About

TheBestSchools.org Blog provides a broader cultural commentary on the state of contemporary education. In so doing, it complements the main portion of this site, which is dedicated to helping students find the right schools and degree programs to meet their educational goals.

There is much that is excellent and noble on the educational scene. At the same time, much of what is called education these days is so much indoctrination in ideologies that far from liberating the human spirit end up enslaving it.

This blog is dedicated to sorting the wheat from the chaff by articulating a responsible middle ground between the polarized positions in the contemporary cultural debate: postmodern relativism and reductive scientism.

We support the traditional view of the individual human being as possessing free will, being morally responsible, and best flourishing in communities founded on respect for timeless virtues grounded in universal human nature.

Bracketing the perspective of religious revelation, we seek to expand the boundaries of science to encompass the fullness of human experience—as well as irreducible properties of life, in general—thus making intellectual space for value, purpose, and meaning understood as objective features of reality.

James Barham, who is the general editor of TheBestSchools.org, also heads up this blog. Educated at the University of Texas, Harvard, and Notre Dame, Barham embraces a generous humanism that looks to education not as a tool for indoctrination but as a means of enriching and liberating the human spirit.

As interest in this blog grows, our desire is that like-minded individuals will join it as commenters and contributors, thus further enriching our conversation.