In 1639 a University of Cambridge educated clergyman left his fortune and 400 book library to a fledgling college in Cambridge, Massachusetts. John Harvard’s gift enabled Harvard University to set out on a mission dedicated to seeking the truth. The early motto of Harvard was Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae, meaning "Truth for Christ and the Church".

Three hundred and eighty years and a cost of $75,000 a year later, Harvard, and other universities in the United States, have diverged radically from John Harvard’s mission of seeking the truth.

In an article from the New Republic a writer describes our current state of higher education in this way “Our system of elite education manufactures young people who are smart and talented and driven, yes, but also anxious, timid, and lost, with little intellectual curiosity and a stunted sense of purpose: trapped in a bubble of privilege, heading meekly in the same direction, great at what they’re doing but with no idea why they’re doing it.”

Please join us for our next Leadership Forum discussion as the head of the Harvard based Abigail Adams Institute, Danilo Petranovich, examines some important questions. What is essential in a college education for our young people? Why is today's university so ill-equipped to provide it? How can an educational reform initiative fill in some of the most glaring gaps?

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Dr. Danilo Petranovich is the Director of the Abigail Adams Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Institute provides supplementary humanistic education to the Harvard intellectual community by exploring questions of deep human concern that cut across the boundaries of academic disciplines. Previously, Dr. Petranovich taught political science at Duke University and Yale University. His scholarly expertise is in nineteenth century European and American political and social thought. He is currently writing a book, contracted with Yale University Press, on nationalism and the North in antebellum America. He is frequently seen in Harvard’s Kirkland House, where he is a dedicated member of the Senior Common Room.