7 Quotes by Michael S. Roth

Education, from Addams' perspective, must not merely make us more adept at defending ourselves against those with different agendas. Education should increase our powers of empathy and our ability to act in concert with others.

Beware of critics of education who cloak their desire to protect privilege (and inequality) in the garb of educational reform.

Liberal education intertwines the philosophical and rhetorical so that we learn how to learn, so that we continue both inquiry and cultural participation throughout our lives because learning has become part of who we are.

A deep commitment to general education is impossible in a context in which faculty and students prize above all their ability to teach and study what they want.

Education, from Addams’ perspective, must not merely make us more adept at defending ourselves against those with different agendas. Education should increase our powers of empathy and our ability to act in concert with others.

Conant was concerned that the “particular functions” that might be assigned to young people would be dictated by the economic conditions of their families, and that over the generations this would result in ever-greater economic inequality. Such inequality would make it increasingly difficult for citizens to believe they had a “joint culture,” and it would make the country more vulnerable to social unrest based on class division.

The university should not be a cloister; it should be a laboratory that creates habits of action through inquiry laced with compassion, memory, and fidelity.