Bard Scholar Roosevelt Montás Featured in the Atlantic 

Roosevelt Montás, Laura Y. Chang and Arnold Chavkin Professor in Liberal Education and Civic Life at Bard College, was featured in an article in the Atlantic about a growing number of passionate educators at institutions of higher learning who are focused on humanistic education. This cohort of “great teachers” are “a part of what’s going right in American higher education, the part that critics (like me) don’t write about enough,” writes David Brooks. “These teachers talk of their vocation in lofty terms. They are not there merely to download information into students’ brains, or to steer them toward that job at McKinsey. True humanistic study, they believe, has the power to change lives.” Humanistic education, Brooks says, is not only an intellectual enterprise, as its primary purpose is to produce not just learned people, but good people. “What I’m giving the students is tools for a life of freedom,” Montás told the Atlantic.

The Chang Chavkin Center for Liberal Arts and Civic Life is focused on the connection between liberal education and civic life. It hosts discussion-based classes and supports faculty in building general education programs for students in all disciplines.

Post Date: 05-20-2026