A Defense of a Liberal Arts Education in the Age of A.I. -

Making the case for a “useless” education

...I think the proof is always in the student. But you also have to recognize that there is an ineliminable element of human freedom in education.

When we talk about teaching and learning, the learning has to come from the student. And a good teacher who has a good pedagogy is always going to be especially attuned to the student and what the student needs and how to draw out of the student the best that that student can achieve.

But you cannot — trust me, any educator will tell you this — you cannot force the student. You can incentivize. We do that through grades and credentials. But ultimately, they have to want that sort of self-cultivation...

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/21/opinion/ai-liberal-arts-education.html?smid=em-share

Watterson’s commencement

"The truth is, most of us discover where we are headed when we arrive." On May 20 1990, Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson delivered his magnificent commencement address about the creative life. https://www.themarginalian.org/2013/05/20/bill-watterson-1990-kenyon-speech/

Our national safety valve

Or it used to be.

Ken Burns’ Baseball, 2d inning

Scott Simon at Parnassus

“Dogs are a very important part…” https://www.threads.com/@nprscottsimon/post/DYXJaSAibyP?xmt=AQG0O2KB81VYNV6qh1QFy6RRHxTU_seFn1kv06FijwxiHKWuPFo4svJhvdkF-kb9JR_fUOwM&slof=1

The Nobel-Winning Psychologist Who Believed He Found the Secret to Happiness

James said it first.

“My father simplified his life in terms of his daily habits,” Katherine wrote, “thus eliminating the need to make little decisions about everything.” By taking the small decisions off his plate, that simplification freed his attention for the people and work that actually mattered to him...

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/12/opinion/decision-making-herbert-simon.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Colbert

Today is the birthday of satirist and TV host Stephen Colbert (books by this author), born in Washington, D.C. (1964). The youngest of 11 kids, Colbert lost his father and two of his brothers in a plane crash when he, Colbert, was 10 years old. He retreated into books and, later, the theater. He wasn’t particularly political until he joined the cast of The Daily Show in 1997. Colbert hosted his own political satire show, The Colbert Report, for more than nine years. He played the part of a conservative pundit on the show, a persona he describes as a “well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot” …in a commencement address to graduates of Knox College, he said: “Don’t be afraid to be a fool. Remember, you cannot be both young and wise. Young people who pretend to be wise to the ways of the world are mostly just cynics. Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it.”

https://www.garrisonkeillor.com/radio/the-writers-almanac-for-wednesday-may-13-2026/

Davy discovers nitrous

“Finally, he arrived at the most propitious of the gases: nitrous oxide. He arrived at it by chance, while experimenting with nitrogen—“ perfectly respirable when pure”—which induced strange effects as soon as it bonded with oxygen. “I made a discovery yesterday which proves how necessary it is to repeat experiments,” he wrote to his closest friend back home on April 10, 1799, then added: This gas raised my pulse upwards of twenty strokes, made me dance about the laboratory as a madman, and has kept my spirits in a glow ever since. The discovery would soon confer upon nitrous oxide the nickname “laughing gas” and upon Davy the status of international celebrity.” — Traversal by Maria Popova https://a.co/09ytBSfg

Teacher Appreciation day

Charles Schulz evidently appreciated his teachers.

Win a victory

It’s the birthday of Horace Mann, born in Franklin, Massachusetts (1796). He was the first great American advocate of public education. He believed that, in a democratic society, education should be free and universal. He was fiercely opposed to slavery, and toward the end of his life, he was the president of Antioch College, a new institution committed to coeducation and equal opportunity for all students, black and white. Two months before he died, he said in a speech to the graduating class: “I beseech you to treasure up in your hearts these my parting words: Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.”

https://www.garrisonkeillor.com/radio/the-writers-almanac-for-monday-may-4-2026/

A real influencer

and her best friend