Ben Sasse May 6, 2026 – What I’m suggesting tonight requires us to reject the relatively new but culturally pervasive assumption we have that school is the primary institution of character formation. If there’s a villain in my story, it’s John Dewey. As Americans, we have sleepwalked into a culture now defined by one man’s bureaucratic thinking. … too much of childhood today is defined by Dewey’s vision of an institutionalized childhood…. We have led the next generation on a path to more soul-deadening complacency, and this is the institution we’ve decided to outsource habit formation to? Modern schooling is systematically terrible at forming well-adjusted, curious, intellectually creative, entrepreneurial adults…. Fewer than half of Americans read a book last year. That is a national crisis. We have to develop the intentional habit of reading. A nation that does not read will not thrive. Shorter attention spans are killing our imagination…. This republic requires men and women to do long-form deliberation, serious thinking, honest humility, and daily striving. Read More
Habits for Americans in an Age of Disruption AA
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