Reformer's Blog
Want an education in freedom? Consider Shimer College.
Shimer College is a small school, but one which should not be overlooked. Self-described as a "small independent four-year liberal arts college located just minutes from downtown Chicago," Shimer is well-established. Founded in 1853, the college recently came under new management committed to free market principles and Western values.
With this new management came a new mission statement, which makes a clear stand for principles of free inquiry and limited government [emphasis added]:
Founded in 1853, Shimer College, The Great Books College of Chicago, is an independent, nonsectarian institution whose mission is liberal education. The word “liberal” in “liberal education” has the same root as the word “liberty.” Liberal education at Shimer is an education for and through liberty. Agreeing with Socrates that the “unexamined life is not worth living,” Shimer finds the highest liberty to consist in the freedom of the mind; that is, in freedom from unexamined assumptions, for example, swings in intellectual fashion, partisan politics, and ideology. Liberty at its peak is thus identical with the pursuit of truth. To this end, Shimer students and faculty engage in close study of the Great Books of Western Civilization conducted through the Socratic Method. By the term, Great Books, Shimer refers to those works of world-historical significance in the natural and social sciences as well as the humanities. Included in the Core Curriculum are the seminal works of Plato, Aristotle, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Francis Bacon, Sir Isaac Newton, William Shakespeare, John Locke, Adam Smith, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Alexis de Tocqueville, Karl Marx, and Albert Einstein, among many others.
The Shimer community recognizes that the intellectual liberty it pursues depends on its being situated in a system of political liberty. That is, Shimer’s cultivation of free minds simultaneously transcends and depends on the political freedom enshrined in the American Constitution. This dependence, along with the College’s commitment to enhancing its students’ self-knowledge, leads it to require of all students the serious study of the Founding documents—the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and The Federalist—as well as the other original sources that both informed the Founding and reacted to it.
Shimer College's mission, which recognizes the importance of liberty and the American tradition of limited government, is unusual in higher education. That's just one great aspect of Shimer which makes the school so unique.
So if you're a high school student searching for a college to attend -- or a college student tired of the left-wing bias and lack of intellectual freedom at your own school, consider applying to Shimer. You won't regret it; for as one Shimer student puts it:
A Shimer education demands that you be dedicated and thoughtful, and to read. If you’re ready for that, which is much more than it sounds like, then you’re ready for Shimer.
Tom Lindsay, the college's president and instigator of this new mission for the school, explained Shimer this way:
A Shimer education is animated by the vision of a flourishing, perfected soul, a soul whose contours are made accessible to us through the contributions of the various disciplines—philosophy, politics, literature, and theology, for example. Shimer students and faculty explore together the alternative visions of human excellence as presented in the Great Books—those works whose insights are so powerful that their authors transcended the presuppositions of their historical epochs and ushered in new horizons for humankind.
In short, a Shimer education will challenge you, but it will do so within a close-knit community devoted to intellectual freedom and the principles which made our country great. Click here to learn more and apply to Shimer today.
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Comments
The National Association of Scholars has written two articles about Shimer College and the clash of ideologies it's going through: "Shimer College at the Crossroads" http://www.nas.org/polArticles.cfm?doctype_code=Article&doc_id=1154 and "Shimer College Adopts Liberty-Centered Mission Rejected by Faculty" http://www.nas.org/polArticles.cfm?doctype_code=Article&doc_id=1184. While President Lindsay and his mission statement are certainly aligned with free inquiry and limited government, he's facing a lot of resistance from faculty members and students.
Mar 12, 2:06 pm
Thank you, Ms. Thorne, for your relentless dedication to your former long-time trustee at the NAS, Thomas K. Lindsay, Shimer's rogue president. I wish you and your colleagues had as much of a committment to the truth as you do to each other, your shared ideology, and your endless, biased chatter.
If readers want a thoughful account of what Lindsay's doing to Shimer, try this from the Chronicle of Higher Education, a reputable news source, unlike the NAS: https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B788E5miKgPCNzljMDJjMzgtNGEyYi00ZTk...
Mar 13, 3:58 pm
Prospective Shimer applicants: Shimer is an excellent school if you're serious about challenging your ideas and growing intellectually and as a whole person. If you're looking for an indoctrination in "freedom" and "liberty" via a conservative take on the great books, go somewhere else. Neither Lindsay nor his so-called "mission statement" represent Shimer. For details on why, click here: http://shimeralumnialliance.blogspot.com/
If you'd like to hear about Shimer from someone who understands it, I'd recommed this letter from an alumnus, Dr. David Koukal, a philosophy professor at Univ of Detroit Mercy: http://shimeralumniallianceblog.blogspot.com/
Mar 13, 3:59 pm
The staff, students and alumni of Shimer College are united in opposing Tom Lindsay's ideological takeover. Anyone who applies to Shimer based on this post is going to be sorely disappointed: they will arrive either at a school with no professors, or at a Shimer College that is still true to its dialogical, participatory traditions.
Mar 13, 3:59 pm
Miss Thorne, I must say that I'm impressed by how much you NAS people have been popping up and speaking out to defend your former employer, but your post is misleading at best.
Yes, there is indeed much opposition from the students and faculty--namely, nearly unanimous opposition. But what you fail to mention is that 16 (mostly long-term and internal) Trustees also oppose your old boss, as well as Don Moon (the former president of 25 years). Young Kim, the prior 3-term Board Chair recently came out with a letter supporting a vote of No Confidence in Mr. Lindsay, and demanded his resignation.
This is not a matter of a few liberal students and faculty opposing the free market savior. In fact, anybody who has sacrificed to keep Shimer alive, who has worked to build her up, and has actually participated in a class and understands our culture is speaking out to save her from Lindsay's mismanagement.
This is not an issue of conservative vs. liberal, or free market liberty vs. communism, or what have you. Shimer has always been a place of open intellectual persuit and diverse ideologies--I myself lean towards the Libertarian side of the spectrum. Our prior president, Ron Champaigne, was also quite conservative, and yet managed to not be utterly despised by 50 years of alumni, all the faculty, most of the students, and the long-term Trustees.
This is an issue of a rogue president who has no regard for the culture of shared governance and open inquiry that Shimer represents. He can say or write as many pretty words as he wants to, but they are just hot air when compared to his actions. It's ironic that he would trumpet the words "freedom" and "liberty" while he crushes the mechanism of self-governance that Shimer is built around. Any ardent individualist or civil libertarian would be appalled by his management and trampling of individual liberty and equality at Shimer. Don't be misled by his pretty words, stop being (willfully) ignorant and do some research into what he actually DOES at the college.
Mar 13, 4:35 pm
While I am a Trustee of Shimer College who voted for the school’s new mission statement, the comments which follow are solely mine and not those of the school, its administration or the Shimer Board of Trustees. It is, nevertheless, hoped that these views are shared by other members of the Shimer College community.
At “Reformer’s Blog” one sees the following comment: “the college recently came under new management committed to free market principles and Western values.”
First, it is correct that the college is under new management, and in my view, very good management which is leading Shimer to a very bright future. However, I think Reformer’s Blog misrepresents the mission statement. In my view, the new Shimer mission statement commits the school to providing students with the opportunity for a liberal education. It is committed to the open-minded, humble but challenging, and careful study of the books of the greatest minds. And, while these may be primarily the minds of the West, I would anticipate and expect that the greatest minds of the East will not be neglected.
In the much better words of a great and controversial teacher of the 20th Century:
“Liberal education, which consists in the constant intercourse with the greatest minds, is a training in the highest form of modesty. It is at the same time a training in boldness: it demands from us the complete break with the noise, the rush, the cheapness of the Vanity Fair of the intellectuals as well as of their enemies. It demands from us the boldness implied in the resolve to regard the accepted views as mere opinions, or to regard the average opinions as extreme opinions which are at least as likely to be wrong as the most strange or the least popular opinions. Liberal education is liberation from vulgarity. The Greeks had a beautiful word for “vulgarity": They called it apeirokalia, lack of experience in things beautiful. Liberal education supplies us with experience in things beautiful.”
Thus, Shimer cannot be “committed to free market principles and Western values” as the process of acquiring a liberal education requires one to question all opinions, including those clearly cherished at CollegeReform.Org.
Second, the posting also suggests that Shimer stands for “the principles of … limited government.” This is (again my view) a misreading of the new mission statement. What Shimer expresses in its new mission statement is the conviction that the condition of political stability and freedom that is experienced in the United States is conducive to the freedom of the mind. It then clearly refers to the free mind’s possible transcending the realm of mere political freedom. Moreover, as the mission statement suggests that all opinions should be questioned, one would naturally be led to question the political and social institutions of the American polity. However, neither transcendence nor critique can be achieved without a serious and thorough knowledge of what is to be critiqued or transcended. Thus, it is reasonable to study the founding documents, such as the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, in the same spirit as one reads the great books. As most students will be “American human beings” it is profitable to fully understand our regime (in the Greek sense of the word), the regime which gave us birth, to better know ourselves. It is difficult to imagine that one can be free of or transcend (or truly love for that matter) what one does not know.
In concluding, I would add that I do agree with your sentiment that Shimer is surely a school that students should consider attending. Contrary to the opinion of the “anonymous Shimer alumni” posting and its spiritual kin, the College is in the process of a “rebirth” of academic excellence and scholarship. Located in Chicago on the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology, Shimer is an exciting environment of learning and opportunity. Whether the student is seeking to become an engineer, a lawyer, a teacher, or merely an educated human being, Shimer offers excellent opportunities now, as well as in and for the future.
Vinton A. Vesta
Mar 15, 5:40 pm
I have been wrestling, trying to identify what's bothering me about the new misson statement.
Side matter: As a liberal, I do not object to freedom and liberty -- I am as proud to defend them as any conservative. One of the tragedies of today's bipolarization is the fact that each side sees the other as the enemy of liberty. I think one of the most important lessons of Shimer is the recognition that that idiot across the table with his completely distorted interpretation and failure to recognize the genius of your position -- is just as honest, just as sincere, just as seeking of the truth as you are -- and might even be right.
I am troubled by:"Shimer’s cultivation of free minds simultaneously transcends [that I could go for] and depends on the political freedom enshrined in the
American Constitution. This dependence ... leads it to require of all students the serious study of the Founding documents..."
The first sentence seems to imply that free minds depends on the American Costitution HUH? Why are we reading these explorations from Socrates et. seq.? If we accept the statement with its weaknesses -- it would be an acceptable conclusion. As stated, with the following sentence, it has the taste of a goal -- that students should come out with that belief. THAT is what I reject -- not the belief, whatever it may be, but the goal of inculcating any belief. I object to stating any belief as a goal.
And let me be clear. I am a great admirer of the US Constittuion and the Founders. I think we have a wonderful system of government and it should be understood. And if a student, having studied the competing ideas, and the sources and hopfeully some comparative government, concluded that our system is the expression and supporter of free inquiry I would agree with her -- but that freedom is undermined by a form of indcotrination that sets a particular belief as its goal and linchpin.
Jay S. Goldenbber
'57
Mar 15, 5:04 pm