March 2, 2009, 07:41 AM ET

The Real Reason for Studying the Liberal Arts

This week’s New Yorker is publishing an excerpt from an unfinished and unpublished novel, The Pale King, left behind by the late David Foster Wallace, along with an essay on Wallace by D.T. Max. Wallace is most famous for his novel Infinite Jest, and when he committed suicide last September, many hearts grieved. His previous novels were deeply admired by young and old, literary specialists and regular readers alike. The author wrestled with the easy solipsism that enslaves most of us, striving to find a way to see ordinary things and ordinary people with generosity. All the while, it turns out, he was facing his own terrible depression.

My daughter, choking back tears, called me the morning she heard that Wallace had committed suicide. Like many other 2005 Kenyon graduates, she had been...

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March 1, 2009, 08:49 PM ET

Have Your Students Read This

By Laurie Fendrich

This week’s The New Yorker is publishing an excerpt from an unpublished novel, The Pale King, left behind by the late David Foster Wallace, along with an essay on Wallace by D.T. Max. Wallace is most famous for his novel Infinite Jest, and when he committed suicide last September, many hearts grieved. His previous novels were deeply admired by young and old, literary specialists and regular readers alike. The author struggled to live a life of conscious reflection and self-control, where an individual chooses to break out of the easy solipsism that naturally enslaves us and look at fellow human beings with generosity. All the while, it turns out, he was facing his own terrible depression.

My daughter called me in the morning as soon as she heard that Wallace had committed suicide. Like...

March 1, 2009, 03:59 PM ET

In the Nation's Service

By Stan Katz

Last Sunday I climbed onto an Amtrak train in Trenton en route to Carlisle, Pennsylvania to participate in a conference the next day, co-sponsored by Dickinson College and the University of Maine, on education for public service. The topic for the meeting was “What’s Wrong With Public Service? A Challenge for Higher Education,” the implication being that our colleges and universities are not doing enough to challenge our students to aspire to careers in public service.

Lord knows the subject is timely. Last July Barack Obama spoke out, in a speech in Colorado, in favor of increasing both volunteer and service opportunities for all Americans. His vision of service was deliberately broad (“your nation, your community, or simply your neighborhood”), and later he and Joe Biden announced a plan for “universal voluntary public service” that proposed expanding the Corporation for National an...

March 1, 2009, 10:41 AM ET

It's All in the Stars

By Laurie Fendrich

It happens to me all the time. I’ll be in the middle of a perfectly intelligent conversation with a college-educated person who graduated from a reputable college. We’ll be talking about something serious, like whether or not our country should aim for 60 percent of the population holding “high quality” 2 or 4-year college degrees. Suddenly, without warning, that person will interrupt to ask, “What’s your sign?” I’ll be nonplussed. Inside, I’m saying, “This person has a college degree?” Outside, not wanting to be rude, I’ll give the straight answer. “Aries,” I’ll say. Half the time the response is, “Ah, I knew it!” The other half it’s, “Hmmm. I wouldn’t have guessed that.”

On occasion — as a form of entertainment coupled with genuine curiosity — I’ve tried pursuing the topic of astrology’s merit by asking such questions as, “Do you really believe that stuff?” or, more...