Tomorrow morning I’ll be giving a talk about Audie Murphy at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas as part of its “Senior University” summer lecture series. It’s always energizing to be with senior citizens who are dedicated to continuing their education throughout their lives. Their example is a great rebuttal to the contemporary assumption that education is only for the purpose of getting a good job. But getting traditional college-age students to see education in any other way is a tremendous challenge, to put it mildly.  Most, I fear, never get it. Or, rather, they do, but not until much later in life.

As a history professor, being with people of any age who have an interest in history is energizing. I’ve given many lectures for the Baylor’s “Lifelong Learning in Retirement” program for several years now, and always come away from my time with those students with a renewed respect for the very human desire to know. Perhaps with most people it is only with the perspective of age that the value of knowledge pursued only for the sake of knowing becomes evident. Sadly there’s very little in contemporary education at any level that tries to get younger people to have that realization while they have the opportunity to take advantage of it.