School of Athens, by Raphael, 1505, Apostolic Palace, Vatican City.

School of Athens, by Raphael, 1505. Apostolic Palace, Vatican City.

Ways of Learning

Volume 1, Number 4 | fall 2008

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A Young Man Being Introduced to the Seven Liberal Arts, by Sandro Botticelli, c. 1484. Louvre Museum, Paris, France.

Preamble

Playing with Fire

By Lewis H. Lapham

The framework of American education holds fast to the ardent but mistaken belief that education is a commodity, the stuff that one pours into empty vessels.

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Saint Jerome in his Study, by Antonello da Messina, c. 1475. National Gallery, London, England.

Academic Virtue

By Stanley Fish

What is the job of higher education and what is it that those who teach in colleges and universities are trained and paid to do?

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Map

The Art of Knowing

Advancements in writing, medicine, mapmaking, and building.

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c. 585 | Chang’an

Polished Gold

There is no reward without effort.More

c. 1854 | Cambridge, MA

Negative Standard

Henry Adams on Harvard College.More

2008 | New Haven

Trimming the Ivy

William Deresiewicz finds a gap in his education.More

Charts & Graphs

Amanuenses Then and Now

Scribal knowledge in Babylon and the United States.

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Black and white image of English philosopher and political theorist John Stuart Mill.

American black militant Eldridge Cleaver.

American journalist A. J. Liebling.

Painting of a young Immanuel Kant.

Photograph of British writer Roald Dahl.

Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon.

—E.M. Forster, 1951

Aristotle & John Locke

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Lapham’sDaily

Roundtable

Connecting Flights

By Nishant Batsha

When Idi Amin forced Indian Ugandans to leave the country fifty years ago, many of the refugees found a new home in Canada. Why? More

DÉjÀ Vu

Dance Stance Revolution

2022:

Brazilian blocos ignore ban on Carnival celebrations.

1576:

Italian plague patients ignore ban on dance parties.

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The World in Time

Olivier Zunz

Lewis H. Lapham speaks with the author of The Man Who Understood Democracy: The Life of Alexis de Tocqueville. More

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