This is the epilogue to a four-part series on the Death and Evolution of Education, which seeks to explain why we cannot rely upon the university to provide the intellectual formation necessary for the common good, but must “evolve” a new approach to learning. Part I: Introduction can be found here, Part II: The Hostile Environment here, Part III: Maladapted Universities here, and Part IV: Evolution of Higher Education here. Subscribers to our Logos Lyceum Newsletter will receive a revised edition of the whole series in PDF.
I wrote these words, of course, as the founder of an institution attempting to do just this. I am—thankfully—not the only one in the world making such an effort. I am beyond fortunate to have found nearly a dozen a faculty willing to aid the Lyceum’s specific purpose and to help build it as an alternative institution. So too, I am fortunate to know good people fighting to realize similar aims with the Albertus Magnus Institute and the Catherine Project. We may differ on many points of philosophy and pedagogy—but we agree in what perhaps is the main point of dispute in the world today: the importance of truth.
So too, I know many an independent academic—rejected by the academy, or having spurned what it has become—who strive nonetheless to put their talents and gifts to fruitful venture. Together, in these pursuits, we can break learning out of its artificial modern constraints. We can build something better.
At the center of the effort for any new institution must be a proper understanding of the human person. Such understanding has long been lost. It is for this reason we put the personal relationship of community so central in the Lyceum’s praxis. The thinking exhibited in words must be restored to a sense of the person—not to abstract ideas, but to the living human being. It is thus that we can best re-unite intellectual understanding and perception. Through such a unified cognitive vision, we see the proper scale, structure, and size of our institutions—and thus we can build a society that again allows the human mind to thrive.
Thank you for reading. If you support the work of the Lyceum Institute, donate to our Endowment Fund and help us build the future of education.
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