A Harvard state of mind??

A Harvard state of mind??

Torrey Orton

November 17, 2009

When Harvard surfaces back to back in HIGHER EDUCATION (The Australian Nov. 11, 2009 pg. 28-29) I take notice because I worry about any transfer of American 'solutions' to our very different context. Two academics extol the thinking of current Harvard President Dr. Faust as a model for Australian universities (Macquarie and Melbourne).

fantasyWhat they did not do was present the rest of what she said, nor show any awareness of former Dean of Harvard College Harry R. Lewis's Excellence Without a Soul – How a great university forgot education (2006). He says, "In this book I explain how Harvard and our other great universities lost sight of the essential purpose of undergraduate education." I commend it to your readers along with that of former Dean of Yale Law School Professor Anthony Kronman's Education's End – Why our colleges and universities have given up on the meaning of life (2007).

Between the two they give backgrounds to President Faust's call for renewed vision. They are stories of wounded institutions whose hearts have been victims of the great modern mendacities – the equation of education with technique at the service of present powers. Looking at them (Harvard and its peers) as lights on a hill is a fantasy. They are fighting a similar fight to Schwartz and Armstrong, coming off notionally stronger foundations, though perhaps more corrupted.