mind - this is what I was encouraged to do by teachers at the University of Chicago… "

If a kid doesn’t go up to the University with such ideas I surely hope he or she leaves with them.

MODERATOR’S NOTE: Post edited to delete most of long quote (only one or two sentences are allowed to be quoted, by the Terms of Service).

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To me, “read deeply, listen carefully, watch closely” is the essence of college. I’d phrase what follows a little differently. “Ask yourself what are the best arguments an intelligent, well-intentioned critic could make against your position and then rethink your position accordingly.”

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This is what I hope the University does not stray from.

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Sadly, too many other universities have run away from this ideal.