William Deresiewicz on Liberal Education, Citizenship, and the Crisis of the University
On We Made This Political, Prohuman Foundation advisors Lura Forcum and Lauren Hall interview fellow advisor William Deresiewicz about his essay “Colleges, Maybe Try Teaching!” exploring how the decline of liberal education threatens liberal democracy by prioritizing utilitarian training, research, and activism over genuine teaching and citizenship. They discuss the virtues of seminar-style learning and literature in fostering humility, moral complexity, and shared community, while highlighting adult Great Books programs as hopeful alternatives.
DERESIEWICZ: …The language used to be… ‘education for citizenship.’ And now… professors will say… ‘I see my job as creating the next generation of activists.’
So what’s the difference between an activist and a citizen?…
And it seems to me that the essence of the difference is that activism is about ‘us versus them.’ And citizenship is about ‘all of us together.’
It doesn’t mean that there isn’t disagreement…. Of course there is. That’s part of it. It’s just that you recognize each other. You recognize everybody, whether you like them or not, as part of the same political community.
Which, I mean, we are part of the same political community. We are governed by the same government. We are all in this together, whether we like it or not. And I think the activist mentality—and this is true on the right as well—it’s first of all delegitimating, right? The other side is not legitimate. And then also there sort of seems to be this spoken or unspoken belief that somehow you’re going to eventually make the other side disappear.
Jared Armstrong Turned a Basketball Career Setback Into a Business Built on Fighting Hate
For INC, Marc Berman profiles Prohuman Foundation advisor Jared Armstrong, who transformed a career-ending foot injury into JAB Camp, a nonprofit that uses basketball camps, events, and partnerships to unite war-stricken communities and combat hate. Armstrong’s platform has already reached nearly 3,000 children and is expanding with the upcoming $1 million JAB Classic tournament featuring NBA players.
For Armstrong, the goal is to build communities where racism has no place and where every person is treated as an equal. In two years, he says JAB Camp has reached nearly 3,000 children through basketball training, mentorship, leadership development, and educational programming….
Armstrong’s vision extends beyond camps. He is building JAB as an ecosystem with youth programs, professional events, sponsorships, strategic partnerships, facilities, and international expansion. His goal is to build communities—not just facilities.
The Collapse of a Flagship Organization
In RealClearEducation, Prohuman Foundation advisor Erec Smith argues that the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) was rightly de-chartered by its parent organization NCTE after years of self-inflicted decline driven by ideological conformity and a shift away from core rhetorical practices. He contends that the field’s prioritization of activism over argument, persuasion, and open deliberation alienated members and created the conditions for its own collapse.
Colleagues accused me of upholding white supremacy and suffering from a kind of “Stockholm Syndrome,” as though a Black professor dissenting from the approved racial doctrine must have internalized his oppressor. The insult revealed the field’s governing logic. It would be one thing if I had been ostracized for mistreating students or falsifying research. But I was punished for refusing a prescribed racial role. A field that advertised itself as committed to marginalized voices treated a Black scholar’s independent judgment as pathology. Was the hypocrisy lost on them, or was I just not a real Black person. As it turned out, it was the latter. Eventually, I left my professorship and, effectively, the discipline.
Does too much tech in schools threaten ‘productive boredom’?
In an opinion piece for MS NOW, Prohuman Foundation advisor Katherine Brodsky argues that AI and constant digital stimulation are eliminating productive boredom—an essential transitional state that sparks children’s curiosity, imagination, and original thought. She urges schools and society to intentionally restore unstructured idleness and cognitive friction so students can develop the capacity for independent thinking.
Often misunderstood as a passive state, boredom is a transitional state that frequently precedes curiosity, imagination and original thought. Boredom is deeply tied to children developing the ability to think for themselves.
Doomscrolling social media and watching endless short video clips already make a state of boredom harder to reach. But there are still gaps where a child (or adult) can drift into boredom, and from there, imagination.
Join the Prohuman Book Club on August 20 for a conversation with Lerone Martin about his book, Young King: The Making of Martin Luther King Jr.
The book examines the formative experiences, faith, and principles that shaped Martin Luther King Jr.’s youth. We’ll explore how individual conscience and character develop, and the Prohuman Approach to cultivating shared humanity and the foundations of constructive civic leadership.
The plaque that marks the exact spot where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. shared his dream on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial is fading. So is the brotherhood he called America to build.
Both can be renewed.
Help us reach our goal to restore the MLK marker and advance a culture of brotherhood over division.
Opinions expressed in selected articles do not necessarily reflect those of the Prohuman Foundation. We value diverse perspectives that enrich our understanding of topics close to our mission: to promote the foundational truth that we are all unique individuals, united by our shared humanity.