A College Degree in Mud
Why are college students becoming dumber in America?[1] Perhaps Orson Wells was correct predicting that colleges would one day teach anything, including a degree in mud pies.
The answer is well-documented:[2] long-term decline in IQ scores, verbal competence, the ability to emotionally cope, social skills, and overall maturity are diminishing. But it was not always this way. During the 20th century the Flynn Effect[3] recorded long-term IQ levels showing an increase in intelligence and life-skills. However, during the first two decades of the 21st century the evidence is now pointing the other way as a reverse of the Flynn Effect. In short, the gains of the 20th century are now being lost in the 21st.[4]
What is causing this decline?
The answer, of course, is complex and multi-faceted, and with the same bare-faced honesty, a single blog cannot comprehensively answer the question. However, there is something that could explain the overall pattern of decline towards dumbness. Let me take you to the frontispiece of Denis Diderot’s Encyclopédie[5] from the 18th century. For the sake of clarity, I’ve embedded this insightful piece into the blog so you can see what I’m referring to.
Beneath the iconic temple is the central figure called Truth enveloped in a veil inviting descending figurines to discover her naked truth, or more to the point, revealed through key educational subjects. Truth gloriously radiates light to all the other figurines, and at the same time, disperses shading clouds above.
First, look to the right of Truth.
Reason tears at her veil with Philosophy attempting to lift it off to discover the mysteries beneath. On her knees between Reason and Philosophy is Theology allowing the light of Truth to shine on the Word of God. For her, Truth’s light makes the Scripture a living Word. Further down is Memory and next to her is History offering two symbols representing ancient and modern accounts. Below History is Geometry, Physics, Astronomy, and below them Optics, Botany, Chemistry, and Biology. There is one commonality between all these subjects, they all draw their substance from Truth directly through Reason and Philosophy as the two key disciplines that significantly contribute to a worldview. Let’s not forget Theology sitting between Philosophy and Reason. I shall come back to Theology shortly.
Now, look to the left of Truth.
Unlike the figurines of Philosophy and Reason, Imagination does not attempt any tearing or lifting of Truth’s veil. Instead, she adorns Truth with a crowning wreath. Beneath Imagination are the various genres of literature: Epic, Drama, Pastoral, and Satire. Below them are the artistic ways of Music, Architecture, Engraving, Sculpture, and Painting. The commonality between all the subjects is that they, too, draw their substance from Truth through Imagination as the singular discipline that shapes a creative discipline. Again, Theology is somewhere in the middle.
Whether you follow the elegant figurines to the right or the left of Truth, at the bottom is the world of men practicing their Arts and Professions informed by the educational subjects represented by the figurines. How ironic for today, when Encyclopédie was first published the artist chose figurines when the historical world of Diderot thought that educating women was simply not proper. But I digress.
Keep this overall artistic rendering of Truth and the descending disciplines at the forefront of your mind as you continue to read. Now, circle back with me to the question of why American students are progressively dumber.
The Problem in higher education today is how Truth is revealed to us. Are we philosophically tearing at her veil, trying to peek under her covering with demanding reason, or uncritically crowning her with Imagination? Whatever the approach, what we perceive as Truth informs what students believe to be true in a descending affect.
The starting point for education, then, is not Philosophy, Reason, or Imagination but Truth itself, hence all the tearing, lifting, and crowning. If we get this starting point wrong, to coin a popular phrase, the lunatics will run the asylum.[6] Indeed, within the colleges, universities, and even seminaries, educational lunacy is all too common today.
So, what is meant by Truth?
This is not a redundant question or one that tries to split hairs. It is a profound question. For example, in the Passion[7] narrative, Pontius Pilate[8] asked Christ this very same question after listening to Him say, “For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world – to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.’ Pilate said to him, ‘What is truth?’” (John 18:37-38).
Christ was not discussing Philosophy, Reason, Imagination, or any of the descending subjects. He was explaining a greater and primary reality. N. T. Wright best explains it, “Jesus was, in fact, speaking and bringing the truth. Truth isn’t something that you get out of a test tube, or a math formula. We don’t have truth in our pockets. Philosophers and judges don’t own it. It is a gift, a strange quality that, like Jesus’ kingdom in fact, comes from elsewhere but is meant to take up residency in this world. Jesus has come to give evidence of this truth. He is himself the truth.”[9]
What Christ meant by Truth goes much deeper that a mere definition. Truth cannot be separated from the One who brings us Truth. They are one and the same thing. Christ frequently spoke about Truth especially in the Gospel of John, but He did not present it as an abstract – something that stands alone and unconnected. Each time he talked about it, Truth was in relation to God revealing His Kingdom through Christ. This is why He could personify Truth saying, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Again, Truth and the One who brings Truth cannot be separated, they are the same.
Christ was sent to be the example of Truth for the whole of creation. So, when we know Christ, we experience a greater reality than visible creation. In fact, Scripture tells us that all creation bears witness to Christ as the greater reality.[10] Realizing we can know Truth – know Christ – a radical and transformational freedom occurs in our lives.
Christ said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32). So, even if we believe in Christ and accept his teachings, we must hold to those teachings by practicing them. In this greater reality, we are truly free.
Go back to Diderot’s frontispiece in Encyclopédie and look again at the first and central figurine called Truth. The veiled image represents Christ as a primary reality for all other educational subjects.[11]
Now we can get to the ‘so what’ of this blog.
Once upon a time, higher education in America rested upon the foundation of Truth. As such, institutions emphasized a worldview shaped by Truth. For example, Harvard University was established on a particular worldview in 1636, written down in 1642, “Everyone shall consider as the main end of his life and studies, to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life.” Harvard’s motto from 1650 was In Christi Gloriam (For the glory of Christ).
In fact, almost all Ivy League institutions in the US had similar beginnings. Yale University was established by Connecticut Congregationalists; Princeton University by Presbyterians; Brown University by devout Rhode Island Baptists; and Dartmouth University by mission-minded New Hampshire evangelicals. Even the endowment of Duke University of 1924 included a clear mission statement: “The aims of Duke University are to assert a faith in the eternal union of knowledge and religion set forth in the teachings and character of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
These schools agreed on the authority of the Word of God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the need for a Christian influence in society. They promoted a broad sense of calling and service to train some for the work of Clergy and others for careers in law, medicine, business, and education itself. Americans held a common view that true education rested upon a biblical foundation and Christian principles, or in simpler terms, Christ the Truth of a primary and greater reality.
Overall, one could say the majority of Ivy league institutions in the US were Christian in character. That is until they became committed to liberalism, secularism, humanism, and statism, where cultural elites grew hostile to Christianity. Today, these elites argue that faith-based institutions are antithetical to the spirit of American education, racist, patriarchal, homophobic, and rife with white privilege. Such a statement sheds light on why American students are getting dumber.
Look again at Diderot’s frontispiece.
Theology sits below Truth and between Imagination to her left and Philosophy and Reason to her right. She has not moved despite the tearing and pulling of Truth’s veil or the naiveness of crowning Truth with Imagination without critical thinking. Theology continues to look for the light of Truth as something foundational. Whether a student feels a sense of vocation or calling to a particular field of expertise, the question of “What is Truth” needs answering to build a career with the skills of Geometry, Physics, Astronomy, Optics, Botany, Chemistry, Biology; the literacy skills of Epic, Drama, Pastoral, and Satire; and the creative skills of Music, Architecture, Engraving, Sculpture, and Painting.[12]
Is there really a need for Theology in these choices? Yes, because we Philosophically move from “I think, therefore I am”[13] to “Made in the image and likeness of God”[14] developing the characteristic of reverence. We Reason that the meaning to life is in Him who is Life[15] where awe is added to reverence. We realize that Imagination is a necessary complement to ‘what comes to mind’ as we gaze at the blank canvas, score sheet, or uncut stone where humility is added to reverence and awe.
Get this right, and we may have students graduating higher education in America who are smart and humble, knowledgeable yet always eager to learn, accomplished and grateful, capable and wanting to contribute, or in short, young adults with a noble [American] character!
Please, don’t enroll for a degree of mud pies.
[1] Researchers from Northwest University surveyed 394,378 American students to examine if cognitive ability scores changed over a 13-year period. What they found was a general drop-off in measured ability.
[2] Peter Frankin. Why Are Americans Getting Dumber. The Post. April 2023.
[3] Named after James R. Flynn who measured substantial and long-term intelligence levels.
[4] National Center for Education Statistics 2023.
[5] The Frontispiece of Encyclopédie was engraved in 1772 by Bonaventure-Louis Prévost and was based on an original sketch by Charles-Nicolas Cochin (1715-1790) executed in 1764 and shown for the first time at the Salon de 1765. Denis Diderot was a French philosopher and chief editor/contributor of Encyclopédie.
[6] First used by Richard A. Rowland in 1919 as the head of Metro movies when famous movie stars Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford opened the movie company United Artists to protect their work and control their careers. The words ‘lunatic’ and ‘asylum’ are not politically correct today.
[7] The Story of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.
[8] The fifth governor of the Roman province of Judaea, serving under Emperor Tiberius from 26/27 to 36/37 AD.
[9] N. T. Write. John for Everyone. John Knox Press. 2004.
[10] Rom. 1:20.
[11] I doubt that Diderot understood the frontispiece as Christ, it is purely my interpretation.
[12] The list of educational subjects is not meant to be limited but representative of the 18th century. As such, Communication, Technology, Robotics, Computer Science, Political Science, and much could be added.
[13] Descartes.
[14] Genesis.
[15] Bible.