There are so many generous and high-sounding phrases and ambitions in "A Crucible Moment: College Learning & Democracy's Future," the report by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), that to criticize them almost seems bilious and misanthropic. "A Crucible Moment," too, grounds its…

An article by Lois Roman, which appeared in the December 25, 2005 issue of the "Washington Post" under the title "Literacy of College Graduates Is on Decline: Survey's Finding of a Drop in Reading Proficiency Is Inexplicable," gives the results of a study conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. According to the story "Only 31…

Until recent times, it seemed evident that to study another culture successfully, one was obliged to understand it clearly and accurately, exactly as it understood itself, with all its inherent contradictions. Lately that paradigm has changed to an almost exclusive and unquestioning focus on the grievances of the other culture and the oppression…

Higher and lower schools routinely take their cue from luminaries like NYU dean Catherine Stimpson, who famously opined that academic objectivity and intellectual rigor equal "mishmash." As a result, they feed students a diet of bland, uninspired readings. Carol Iannone is thus not surprised at the ensuing hand-wringing when the teaching…