Spencer Cox and Ian Marcus Corbin at WP:
A pilot program at Utah State University places questions of meaning, purpose and civic responsibility at the heart of general education. All enrolled students will engage with the works of Plato, John Stuart Mill, Lao Tzu and Alexis de Tocqueville, fostering civil discourse and critical thinking. A new initiative called the Catherine Project has led thousands of people through readings of great books, online, for free. At Harvard, the Public Culture Project serves the public interest by hosting conversations with leaders from across society on matters of moral and spiritual import.
The nation will need more ideas than the ones above. Our democracy will not last another 250 years if it is populated by communities lacking direction and animated by addiction. As Coolidge proclaimed, we cannot rely on material prosperity alone. We must recover the “things of the spirit” — meaning, purpose and reverence for the good — if America is to endure.