A dirth of virtue

Last week I read an interesting article written by Eastern Carolina University John Stevens in defense of a Great Books education. He says in part:

One ancient argument suggested that if virtue were easy and pleasant, everyone would be virtuous. Virtue is something that requires effort both to understand and to begin to desire. Moral education seems to come about better from books that require active attention, close comparison of patterns of action, and repeated application of critical judgment; that is, engaged reading and re-reading.

The whole story of his faculty wars to include works by dead white males is interesting and encouraging. You can read it here.

This whole idea of the tough work of cultivating virtue has been on my mind lately. I just listened to a fascinating interview on attentiveness in our wired and cyber-driven society on Mars Hill Audio. I wonder if we take seriously our amazing power as educators (both parents and teachers) to instill and call our students to virtue?

Andrew Kern had a challenging short blog post, also last week, where he says in part:

The only thing more dangerous than real education is the illusion of education - to be falsely educated.

Please take a minute to read the whole thing. If we are not educating our students in the real, eternal things, we are leading them astray. It is a healthy challenge in these days of economic and moral crises to step aside from the sound bites and ponder things at a deeper level. The dirth of virtue in our culture is obvious: its remedy is less so.