Truly Special
By Chuck Colson
Education and Character
Last September, Dartmouth's student body president, Noah Riner, delivered a convocation speech to this year's freshman class. When he was through, he had ignited a much-needed debate on what it means to be truly educated.
Riner spoke about the importance of character. He told incoming freshmen something that they had probably already heard from others: They were "the smartest and most diverse group of freshmen [ever] to set foot on the Dartmouth campus."
Then Riner told them something they probably hadn't heard: Without character, none of these qualities matters. He quoted Martin Luther King, Jr., who once said, "Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education." He cited examples of Dartmouth grads who had done terrible things, not because they were stupid or incompetent, but because they lacked character.
Then, as an example of character, Riner, the son of a Baptist minister, cited—who else?—Jesus. As he told his audience, "the problem is me; the solution is God's love: Jesus on the cross, for us."
As you can well imagine, Riner's use of Jesus didn't go over too well. One student said he was "appalled and disappointed" at Riner's actions. Others added that Jesus himself would have disapproved of Riner's invoking Him at the convocation.
Jesus was the offense, but as one student noted, had Riner instead "espoused the virtues of Muhammad, Buddha, or any other religious figure, he would be applauded."
Most of the controversy in the press has centered on the question of religious discrimination. That is unfortunate in a way because it detracts from what Riner considered to be his main point: the neglect of character in higher education. This is a big issue.
Can anyone seriously doubt that our colleges and universities are neglecting and even undermining character? Take the example of Bates College in Maine. In Maine, as in the rest of the country, drug use and underage drinking is illegal. Yet in spite of the school's stated policies, a young friend at this prestigious liberal arts college requested to live in what the school calls a "chemical-free" dorm to avoid the drugs and alcohol.
And Bates is not unique. Most colleges and universities have given up trying to regulate student morals. Even more than that, what the Weekly Standard calls the "Left University" promotes and embodies the "cultural radicalism of the 1960s." This radicalism values "alternative lifestyles" to the point of denying the existence of norms. It emphasizes personal autonomy to the point of viewing any limits as "oppression" and "tyranny."
Well, no wonder, then, that the word character makes the folks at Dartmouth and elsewhere nervous. American colleges and universities today cannot educate for character because they have abandoned the necessary values and standards. And they have abandoned the long, rich tradition of the university, which has historically been, first, to develop character, and second, to promote learning.
Instead they are doing what Teddy Roosevelt called the most dangerous thing you can do: giving people the power of an education with nothing to keep them from putting that power to evil use. By pointing this out, Riner has done us a great service, forcing a debate on the purpose of higher education. It's long overdue.
For Further Reading and Information
Today’s BreakPoint offer: Get the college student you know the BreakPoint College Survival Kit for Students, packed with books and other resources to help them defend a biblical worldview in the classroom and face the moral challenges they will encounter on campus. (For alternative kit options, call 1-877-322-5527.)
Learn about national campus ministries available at your university or college by visiting College Walk's website.
Read the full text of Noah Riner's speech.
James Piereson, "The Left University," Weekly Standard, 3 October 2005.
Mark Bergin, "Convocation Conviction," World, 8 October 2005.
William F. Buckley Jr., "Church/State at Dartmouth," National Review Online, 27 September 2005.
Albert Mohler, "Division at Dartmouth -- A Christian Speaks His Mind," Crosswalk.com, 7 October 2005.
Katie Silberman, "Riner Discusses Convocation Speech on National Radio," The Dartmouth, 10 October 2005.
Stefan Beck, "'God Fearing' Dartmouth," National Review Online, 27 September 2005.
Doug Lederman, "Free Speech at Dartmouth," Inside Higher Ed, 29 September 2005.
Kenneth G. Elzinga, "Christian Academe vs. Christians in Academe," Inside Higher Ed, 30 September 2005.
Ken Myers, "The Idea of the University," BreakPoint WorldView, April 2004.
"Discovering Truth in the Great Books" (CD) -- BreakPoint Managing Editor Jim Tonkowich speaks with Dr. Thomas Dillon, president of Thomas Aquinas College about the value of a classical liberal arts education.
David S. Dockery, Ph.D., "Integrating Faith and Learning in Higher Education," speech delivered September 20, 2000.
Arthur F. Holmes, Ph.D., "Wanted: Christian Scholars!" BreakPoint WorldView, July/August 2003.
T. M. Moore, "A Faculty of Fools," BreakPoint WorldView, October 2002.
BreakPoint Commentary No. 051108, “Intelligence Plus Character: The Importance of Classical Christian Education.”
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Copyright (c) 2006 Prison Fellowship
About BreakPoint:
BreakPoint is a program of The Wilberforce Forum, a division of Prison Fellowship. Our mission is to develop and communicate Christian worldview messages that offer a critique of contemporary culture and encourage and equip the church to think and live Christianly. BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today’s news and trends via radio, interactive media, and print. Chuck Colson’s daily BreakPoint commentary airs each weekday on over one thousand outlets with an estimated listening audience of one million people. The BreakPoint website and BreakPoint WorldView Magazine feature Colson’s commentaries as well as feature articles by other established and up-and-coming writers to equip readers with a biblical perspective on a variety of issues and topics.
Feel free to contact us or check out our help section, where you can read and search answers to common questions.