Just Four Questions

Ursinus College in Pennsylvania is not following the trend of many liberal arts colleges to reject the idea of a core curriculum for a variety of independent study topics or trend-of-the-month theory classes that will prove very useful in developing one's ability to gaze at one's own navel.

Ursinus, it seems, is strengthening its commitment to a grand idea uniting its core, which retains great writers of Western civilization while adding some new voices. The four questions are presented to students as guides for their entire college experience (and beyond), even if they are not necessarily the subject matter of each individual class.

The four questions: What should matter to me? How should we live together? How can we understand the world? And what will I do? I have to confess the Ursinus students are significantly more reflective than I was as an undergraduate, although I certainly spent some time contemplating these things.

I also spent time contemplating how to stretch my barley and hops budget without crossing over into the realms of Wisconsin Brews Of Unknown Grains, those 12- and 24-packs in the darkest corners of the liquor store, their boxes covered in the dust of the eldritch past. And I spent time contemplating my fellow students of the fair sex, especially when spring increased temperatures to above freezing and reduced layers of outerwear so that they no longer resembled the Michelin Man.

All the same, sending someone in search of answers to those four questions before they start out living their lives seems like a good idea, whether one is in college or not. Heck, those questions might even bear frequent contemplation by the aged and grumpy, especially as we near winter and we are no longer interrupted by the need to order the whipper-snappers off our lawns.