What It’s For

The Student: A Short History by Michael S. Roth
Yale University Press, September 12, 2023

Michael S. Roth’s The Student: A Short History is a lovely reflection on the meaning and purpose of education. Roth, President of Wesleyan University, has written widely on a range of topics, but in this book, he focuses on different concepts of the “student” to get at what education is really for. Built around four models of studenthood (the followers of sages like Confucius, Socrates, and Jesus; medieval apprentices; Enlightenment-era scholars-to-be; and mid-century college students), the book traces its historical arc with impressive nuance and balance while never straying too far from its polemical purpose. Roth presents a mix of richly-imagined moments of pedagogical transformation, from the development of the Socratic method to the free thinking of the 1960s American university, as well as philosophical and sociological analysis of the institutions and circumstances in which students have found themselves. The final chapter picks up in the 1960s, zooms through the cultural and curriculum wars of the latter half of the 20th century, and offers a refreshingly simple yet nuanced vision for how we should understand the role of a student in the 21st, braiding together insights from the various eras in a clarifying synthesis. Above all else, in reminding readers that today’s students become tomorrow’s citizens, Roth’s book pushes us to think more expansively about what education is really for and what is required of educational institutions to create the conditions for students to learn.