Discussion with Cathy Davidson

Meet and discuss “The New Education: How to Revolutionize the University to Prepare Students for a World in Flux” with Professor Cathy N. Davidson prior to her talk in Dana Auditorium at 4:30 pm. Register online at http://sites.middlebury.edu/ctlrjan2018/portfolio/cathy-davidson/.

Davidson argues that the American university is stuck in the past—and shows how we can revolutionize it to prepare students for our age of constant change. Our current system of higher education dates to the period from 1865 to 1925, when the nation’s new universities created grades and departments, majors and minors, graduate and professional schools in an attempt to prepare young people for a world transformed by the telegraph and the Model T. This approach to education worked for most of the 20th century, says Davidson, but is unsuited to the rapidly changing “gig economy.” From the Ivy League to community colleges, Davidson introduces us to innovators who are remaking college for our own time, by emphasizing student-centered learning that values creativity, dexterity, innovation, and social change. In this talk she shows how we can revolutionize our universities to help students be leaders of change, not simply subject to it.