Slow Learners

There continues to be much ado about online learning, through the edX partnership and elsewhere in higher education (see page 64). But other kinds of learning remain the dominant, most effectual form of education.

In “The Power of Patience” (page 40), Agassiz professor of the humanities Jennifer L. Roberts vividly makes the case for leading her students, in the classroom and at museums, to decouple from technology, in order to undertake the difficult work of immersive learning: mastering a subject through deliberate, demanding, direct engagement with their object of study. In “Learning, and Life, in the Houses” (page 46), deputy editor Craig Lambert considers the College’s residences: an experiment in American higher education, dedicated in the 1930s to the proposition that communities of students and adults could best learn from interacting with one another. That experiment, completely validated, is now being renewed—and perhaps matters more than ever in a newly digital century. For other perspectives on teaching and learning, please read the review of Higher Education in America, the latest, most sweeping overview of the subject by one of its foremost analysts: president emeritus Derek Bok (page 26). And in a penetrating profile, assistant editor Nell Porter Brown reports on John S. Wilson Jr., M.T.S. ’81, Ed.M. ’82, Ed.D. ’85 (page 72), who last January assumed the presidency of Morehouse College (the nation’s only private, liberal-arts institution dedicated to the education of African-American men).

* * *

Harvard is embarked on a capital campaign—huge in importance and in scale (see page 52). At this moment, we thank the loyal contributors to Harvard Magazine, whose steadfast support, modest by University standards, sustains high-quality publication on all readers’ behalf (see page 84).

~John S. Rosenberg, Editor

Click here for the November-December 2013 issue table of contents

You might also like

This is How Universities Die

Higher ed thrived in Berlin and Beijing. Then government stepped in. 

Voices Raised about Harvard

Responses to the University’s rejection of federal proposals for intrusive regulation of academic affairs

Yesterday’s News

Seniors’ uncertain future c. 1940, Harvard Law Review news, and more

Most popular

Harvard Commencement Day 2025

The 374th Commencement exercises 

Trump Administration Alleges Harvard Violated Student Civil Rights

In a court filing, the University says government has ignored procedure to “inflict pain.”

House Committee Subpoenas Harvard Over Tuition Costs

The University must turn over all requested materials related to tuition and financial aid by mid-July. 

Explore More From Current Issue

New Harvard Overseers and HAA Directors

Alumni showed increased interest in this year’s elections.

Walter Wick’s I Spy Series

I Spy Creator Walter Wick at the Norman Rockwell Museum 

Harvard Summer Reading Picks | 2025

The wealth gap, shamanism, the life of David Nathan, and more